It was a newsworthy Thursday for the Washington Lottery.
During its commission meeting, it stated it would be setting a new yearly sales record when the fiscal year wraps up at the end of June, surpassing $1 billion.
On top of that, the Washington Lottery also announced a new six-year contract with Scientific Games (SG) to be its primary scratch game provider.
It’s more good news for Washington, which has focused on expanding its gaming library and mobile lottery apps in recent years.
Washington passes $1 billion again for lottery
Thursday’s commission meeting opened with the announcement that the state had set a new fiscal year sales record with just over a week remaining in June.
In FY23, the Washington Lottery tallied $1.003 billion in sales, just crossing that milestone in the closing days. It was the first time the state had ever reached the $1 billion mark.
While the official number as of Thursday was not made available, it was made clear it was beyond that FY23 total.
As of May 31, Washington officially had $958.2 million in lottery sales for the year. That was $30.2 million ahead of FY23 at the same point.
The state has already hit its yearly sales goal as of June 1, and all but two game categories achieved their goal totals, as well. The two that were still shy were expected to surpass them by the end of June.
Here’s a look at the yearly sales for each game and their market share in Washington:
- Scratch tickets: $612.8 million (64%)
- Power Ball: $131.6 million (13.7%)
- Mega Millions: $94.1 million (9.8%)
- Lotto: $38.3 million (4%)
- Hit 5: $30.5 million (3.2%)
- Pick 3: $19.4 million (2%)
- Match 4: $14.1 million (1.5%)
- Cash Pop: $11.6 million (1.2%)
- Keno: $5.8 million (0.6%)
Though it accounts for just 1.2% of the total pot, Cash Pop was introduced midway through the fiscal year in Washington. All of its sales for the year involved new money that had not been generated previously.
Agreement with Scientific Games can extend to 10 years
The new six-year contract with Scientific Games makes it the primary provider of scratch tickets for Washington. The contract can be renewed for up to four additional years.
During Thursday’s commission meeting, it was noted that the state was negotiating secondary deals with IGT and Pollard Banknote that would also run until 2030.
Scientific Games has been working with the Washington Lottery since 2014. It helped the state drive a 60% growth in gross gaming revenue of its instant products.
Gaylene Gray, Washington Lottery Instant Product Manager, touched on the partnership with SG in a press release:
“Our work with Scientific Games has made a difference. We’ve been able to offer our players entertaining scratch game experiences while responsibly driving more funding for the good cause programs that enrich our communities. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Scientific Games as into the next phase of innovation and growth for our products.”
Scientific Games has been the primary scratch game provider for Washington since the state began its lottery more than 40 years ago. SG also generates over 70% of global instant game retail sales.
Photo by Frank Fiedler via Shutterstock
Graphics from the Washington Lottery and Scientific Games
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