Massachusetts Lottery: Mass. Lottery officials concerned about big revenue dipThe highly successful Massachusetts State Lottery experienced a $71 million decline in revenues in the first five months of the fiscal year, according to figures filed with the governor's office, sparking concern among municipal officials.
Most lottery money is funneled back to the state's communities.
"The lottery right now is extraordinarily important to cities and towns," said Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "We're hoping that the lottery sales rebound. It's something we're watching very closely."
Sales through November were down for all lottery games except Keno, which was up 3.5 percent from the same time last year. The steepest decline was in Mega Millions sales, which were off nearly 48 percent.
Sales of instant scratch tickets, the lottery's biggest seller, were down 3.6 percent, or about $46 million. The Numbers Game was down 1.2 percent and Mass Cash was down 6.3 percent.
Sales slipped to $1.801 billion from $1.872 billion through the first five months of the fiscal year, a 3.8 percent decline, compared to the year-ago period.
A week after the November figures were released, State Treasurer Timothy Cahill changed leadership at the lottery.
Many communities are already counting on this year's lottery aid, but Beckwith said the towns shouldn't assume the lottery will continue to grow indefinitely.
"The lottery is one of the most successful, if not the most successful, in North America," Beckwith said. "I don't think we can continue to count on it ranking number one and always hitting its growth target.
"This is one of the reasons we're advocating for diversified local aid, for example, a local options meals tax and revenue sharing," he said.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, called declining lottery sales "a serious short- and long-term problem facing the state and cities and towns."
Massachusetts trailed only New York in total lottery sales in each of the past three years and was fifth in per capita sales in the last fiscal year, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
The decline in lottery revenues comes at a time when Gov. Deval Patrick is trying to close an estimated $1 billion deficit in the next fiscal year's budget.
