N.C. Lottery making changes to counter weak sales

Dec 16, 2010, 9:24 am (20 comments)

North Carolina Lottery

Additional draws to be added in Feb.; search narrows for new director

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina lottery commissioners estimated Wednesday the program will earn $40 million less than expected in the current year because of weak ticket sales — another financial blow for a state education system already bracing for budget cuts.

The North Carolina Education Lottery Commission revised its sales estimate in approving a new budget. That plan projects the lottery will be able to provide about $402 million for state education programs for the financial year ending in the middle of 2011, well below the $441 million initially projected.

Alice Garland, the acting executive director of the lottery, said officials were still striving to match the initial goal and hope that sales will start coming back.

"We still have more than six months of sales left in this fiscal year, and we remain committed to maximizing the amount of money for education that we can produce," Garland said in a statement. "The decision to revise our revenue projections, however, was necessary to offer a realistic picture of what expectations should be."

Garland attributes the lower-than-expected sales to the prolonged economic slump, with consumers having less money to spend on entertainment. Officials also said a factor was that the multistate Powerball game has seen no major jackpots to attract interest.

Proceeds from the lottery go to fund education programs, such as class-size reduction, school construction and scholarships. Gov. Beverly Perdue has already warned of budget cuts in education, and federal stimulus money that helped support programs last year will be drying up in 2011.

Record sales last year helped send more than $419 million in net profits to education programs, the highest annual transfer since the lottery began in 2006.

Lottery officials are looking to improve sales with new games and continued focus on building a network of retailers. The program will add more drawings starting in February for its numbers pick-em games and plan to roll out an instant ticket game that includes a top prize of $200,000 a year for life.

"We're working very hard to turn this around and improve our sales picture," Garland said.

Also Wednesday, the lottery commission named its four finalists to succeed Tom Shaheen as director. Shaheen stepped down in September to take a position with a company involved in the sale of lottery tickets through ATMs.

Garland, Arkansas lottery executive David Barden, Massachusetts lottery director Mark Cavanagh and gaming consultant Philip Green are the finalists. The commission will conduct background checks on each and will interview them next month.

Thanks to jbarn884 for the tip.

WRAL

Comments

pumpi76

tell them to put a Pick2...Pick2 will overexceed/surpasse Pick3 sales...I dont know why not state does it...

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

tell em to put  %20 pay cut on execs, and %5 on minions,. and put the money into higher prize percents.

leave allocations to schools the same and leave   store allocations the same.

 

drop any state taxes on wins to half what they are now. or better yet drop em to zero.

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

In Pa there is no State Tax on Pa Lottery winnings ( and Pa generally taxes everything ). Sales seem to be steady.

I think maybe it is wrong to base your education budget on lottery sales, but it can't hurt to use the profits to aid education!

A cut in Non-Academic spending would help education budgets everywhere!

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by pumpi76 on Dec 16, 2010

tell them to put a Pick2...Pick2 will overexceed/surpasse Pick3 sales...I dont know why not state does it...

North Carolina needs a lottery director; are you up for the job?

Todd's avatarTodd

Quote: Originally posted by savagegoose on Dec 16, 2010

tell em to put  %20 pay cut on execs, and %5 on minions,. and put the money into higher prize percents.

leave allocations to schools the same and leave   store allocations the same.

 

drop any state taxes on wins to half what they are now. or better yet drop em to zero.

Pay cuts always seem useful, but in actuality, dropping pay rates would do very little toward making up the lost revenue.

What really drives these figures is Powerball and Mega Millions.  Without a $200+ million jackpot, the entire lottery's revenue suffers.  Good lotteries can make up most of the lost revenue with lots of hard work coming out with new scratch games and other such things, but it is not easy.

It's been over 7 months since a Mega Millions jackpot was over $200 million, and over 6 months since Powerball was over $200 million.

It really makes me wonder why more effort is not put into quickly coming out with a new national game, with higher ticket prices.

I predicted this loss in revenue due to lower jackpots a year ago: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/206915

reddog's avatarreddog

They could start by doing better with the scratch offs. The pay offs are horrible.  This year alone I have bought around 15 complete packs of different dinominations of scratchers and have NEVER got half my money back out of any of the packs. A pack cost $300.00 bucks. The best I did was $140.00 back. I can go across the state line into Virginia and do a heck of a lot better. Odds there are 1 in 3. N.C. is around 1 in 5. I don't care what the fine print saids. The proof is in the pudding.

savagegoose's avatarsavagegoose

yeah its why i said put the pay cost savings intop better prize pools, but you are right., a big jackpot pulls the money in like notheing else. even dopping the lower prizes for $5 , and adding them to the top tier prizes, ie jackpts would boost the percieved  value., even tho that means most people wont win anything.

 

but anyhow pay cuts for execs would be last thing in their minds to  improve sales.

charmed7's avatarcharmed7

They need to up with something, i was wondering if they even select any winning jackpots, scratch offs, mega, or powerball

in Charlotte. IF u check the winners on the NC lottery website, the winners r few and its not for that much money.

The school system in mecklenburg is really suffering now, with possible plans of cutting some of the "public" bus service. All i'm sayin is

lets c some big WINNERS down here n CHARLOTTE!

sully16's avatarsully16

Job loss in N.C. is severe, both my brother and nephew drive to Georgia every week to work, people are going to cut back on extras when you got bills to pay.

I wonder with megaplier coming to more states what will happen to powerball sales ?

Hermanus104's avatarHermanus104

Quote: Originally posted by savagegoose on Dec 16, 2010

tell em to put  %20 pay cut on execs, and %5 on minions,. and put the money into higher prize percents.

leave allocations to schools the same and leave   store allocations the same.

 

drop any state taxes on wins to half what they are now. or better yet drop em to zero.

This is a good idea, but I think the execs typically decide pay, so I don't think this going to happen. 

I wonder if they will attempt to increase revenue by adding a midday Pick-4 game? All the states around North Carolina have a midday Pick-4 game. I think North Carolina's going to add a midday Pick-4 game at some point. I'm just not sure when.

Tenaj's avatarTenaj

I am willing to say that if they were to change the drawing time to say early 7:00 or 8:00 people will play more than they think they would have to spend for telecasting.  It will actually draw more interest in playing. 

And make pick 3 and 4 a fair game.  Most people feel that NC pick 3 game is shady, (all of those pre-test draws) at least it was when Sheehan was there.  I can tell the difference.  I play in the store now sometimes since he left.  I just hope they don't start it again.

I actually did not play yesterday in NC because they stopped showing the drawing.  They just flash it on the screen.  There is no truth in that.

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

Sorry about the numbers in NC, ....................................

but a happy event would be my winning ticket in tonite's Mega Millions drawing !!

Woo Hoo !!

Noel Thank you Santa !!

trulyblessed

Quote: Originally posted by Tenaj on Dec 17, 2010

I am willing to say that if they were to change the drawing time to say early 7:00 or 8:00 people will play more than they think they would have to spend for telecasting.  It will actually draw more interest in playing. 

And make pick 3 and 4 a fair game.  Most people feel that NC pick 3 game is shady, (all of those pre-test draws) at least it was when Sheehan was there.  I can tell the difference.  I play in the store now sometimes since he left.  I just hope they don't start it again.

I actually did not play yesterday in NC because they stopped showing the drawing.  They just flash it on the screen.  There is no truth in that.

I totally agree with you Tenaj. The draw time needs to be earlier. Let's email them and let them know our thoughts. The draws stopped showing here in Charlotte but I watch them live on wral.com.

Tenaj's avatarTenaj

Quote: Originally posted by trulyblessed on Dec 17, 2010

I totally agree with you Tenaj. The draw time needs to be earlier. Let's email them and let them know our thoughts. The draws stopped showing here in Charlotte but I watch them live on wral.com.

I will indeed do that.

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