Lottery sales in New Jersey fell for the first in seven years in 2017 led by a sharp by decline in revenue from Powerball tickets, though scratch-off games remain the state's biggest money maker, according to the New Jersey Lottery's annual report.
The lottery sold $3.186 billion in tickets for all games — about $103 million less than in fiscal year 2016. The lottery still contributed $994 million to education and social programs last year, up from $987 million the previous year.
Sales of Pick 3, Pick 4, Powerball, Mega Millions, and Cash4Life all fell. Only instant scratch-off games and Jersey Cash 5 tickets brought in more revenue in 2017 than 2016.
Powerball sales dropped to about $213.5 million — a decrease of about $72.5 million from the previous year.
Scratch-off tickets are still by far the biggest sales driver for the New Jersey lottery.
Customers bought $1.9 billion in the instant tickets last year — accounting for about 59 percent of the lottery's revenue. That was about $15 million more in scratch-off sales than the previous year.
The private operator of the lottery, Northstar New Jersey, was awarded $1 million less in fees and expenses than it earned in 2016. Its bonus totaled $29 million, a drop from the $30.6 million it got the year before.
Beginning this fiscal year, a new law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie redirects lottery revenue to the public employee pension fund to help solve its major financial shortcomings.
I wonder if Gov. Christie plays the Powerball?
Like I keep saying, it seems like lottery fatigue is settling in big time. Personally I didn't play for a while after the big PB & MM came in back to back. Felt like the wind was taking away from the sails.
Good point. Many people took a burn to Mega Millions being bumped up. They want us to play, but they make it difficult when many of us try to BUDGET and pay our bills on time.
I wish they would say exactly where all the lottery revenue goes. Saying it goes to education and social programs is too vague for me.
I think this the real reason. Also, it does not help that a lot of us can do the math and know that the changes over the past few years to PM and MM with increased ticket prices and worse odds were implemented only to raise more revenue for the state lotteries at the expense of the players.
I agree 100%. Just thinking about consumerism. You go buy a box of cereal time after time. Then you come home, same price of cereal, only box is smaller. So the lottery guys figured they'd jump on the bandwagon and basically do the same thing except they increased both the price and decreased the odds of ever hitting the big one.
Higher Taxes Equals Less Money to Play the Lottery!
While not the same as with lotteries....that box of cereal costs more to produce than it did a few years ago. Wages go up. Health insurance costs go up. The stuff needed to make the cereal go up.
My first new vehicle was a 1973 pickup truck that cost $3000. And it wasn't loaded with options. My last new truck I bought was about $25,000 in 2007, an XL trim level. That same truck would cost about $32,000 today. It is what it is.
As for MM and PB. They are really trying to make the jackpots rise higher, faster. Most people will only buy a ticket when the jackpot hits X amount of money. That has been proven time and again. I've said before I would be quite happy to win just a million dollars on either game. There is no game in Texas that I can shoot for 1 million except for $20 or $50 scratchoffs. No, thank you. Texas Lotto's jackpot is $5.64 million, with odds of 1 in 25,827,165. MM and PB million dollar prizes are half of Lotto's odds. The only other option would be to play All or Nothing. Play the same set of numbers 4 times in a draw, and a shot at a million dollars. Cost....$8 for a ticket like that. The odds ARE better at 1 in 2,704,156.
With a lottery, the odds are always against you. But if you wanna play, play the games that offer the prize you want, at the price you're willing to pay.
As always, good luck!
"Not that many jacks in the pot", Paul Stam.
lol