The sale of Wisconsin Lottery tickets grew 25 percent from July 1 through Sept. 30 the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the Wisconsin Lotterys acting director said this week.
The state lottery posted sales of a little more than $124.8 million as compared to $99.6 million in the same period last year, Michael Edmonds said. The sales were spurred by an increasingly strong scratch ticket market, a popular new online game and a large Powerball jackpot.
The $124.8 million in sales produces an estimated $37 million for property tax relief.
"Last year was our best year since 1996, and its very exciting to see that we are already building and improving on that through the first quarter of this year," Edmonds said. "But weve got a long way to go."
Instant scratch ticket sales account for the majority of the lotterys total ticket sales, with those sales up 12 percent over the first quarter of last year.
Games at all price levels are posting solid numbers. A new $10 "Casino" game has already sold out and been reordered because it has performed so well, contributing $600,000 a week in scratch sales.
Online sales are up 47 percent, due largely to the activity associated with a $250 million Powerball jackpot in July. But Edmonds said Powerball sales now 93 percent ahead of last year at $36.8 million will even out and may be slightly behind last years pace by the end of the current quarter in December because an even larger Powerball jackpot was on the line last December.
The states newest online game, Badger 5, is expected to provide some stability. Through the first quarter, Badger 5 produced more than $5.6 million in revenue.
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