Hoosier Lottery operator facing $3.6M fine for not meeting sales goal

May 22, 2020, 7:24 am (8 comments)

Indiana Lottery

By Kate Northrop

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — IGT Indiana, the private operator of the Hoosier Lottery, may be required to pay a $3.6 million fine to the state should it not meet its $300 million sales goal — a number that seems unobtainable at this point.

The lottery is projected to generate about $295 million to be sent to state coffers, which would include the $3.6 million penalty should they not meet the threshold.

Last year, the lottery sent a record $312 million to the state in surplus revenue, 6% higher than what is expected this year.

Under the lottery privatization contract revised in 2015, the state lottery's contributions work to reduce state excise taxes and help pay for pension obligations for public employees. Last year when $312 million was transferred to the state, IGT Indiana received a bonus performance payment of $11.2 million.

This year, if IGT Indiana somehow manages to exceed expectations and boosts net income above $310 million by June 30, it will split the surplus with the state.

It's not a surprise that the Hoosier Lottery is one of the many state lotteries that have taken a sales hit due to COVID-19. 224 lottery retailers were closed for varying durations during the past few months.

Carrie Stroud, chief of staff for the lottery commission, cited the lackluster jackpots in major games like Powerball and Mega Millions as a reason for the dip in addition to the coronavirus pandemic. "No Powerball or Mega Millions jackpots this year have hit $400 million yet," she said. "They've just kind of rolled and gotten hit at lower amounts." More casual players will tend to jump in and buy tickets when multi-state draw game jackpots near a half-billion dollars.

Taking into account a six-week stay-at-home order in Indiana, a more holistic perspective of the sales dip makes it seem surprisingly modest.

Sales for non-jackpot draw games like Daily 3 or Cash 5 are up $3.9 million, or 3.4%, compared to last year. Scratch-off sales have proven to be a beacon for many lotteries, with revenue in Indiana up $35.5 million, or 4.4%, since last year.

"It's surprising we have continued to do as well as we have," lottery commission member David Redden said. "Even though it's a shortfall it could be a lot worse."

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Future Contracts will contain a Force Majeure Clause!

A Force Majeure Clause is a contract provision that relieves the parties from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise. (ie: The current COVID-19 pandemic!)

Unlucky-Kenny's avatarUnlucky-Kenny

Quote: Originally posted by Raven62 on May 22, 2020

Future Contracts will contain a Force Majeure Clause!

A Force Majeure Clause is a contract provision that relieves the parties from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise. (ie: The current COVID-19 pandemic!)

If you were going to go into business of something on a large scale - like I don't know - the lottery?

You would think they would already have had that!

Skeptical

noise-gate

I guess Covid 19 or not, if the rubber band breaks, you only have yourself to blame huh? In a way it's no different from getting a ticket from the highway patrol for driving too slow. I have seen it & it's brutal especially when the driver & the occupants are in their 70's or 80's.

* Take me down to the river, let it rush over me...Roll Eyes

cottoneyedjoe's avatarcottoneyedjoe

Filed under "too bad, so sad."

vjohnson8's avatarvjohnson8

Stop cheating so much with a low 1 percent payout uslottery players,alot of players stopped playing because of all of the repeating of the same number!!

Stack47

Quote: Originally posted by vjohnson8 on May 24, 2020

Stop cheating so much with a low 1 percent payout uslottery players,alot of players stopped playing because of all of the repeating of the same number!!

"alot of players stopped playing because of all of the repeating of the same number!!"

Reminds me of when players complained when Tennessee went over a month with no doubles in their pick-3 and pick-4 drawings. I guess it didn't occur to them the odds dropped from 1:1000 to 1:720 and from 1:10,000 to 1:5040 in the pick-4. 

If the same numbers are repeating, why aren't you making a killing play the "same numbers"? Just wondering.

Raven62's avatarRaven62

Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on May 24, 2020

"alot of players stopped playing because of all of the repeating of the same number!!"

Reminds me of when players complained when Tennessee went over a month with no doubles in their pick-3 and pick-4 drawings. I guess it didn't occur to them the odds dropped from 1:1000 to 1:720 and from 1:10,000 to 1:5040 in the pick-4. 

If the same numbers are repeating, why aren't you making a killing play the "same numbers"? Just wondering.

I Agree! Play what's Hot not what's Not!

FWIW: Repeating Combinations are Hot!

DELotteryPlyr's avatarDELotteryPlyr

Nice to see the state & players get a WIN for a change. Cheers

We read so many stories about the players & states getting screwed!

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