Overall, FY24 sales were down slightly from a record-smashing FY23, but there were bright spots to be found across the industry.
By Patricia McQueen
Published on December 17, 2024
The challenge of having a very good year comes when trying to improve on those results the next year. Lotteries are often up to the task, yet a variety of circumstances (many of which are out of their control) sometimes leads to declines here and there. FY24 was such a year. It followed a smashing FY23, when multiple massive jackpots in both Powerball and Mega Millions helped propel U.S. traditional lottery sales past the $100 billion mark for the first time. For FY24, traditional sales were down marginally, but still reached nearly $101.4 billion, down 0.9%.
Billion-dollar jackpots aren’t what they used to be. Sure, FY23’s record sales were fueled by big jackpots, including a whopping $2.0 billion Powerball prize. Yet for most lotteries, FY24 actually had more billion-plus jackpots (five) than the previous year (four). “Most” is the key word here. Because the sales reported here are based on each lottery’s fiscal year-end, the numbers do not reflect the exact same time periods across lotteries. Most American lotteries have a fiscal year that runs from July to June, but there are four exceptions: New York is April to March, Texas is September to August, and both Michigan and the District of Columbia run from October to September. The timing of a big jackpot run can impact different years for these lotteries compared to their peers.
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That’s why all lotteries except D.C., Michigan and Texas reported big increases in Powerball in FY24; those three lotteries actually reported declines in the game. Their fiscal years put the last few drawings of a billion-dollar jackpot run into their FY23 timeframe instead of FY24 like the others. Similarly, their Mega Millions sales were off by more than the others in FY24, with the sales boost from the record Mega Millions jackpot in August 2023 coming in their FY23 year instead of FY24.
Those big games aside, FY24 was a challenge. Gone were the double-digit gains of the previous year. Gains and losses for traditional lottery sales (excluding casino gaming and sports betting) among American lotteries were split right down the middle – half (23) reported gains and half reported declines. Most changes, either way, were quite small.
For the second straight year, revenues returned to lotteries’ beneficiaries surpassed $30 billion, actually generating slightly more in FY24 ($30.6 billion compared to $30.5 billion in FY23). That’s primarily because those revenues include earnings from lottery-operated gaming and sports betting. The latter categories were up a combined 8.5% in gross gaming revenue – sports betting was up 45.1%, gaming machines were up 4.3%, and table games were up 0.3%.
Including that gaming and sports revenue, American lotteries generated more than $113.3 billion in sales, virtually unchanged from FY23.
Canadian lotteries were more of a mixed bag, and cannot be aggregated because Loto-Québec reports only GGR for all products, not sales. The largest lottery, in Ontario, was down a bit in sales, as were British Columbia and all five of Western Canada Lottery Corp.'s members. Only Atlantic Lottery’s four provinces had overall gains. Combined, these four lottery organizations generated almost C$8.3 billion in sales of traditional lottery products in FY24, down 2.5% from the year before. Including net revenue from gaming in the Atlantic provinces, primarily video lottery terminals, total sales for these four lottery organizations were C$8.7 billion, down 2.3% from the previous year. They sent more than C$2.28 billion to their governments for the causes they support, down about 7% from the previous year.
As always, we always caution readers against comparing lotteries, given differences in history, product mix, demographics, stakeholder concerns and even geographies.
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Highlights Among Lotteries
The top 10 lotteries by traditional games sales remained unchanged from the previous year, although the gap closed between the two at the top. The Florida Lottery remained the leader in traditional game sales with $9.4 billion, a 3.9% decline from fiscal 2024. That, combined with the California Lottery’s 0.4% gain to land just shy of $9.3 billion, put the gap between those two just $142 million.
Rounding out the top five were Texas ($8.4 billion, down 3.8%), New York ($8.2 billion, down 1.1%), and Massachusetts ($6.1 billion, up 0.3%). It’s worth noting again that fiscal years matter – two billion-dollar jackpots for most lotteries during FY24 actually landed in Texas’ FY23 operating year.
The North Carolina Education Lottery, remaining in the tenth spot with almost $4.4 billion in sales (up 1.0%), deserves recognition for an amazing feat – increasing sales every single year of operation since the first tickets were sold in March 2006. That’s 17 consecutive years of growth since its first full fiscal year.
When net revenues from gaming and/or sports betting operations are factored in, New York continues to be the overall leader, with $10.5 billion in sales during FY24; almost $2.4 billion of that was net revenue from video lottery terminals. That total is up marginally from the previous year (note that New York’s fiscal year ends March 31).
Leading the way among all American lotteries in terms of percentage growth in traditional game sales was Illinois, which posted a 6.9% overall increase in FY24. That sent it past New Jersey to land in the 11th spot overall with almost $3.9 billion in sales. One of only a dozen lotteries that reported an increase in instant game sales, Illinois’ launch of a $50 game halfway through its year certainly was an important factor. Yet the star of the portfolio is Fast Play in all its iterations – standard retail play, retail Scan-N-Play (which presents an animated digital format using the Lottery’s mobile app), and online. Illinois’ industry-leading Fast Play sales, at more than $477.5 million (about 90% of that through the iLottery platform), were up 42% in FY24.
Right behind Illinois in terms of percentage increase in traditional game sales was Vermont, with a 6.0% overall gain. Fast Play was a factor there too, but not the only one. Vermont was unique in FY24 as the only lottery with all of its product lines (when Powerball and Mega Millions sales are combined) showing sales increases for the year. Fast Play sales were up 33.5%, while instant games (almost 70% of Vermont’s sales) were up 1.2%. That made the state one of only a dozen lotteries that reported an increase in instant games. And thanks to the addition of a third weekly drawing in Tri-State Megabucks, all three participants (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) saw huge percentage increases in the lotto category.
Other top overall performers during the year were Virginia (+5.3%), Maine (+4.9%), Oregon (+4.5%), New Hampshire (+3.2%), and Kentucky (+3.0%).
Because of video lottery operations, New York continues to send more money to beneficiaries than any other American lottery – more than $3.7 billion in FY24. Without the benefit of gaming, net proceeds from the other top five lotteries fall in line with their sales ranking. Florida returned almost $2.39 billion, California $2.28 billion, Texas $2.01 billion, and Massachusetts $1.16 billion.
Other lotteries with top returns to beneficiaries were Ohio ($1.52 billion; includes revenues from gaming), Georgia ($1.49 billion; includes revenues from licensing and related operations for coin operated amusement machines), Maryland ($1.49 billion; includes revenues from gaming), Michigan ($1.23 billion) and Pennsylvania ($1.22 billion).
United States Sales Summary
(Dollars in millions)
FY 2023 | FY 2024 | Increase (Decrease) | % Change | |
Instants | $64,665.6 | $63,226.8 | ($1,438.8) | -2.2% |
Pulltabs | 309.9 | 307.7 | (2.3) | -0.7% |
iLottery eInstants (net) | 720.5 | 1,002.9 | 282.4 | 39.2% |
Powerball | 6,874.0 | 7,807.7 | 933.7 | 13.6% |
Mega Millions | 5,982.3 | 5,175.1 | (807.2) | -13.5% |
Lotto America | 95.1 | 63.9 | (31.2) | -32.8% |
For Life games * | 710.7 | 716.8 | 6.2 | 0.9% |
All other lotto games | 3,725.4 | 3,652.9 | (72.5) | -1.9% |
Daily numbers (2-5 digits) | 12,046.9 | 11,933.1 | (113.9) | -0.9% |
Monitor games | 5,313.3 | 5,225.4 | (87.9) | -1.7% |
Daily keno | 66.8 | 64.8 | (2.0) | -3.0% |
Terminal-based instant games | 1,306.1 | 1,551.1 | 245.0 | 18.8% |
Raffles | 48.2 | 54.3 | 6.1 | 12.8% |
Cash Pop** | 302.3 | 419.9 | 117.5 | 38.9% |
All other games | 172.7 | 166.1 | (6.6) | -3.8% |
Total draw games | 36,643.8 | 36,831.2 | 187.4 | 0.5% |
Total traditional games | 102,339.8 | 101,368.6 | (971.1) | -0.9% |
Electronic gaming machines (net) | 8,689.5 | 9,064.0 | 374.5 | 4.3% |
Table games (net) | 1,082.9 | 1,086.6 | 3.7 | 0.3% |
Sports betting (net) | 1,228.9 | 1,783.5 | 554.6 | 45.1% |
Grand total sales | $113,341.1 | $113,302.8 | ($38.3) | (0.0%) |
* Includes Lucky for Life, Cash4Life and Win for Life
** Excludes Cash Pop as a monitor game complement to Keno; those sales are included with monitor games
Game Performance
Diving deep into specific game categories, it was a tough year for instant games in most jurisdictions, with some blame attributed to general economic woes; category sales were down 2.2%. Still, the games accounted for $63.2 billion nationwide, or 62.4% of total sales of traditional lottery products. Only 12 of the 44 lotteries with instant games reported a sales increase for the year, but the declines were quite small among the rest of the group. Leading the way in growth was Montana (up 7.3%), followed by Illinois (+4.9%), Iowa (+2.9%), Maine (+2.7%) and Virginia (+2.5%).
On the draw side of the equation, it’s important to view Powerball and Mega Millions together. Individually, Powerball was the big winner, while Mega Millions declined. Combined, sales reached almost $13 billion, up about 1% from FY23.
The “for-life” games, Cash4Life and Lucky for Life (we also include Oregon’s Win for Life in this category), combined for $716.8 million in sales, up 0.9%.
The multi-state Lotto America dropped after a huge year in FY23, when a third weekly drawing and a record jackpot of $40 million drove sales. Lacking those developments during FY24, sales were $63.9 million, down 32.8%. However, two more lotteries joined the game during the past year, Mississippi and Nebraska, bringing the total to 15.
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Local lotto games in aggregate saw a decline of 1.9%, to $3.6 billion. As always, there were bright spots with jackpot performance or game enhancements. Jackpots in Arizona more than doubled the combined sales of its two larger lotto games. In Indiana, both Hoosier Lotto and Cash 5 showed double-digit gains. The Massachusetts Lottery’s venerable Megabucks lotto game (not to be confused with Tri-State Megabucks, offered by its neighbors to the north) was up 29%. And New Jersey’s Pick-6 lotto game was up 23% thanks to its largest jackpot in two decades, and Connecticut also reported a double-digit gain in its Lotto! game.
Daily numbers games (from 2 to 5 digits) held up well, with total sales of $11.9 billion down just 0.9% from the year before. Typically games more recently added to a lottery’s lineup, five-digit games were strong performers in most of the eight jurisdictions that offer them, up an aggregate 15.5%. Lotteries with the best overall results in daily numbers games included Nebraska (+11.5%), Arizona (+6.0%), Idaho (+5.4%) and Vermont (+5.2%).
Monitor games as a group recorded $5.2 billion in sales during FY24, down 1.7% from $5.3 billion the year before. Offered in 23 jurisdictions, Massachusetts continues to be the runaway leader in this category, with $1.25 billion in sales, up 2.1%. Six of the 23 lotteries reported a gain in keno sales.
Secondary monitor games (in 10 jurisdictions) were down slightly in the aggregate, but with the inclusion of Cash Pop (more on that later) in this category, sales were strong in Kentucky, New Jersey and West Virginia.
Continuing their growth are instant games printed via the lottery terminals (which may be called Fast Play, InstaPlay, EZ Play, Fast Cash, or other names, depending on the jurisdiction). In aggregate, they generated $1.55 billion across 27 jurisdictions, up 18.8% from FY23. Sixteen of those lotteries reported an increase in sales during the year; launching the category during FY24 were Kansas and Wisconsin. Illinois remains the clear leader, thanks in no small part to offering Fast Play online. Total Illinois Fast Play sales were more than $477.5 million in FY24, with $431.8 million of that through online sales.
Georgia relaunched the category in a big way, becoming the second lottery to offer the games online. Replacing its long-standing Print N Play retail product with the retail and online Quick Win in September 2023, Georgia was quickly rewarded. The previous year, Print N Play games generated sales of just $4.9 million; during nine months of Quick Win sales in FY24, the new, exciting product generated $85 million in sales. Almost 60% of that came through Georgia’s iLottery platform.
With the expansion of Cash Pop to more jurisdictions, it deserves its own category. That said, we have separated only the “daily draw” version of the game (with as little as one, but most commonly several drawings, each day). Cash Pop is used as a complement to keno for three lotteries (Kentucky, New Jersey and West Virginia), and those sales are reported in the “other” monitor game category. For the daily draw Cash Pop game, sales were $419.9 million in FY24, up from $302.3 million the previous year (38.9%). Eleven lotteries offered the game daily during FY24, up from seven in FY23. As a monitor game, Cash Pop produced almost $75 million in sales across three lotteries.
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Online Sales
By the end of FY24, 12 lotteries were offering online sales of traditional draw games, eInstants, or both. Offering only draw games were Connecticut (which held a soft launch in early June), Illinois and North Dakota. Offering both – although typically not including all draw games – were District of Columbia, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia. And along with West Virginia, Delaware continues to offer iGaming. Note that West Virginia just launched its full iLottery platform at the end of October, so FY25 will be its first partial year of operations.
Net revenues for eInstant games topped $1 billion for the first time (up 39.2%). Virginia leads the way with $310 million in net eInstant revenue during the year, up 36% from FY23. North Carolina made a smashing debut with eInstants when adding the product to its iLottery portfolio in November 2023, generating more than $146 million in net revenue in a little more than seven months.
Online sales of draw games brought in sales of $1.6 billion; these sales are included in the individual draw game categories. Illinois continues to be the top online performer when only draw games are considered, with almost $682 million in online and subscription sales. As noted earlier, that’s due in large part to the availability of Fast Play through digital channels.
As we have previously noted, due to different ways lotteries report eInstant “sales,” we have standardized eInstant reporting as net after prizes in all jurisdictions offering these products, so the numbers included here may differ from what a lottery presents in their public financials. We felt this was an important step, given the considerable differences in eInstant performance based on things like game mix and prize payout percentages. There may still be some differences in the way bonuses are counted, but now the numbers are more generally comparable across jurisdictions. Draw game sales through iLottery, though, continue to be reported as actual sales and these numbers are included in their respective game categories.
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Sports Betting
Twelve lotteries currently operate or regulate sports betting, with the North Carolina Education Lottery coming on board during FY24 as the licensing and regulating body in that state, launching last March through online operators (in-person sports betting is allowed, but no facilities have yet been approved).
Combined, these jurisdictions generated almost $1.8 billion in gross gaming revenue during FY24, up 45% for the year. As with eInstant revenue reporting, we try to standardize sports betting reporting on gross gaming revenue (handle minus winnings), but some lotteries may deduct promotions offered by the operators from that amount, and that number is not necessarily trivial when it comes to online operations in particular.
Delaware, the first lottery to offer full-scale sports betting after PASPA was repealed in 2018, added a mobile sports platform during FY24. Previously, the state’s sports betting operation was limited to facilities only. Most other lottery sports betting operations also offer both facility and online/mobile options – Connecticut, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The exceptions are Montana and Ohio (facilities only) and Oregon (online/mobile only).
In Kansas, sports betting launched at the state’s four casinos in September 2022. As with casino gaming in the state, those figures are not included in this report. There is a unique partnership in the state between the Kansas Lottery and the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission, and while the Lottery holds contracts with private companies for casino management, and distributes the related revenues, the actual gaming and sports regulation is under the umbrella of the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission.
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Casino Gaming
Lotteries offering gaming machines and table games once again reached record highs in those activities. Gross gaming revenue from video lottery terminals or slot machines increased by 4.3%, to more than $9 billion. Table games activity edged ahead 0.3% to almost $1.1 billion.
Nine American jurisdictions now offer VLTs or slot through lottery organizations: Delaware, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. Table games are available in Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia. As noted above, gaming in Kansas is not included in this report.
The Canadian Experience
In Canada, total sales of traditional games slipped 2.5% in FY24, coming in just shy of C$8.3 billion. All Canadian sales figures summarized in this report do not include Loto-Québec, which reports only gross gaming revenue, not sales.
Fewer big Lotto Max jackpots led to a 25% decline in sales during the year, while Lotto 6/49 continued to benefit from game changes that took effect midway through FY23. That, plus favorable jackpot rolls, drove Lotto 6/49 sales past C$1.2 billion in FY24, a 16% increase. Combined, Canada’s two flagship lotto games generated C$2.9 billion in sales (down 12.4% from the previous year), 36% of total sales.
The third national draw game, Daily Grand, was up 5.7% across the country, with each province reporting sales gains for a total of C$120.6 million.
Regional draw games were particularly strong in Atlantic Canada, British Columbia and Ontario, while daily numbers games were up in most jurisdictions, especially those managed by the Western Canada Lottery Corp.
In contrast to the experience across the United States, Canada’s instant games turned in strong performance in FY24, with sales up 4.5%. Instant sales were up in every province and territory, with growth coming from higher price points (including a $50 national game) and games that include entertaining features such as wheel spins. Instant games accounted for just over 31% of total sales across the country.
Canada Sales Summary
(Canadian dollars in millions; excluding Québec)
FY 2023 | FY2024 | Increase (Decrease) | % Change | |
Instants | $2,466.8 | $2,577.5 | $110.7 | 4.5% |
Pulltabs | 121.1 | 122.1 | 1.0 | 0.8% |
Lotto 6/49 | 1,067.5 | 1,237.9 | 170.4 | 16.0% |
Lotto Max | 2,297.4 | 1,711.1 | (586.3) | -25.5% |
For Life games | 114.1 | 120.6 | 6.5 | 5.7% |
All other lotto games | 298.1 | 306.8 | 8.7 | 2.9% |
Daily numbers (2-4 digits) | 230.2 | 237.4 | 7.2 | 3.1% |
Spiel games | 645.4 | 624.4 | (21.0) | -3.3% |
Sports betting | 502.6 | 561.7 | 59.1 | 11.8% |
Club Keno | 387.1 | 388.2 | 1.2 | 0.3% |
Daily keno | 111.2 | 113.3 | 2.1 | 1.9% |
Hybrid instant/draw games | 135.1 | 130.2 | (4.9) | -3.6% |
All other games | 131.1 | 164.7 | 33.6 | 25.7% |
Total draw games | 5,919.6 | 5,596.3 | ($323.3) | -5.5% |
Total traditional games | 8,507.6 | 8,295.9 | (211.7) | -2.5% |
Electronic gaming machines (net) | 416.6 | 422.1 | 5.5 | 1.3% |
Table games (net) | 1.9 | 2.0 | 0.1 | 5.8% |
Grand total sales | $8,926.0 | $8,720.0 | ($206.1) | -2.3% |
Note: These figures do not include Québec, which reports all games only on a net basis (gross gaming revenue); net figures are not comparable to sales.
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Notes on the Charts
In presenting the data underlying our annual review of lottery sales, it is always important that games are categorized similarly across jurisdictions. The advent of sports betting and iLottery brought new challenges, as these products may be reported as gross play (or handle) in some jurisdictions and as net after prizes in others. With both products, we have taken the position of reporting “sales” as net after prizes (gross gaming revenue), similar to the lottery offerings of gaming machines and table games. There still may be differences in how lotteries treat promotions in the calculation of gross gaming revenue.
We also add our usual caveats regarding transfers to beneficiaries. Depending on factors that include accounting methods and various statutory requirements or appropriations based on previous performance or projections, transfers may not be indicative of current-year profits. We also include statutory or dedicated funding to problem gambling programs that are in addition to standard beneficiary transfers; it’s important for lotteries to be recognized for all the contributions they make to government programs.
Because of all these factors we believe are for the good of the industry, the numbers for some jurisdictions in this report may vary from what lotteries publish in their own annual reports.
One final note about fiscal years. It has always been the case that different year-ends can impact lotteries relative to their peers if the timing of a big jackpot pushes sales into different years – this has never been more evident than the last couple of years. We note that Canada’s lotteries end their year on March 31, while in the United States most years end June 30; the exceptions are New York (March 31), Texas (August 31), and Michigan and the District of Columbia (September 30).
