Record sales have Mass. Lottery on track to hit $935M in profits
Treasurer Deb Goldberg earlier this year downgraded the state Lottery's profit estimate and as the fiscal year closes, the agency is on track to meet that revised target on the strength of record sales.
In February, Goldberg and Lottery officials dropped their profit estimate to $935.4 million from $947.8 million, with the treasurer saying midyear budget cuts were threatening to reduce the amount the agency steers back to cities and towns in state aid.
During a WBZ radio appearance Monday night, Goldberg suggested a $950 million profit estimate was in the offing and expressed hope of some day topping the $1 billion mark. But at a Lottery Commission meeting in Boston Tuesday morning, the last day of the fiscal year, officials said they were tracking to meet the $935.4 million profit estimate.
"We are on course ... for that record year," Lottery Executive Director Beth Bresnahan said at Tuesday's meeting, her last before she takes on a new job as CEO of her hometown newspaper, the Lynn Item.
According to Lottery data, overall game sales during the first 11 months of the fiscal year were up by $136 million or 3.1 percent over the same period in fiscal 2014. The prize payout over the first 11 months of fiscal 2015 was 72.43 percent, up from 72.13 percent.
"As the fiscal year draws to a conclusion, we anticipate posting our fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales and marking the highest point in the Lottery's 43-year sales history," Lottery officials wrote in a sales update released at Tuesday's meeting.
According to Bresnahan, Lottery sales for the fiscal year through June 27 totaled $4.973 billion, compared to $4.825 billion for the same period in fiscal 2014. June has been a "high payout month," a Lottery spokesman said, with one $15 million prize claimed and one $10 million prize, as well as ten $1 million prizes.
Bresnahan said the average player spends $20 to $30 a week on games.
Lottery officials are paying close attention to gaming operations at Plainridge Park Casino, which opened last week as the first facility licensed under the state's 2011 expanded gaming law.
On the radio Monday night, Goldberg said there was "absolutely no doubt" that Lottery sales would be affected once three casinos and a slot facility in Plainville are all up and running. But recalling her days as chair of the Brookline Board of Selectmen, Goldberg said she's committed to having the Lottery deliver more local aid each year to cities and towns. She said that new technologies, "really fun" games and strategies she learned from her days in the supermarket business would help her help the agency compete with the major resort casinos.
"I've been telling the casinos 'bring it on,' " Goldberg said. "We're going to win."
Asked after Tuesday's meeting about her position on Internet gambling, Goldberg said, "I don't really have a position on it."
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