The Hoosier Lottery just wrapped up its best sales year to-date.
The lottery racked up a record $1.74 billion in revenue during the 2021 fiscal year. That massive haul led to over $375 million worth of profits for the state of Indiana.
The State Lottery Commission made the announcement at its recent meeting.
As expected, scratch-off tickets were the leading cause of the increase.
Record scratch-off sales in Indiana
Back in May, the lottery announced that it was expecting to finish the fiscal year with over $1.7 billion worth of revenue. That projection ended up being right on the money.
Hoosier Lottery games brought in $1.38 billion during the 2020 fiscal year, making the new revenue numbers a 26% increase.
The main force behind the revenue bump? Scratch-off tickets.
The pandemic created a new trend in the Indiana gambling scene.
The Hoosier Lottery began seeing massive growth in scratch-off sales as soon as last year’s shutdowns began.
It makes sense. With casinos closed and no sports to bet on, Hoosiers naturally turned towards the only gambling option left on the table.
The result was a massive revenue increase.
Scratch-off sales shot up 31% during the first third of the 2021 budget year. That $423 million worth of sales set things off on the right foot.
That momentum carried over into the rest of the budget year, which ended on June 30.
When the dust settled, the Hoosier Lottery ended up with a 27% scratch-off sales increase year-over-year.
Scratch-off sales ended up accounting for nearly 80% of the lottery’s $1.74 billion of revenue. That’s a titanic amount of revenue, but Powerball and Mega Millions also contributed to the overall growth.
Mega Millions and Powerball sales increase
Mega Millions and Powerball both carried their own weight, although they didn’t quite reach the same 27% increase as scratch-offs.
Back in May, the Hoosier Lottery announced that it was expecting a combined 19% sales bump for both games.
The lottery hasn’t released its entire annual report yet, so there’s no way to know if that projected increase held true.
Regardless, since the budget year ended on June 30, it’s doubtful that the numbers dropped much over the course of a single month, if they dropped at all.
After all, Powerball just added a new weekly drawing due to the popularity of the game continuing to rise.
Powerball might have some momentum behind it, but the Hoosier Lottery is expecting the rest of the market to start running out of steam.
Hoosier Lottery sales could drop soon
The Hoosier Lottery believes that sales will start to taper off over the course of the next year.
As the world returns to some form of post-pandemic normalcy, many gamblers will be returning to casinos and other forms of entertainment. Lottery ticket sales might take a hit because of that.
At least, that’s what IGT is expecting to happen in Indiana. IGT is the company that operates the Hoosier Lottery throughout the state.
IGT Indiana’s Chief Operating Officer Melissa Pursley is expecting an 8% drop in lottery ticket sales during the new budget year, which kicked off back in July.
“We have budgeted a decrease from the historical year that we’ve experienced. As Hoosiers begin to have more options to spend their entertainment dollars, we believe that our sales will be impacted.”
Only time will tell if that prediction comes true, but IGT has been pretty accurate with its forecasts so far.
Even if sales return to normal in 2022, the Hoosier Lottery will still have a litany of new records to hang its hat on from the past year.
