Louisville, Ky. – The world-record $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot had a dramatic effect in Kentucky Lottery sales.
In the first 13 days of January – the winning drawing was held Jan. 13 – Kentucky Lottery sold more Powerball tickets than it had in the previous six months.
VP of Finance and Administration Rick Kelley reported players had purchased $31.2 million in Powerball tickets from the beginning of July 2015 through the end of December. “From the 1st of January through the 13th of the month – the date of the world-record drawing – we sold $31.5 million. On the day of the drawing, we had our highest single day of Powerball sales in our history – $8.3 million. In fact, there were two hours that day in which we sold right at $1 million in Powerball tickets per hour,” Kelley reported.
While higher January sales were driven primarily by Powerball, Kelley said other games were also turning in better-than-expected performances. Compared to the first six months of FY15, scratch-off ticket sales were up 9.8% from $271.2 million to $297.7 million. Keno also jumped 34% in the period from $22.2 million in the first six months of FY15 to $29.7 million in the same FY16 period.
In light of these record sales, projections for the remainder of the fiscal year were provided by the lottery’s Executive VP and CFO Howard Kline. “We’ve raised our overall sales forecast for the remainder of the year from $972 million to $987.9 million. In turn, our dividends to the Commonwealth is projected to increase from our budgeted number of $232 million to $237 million. This is $15.5 million increase from what we transferred last year,” Kline said.
“Before we hit the massive Powerball run, net income was $6.5 million more than last year and $16,000 ahead of what was budgeted to be turned over to the Commonwealth thanks to solid sales of our other products. This number will go even higher once the books for January are closed,” Kline said.
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