Lottery prizes, retailer commissions also set records
CLIVE, Iowa (July 30, 2024) – The Iowa Lottery released its latest annual results on Tuesday, achieving record sales and prizes to players in fiscal year 2024, along with proceeds to state causes of nearly $107 million.
"The Iowa Lottery continues to deliver on its promise to responsibly generate revenue for important state causes," said Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn. "I'm grateful to lottery players, retail partners, and our amazing team of public-minded professionals who produced these record results."
The preliminary figures released Tuesday show that the Iowa Lottery generated $106.6 million in proceeds to state causes in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That is the lottery's second-highest proceeds total, behind only its record $108.4 million in proceeds in FY 2023.
Annual lottery sales in FY 2024 were a record $489.9 million, while prizes to players totaled a record $312.6 million. Lottery sales commissions to the local businesses across the state that sell tickets totaled $31.9 million, a record for traditional lottery products.
The unaudited results show that Iowa Lottery sales in FY 2024 increased 1.7 percent from the previous year's total of $481.5 million, a sales record at the time. Lottery proceeds to state causes in FY 2024 decreased about 1.6 percent from the previous year, while prizes to players increased 2.4 percent from the previous year's total. Lottery sales commissions to Iowa businesses increased 2 percent from the previous year.
Dana Wingert, chair of the Iowa Lottery Commission, noted other positives for the lottery during the year, including annual operating expenses that were well below budget and achievement of key performance measures in lottery security checks at retail locations.
Wingert, the chief of police in Des Moines, also noted that the lottery achieved strong statewide visibility for awareness messages highlighting National Gambling Awareness Month and the help available in Iowa for those seeking information about gambling disorders.
"As a citizen Commission member, it's gratifying to me to see this ongoing demonstration of lottery integrity," Wingert said. "And as a public servant myself, I appreciate the lottery team's focus on responsibly producing results for vital causes."
The lottery's FY 2024 results were led by two main factors: continued growth in sales of scratch games and a strong year for the Powerball® game.
While the jackpots in Mega Millions® and Powerball simultaneously topped $800 million in March 2024, the Powerball jackpot in particular exceeded $1 billion at three different times during the year. That, along with the November 2023 introduction of the Double Play® option in the game, led to an annual increase in Powerball sales of nearly 18 percent.
Sales of scratch games, which have always been the Iowa Lottery's leading product, continued a strong run in FY 2024, growing 2.9 percent from the previous year and accounting for about 62 percent of the lottery's overall sales.
That, in turn, had an impact on lottery proceeds. In a year like FY 2024 when scratch tickets sell particularly well, lottery proceeds may be a smaller percentage of total sales because scratch games have a smaller profit margin than lotto games like Powerball. But while sales in lotto games are significantly jackpot driven and can vary greatly from week to week and month to month, sales of scratch tickets are more stable over time.
A highlight for FY 2024 was the $2.5 million the lottery raised for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund to benefit the state's veterans and their families. The lottery now has raised nearly $40 million for the Veterans Trust Fund since it began providing proceeds to that cause in 2008.
The lottery also provides proceeds to the Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund and Department of Corrections Survivor Benefits Fund, which help with ongoing insurance costs for the families of Iowa peace officers, firefighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty. Lottery proceeds also benefit the state General Fund to help pay for everything from education to agricultural programs.