Iowa Lottery sales are off to a slow start in the new fiscal year after setting a sales record the previous year. Lottery CEO Matt Strawn gave the Lottery Commission an update during their meeting Tuesday morning.
He says lottery proceeds to the state through August are down around 48 percent from the same point last year. Strawn had warned at the end of the last fiscal year that maintaining the record sales would be tough due to national economic conditions and soft sales in national lotto games. He cited Powerball sales as an example.
Strawn says national Powerball sales trends are down a nearly identical amount. Strawn says jackpots are hard to predict and once they get going they bring in a lot of people who are not regular players.
Strawn says the national economy has an impact on sales, and that includes changes in interest rates that impact the annuity or jackpot amount.
Strawn says the issues they are facing were factored in as they prepared the budget for this fiscal year, and that has helped them stay close to their projections.
Strawn says sales are unlikely to reach the record heights of recent years, but the adjustments they made in this year’s budget and continued diversity of products will help them deal with the drop.
