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Lottery sets sales record, eyes changes

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The Iowa Lottery posted record sales in the budget year that ended June 30.


The year also saw the biggest payments to state causes, most prize money and highest retailer commissions.


Even with the excitement of a record Powerball $1.6 billion jackpot in January, the biggest winner was the scratch game division – as it has been since that form of gambling became the Iowa Lottery’s first product in August 1985, Mary Neubauer, the lottery’s vice president for external relations, said in an interview.


Overall sales were a record $366.9 million, marking the fifth straight year of sales over $300 million. The previous record was $339.5 million in 2006.


Players took home a combined $221.8 million, while lottery sales commissions to retailers totaled $24.6 million. Those were records, too.


Preliminary figures show a record $88 million in proceeds went to state causes, primarily support for veterans and their families, projects through the state’s general fund, and backing for the Vision Iowa development program for tourism and community attractions and school projects. That topped the 2013 record of $84.9 million.


Sales of scratch games, the lottery’s top revenue-producer, rose to $233.7 million from $212 million. “Powerball and Mega Millions always grab the headlines with their large jackpots, but the scratch games have always been our bread and butter,” Neubauer said.


Powerball sold $74.9 million in tickets, up from $52.2 million. Pick 3 gained slightly, to $7.4 million from $7 million, while Mega Millions fell to $16.4 million from $18 million.


Neubauer said the lotto revenues vary from year to year quite a bit depending on whether there are big jackpots to fuel big sales. Pull tabs, on the other hand, have been declining in sales, and may be scaled back in the next few years.


The lottery will continue to experiment with new games, like one that offered a chance to go to Comic-Con, and another that pays a top prize of $1,000 a day for life, she added.