Pennsylvania Lottery Declares Record-Breaking Profit and Revenue

By Jane Shaw Senior Editor Updated: 08/05/2019

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Gambling expansion bill benefits Keystone State

Pennsylvania Lottery achieves an all-time high, Photo by Pixabay

On Thursday, the Keystone State Lottery said that in its 47-year history, both its profits and ticket sales for 2018 – 2019 achieved an all-time record high. The agency recorded a staggering $4.5 billion in sales and $1.14 billion in profits for the fiscal year 2018 – 2019.

The lottery has come leaps and bounds from the previous financial year:

Sales have gone up by a total of $302.7 million. This is an increase of 7.2% from the fiscal year 2017 – 2018, in which the earlier record of $4.2 billion was achieved.
Profits generated have increased by $49.6 million, a rise of 4.5% from the previous year. Prior to this, the previous record-breaking profit of $1.12 billion was achieved in 2015 – 2016.
Winners of the traditional game prizes received over $2.9 billion in 2018 – 2019. Seventy players took home rewards of $1 million or more. The total prizes won increased by $193.3 million from the last fiscal period.
The agency has 9,700 lottery retailers in the state, many of whom are family-owned and small enterprises. Together, they garnered sales commissions of approximately $266 million, which again is an increase of over $41.8 million from the previous financial year.

How the agency’s profits are utilized

The Pennsylvania Lottery is the only lottery in the country whose entire proceeds are allocated to benefit senior programs. Helping senior services is more than just a mission statement for the agency; they are passionate about the cause.

Their Executive Director Drew Svitko had this to say:

Families across the commonwealth rely on the vital senior programs that are funded by the Pennsylvania Lottery. That is why we are extremely proud to have set a new profit record while exceeding $1 billion in proceeds to benefit older adults for the eighth consecutive year.

Since 1972, the lottery has donated a total of over $30 billion to senior aid, including:

Care services
Rent rebates
Prescription assistance
Property tax
Transportation
Senior meals
Maintenance of senior centers

Latest games help bring in more revenue

The Pennsylvania Lottery is one of the most profitable gambling systems in the country. In 2017, after the agency’s income was on a decline, the state revitalized its offering by adding on new games to its portfolio. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed a significant expansion bill in October that same year, which constituted several new gambling opportunities.

So, the lottery received the right to host several brand spanking new games, including:

Online games – like bingo, interactive scratch-offs, and keno featured on the PA iLottery
Bar games – like Xpress Sports and keno. The former lets players put their money on animated outcomes of car racing and football while throwing up new matches every five minutes.

While the online platform brought in over $381 million in the first financial year to achieve a net profit of $31.3 million, games played in bars garnered sales of $46.7 million for a total net profit of $10 million.

Plans for the future

Today, the state’s gambling industry is the 2nd richest in the country, on the heels of Nevada. With further expansion in the pipeline including gaming locations which will boast over 750 slot machines and 30 table games, plus a minimum of five satellite casinos added on, the Pennsylvania Lottery is expected to generate even more profits for its worthy cause this current fiscal year as well.