SACRAMENTO – California Lottery officials have announced sales are currently on record pace for the fiscal year of 2012-2013. Preliminary numbers indicate sales through the end of 2012 were at $2,051,515,88, which represents a four percent increase from the same time the previous year. Spearheading the record number is the sale of Scratchers and daily games. In fact, Scratchers sales went over the billion mark and stood at $1.4 billion as of December 31, 2012. For more information on lottery sales, see story below.
Story provided by California Lottery
Fiscal Year 2011-2012 might have been a year of history and broken records for the California Lottery, so we could only hope to top that in 2012-2013. The good news is coming in as preliminary figures from the first two quarters of Fiscal Year 2012-2013 shows that Lottery sales are once again on a record pace.
"The Lottery is once again on a record pace in terms of total sales, but we still have a lot of work to do in the second half of this fiscal year," Lottery Director Robert T. O'Neill said. "We want to continue to maximize the supplemental dollars we earn for California public schools, and with the right business plan in place and an exciting choice of new games headed our way, we should be able to do just that."
Preliminary figures show that Lottery sales through December 31, 2012 stood at $2,051,515,833, which is about four percent higher than this time last year ($1,971,252,588). The sale of Scratchers and daily games products are the driving force behind that increase. Scratchers sales hit the $1 billion mark this fiscal year – faster than any other year in Lottery history – and as of December 31, stood at a little over $1.4 billion. In addition, the daily games category – Daily 3, Daily 4, Daily Derby®, and Fantasy 5 – continues to exceed sales goals for the year.
Other factors to consider from the recently completed second quarter of the 2012-2013 Fiscal Year:
- Sales of $5 Scratchers tickets are up more than 50 percent over where they were at this time last year;
- Hot Spot® sales are up about seven percent over last year, thanks to a recent move to increase prize payouts;
- For the first time in its history, the Lottery was able to have more than one $10 Scratchers game on the market simultaneously; and,
- Sales are up despite the absence of the large jackpots that helped make last fiscal year such an amazing success.
In addition, the Lottery's Second Chance Program continues to be more and more popular every day. Quarter 2 of the Fiscal Year saw more than 120,000 new registrants join the Second Chance Program, pushing the number of total registered users to nearly 2.7 million.
Looking ahead to Quarter 3 of the 2012-2013 Fiscal Year, the Lottery has a plan in place to continue increased sales, as well as continue its mission to provide yet more supplemental funds to California schools. The Lottery will release a family of four Scratchers tickets – with price points ranging from $1 to $10 – called California Lucky for Life. The game is simple: if you win the top prize in the $1 game, you win $500 a week for 25 years; if you win the top prize in the $2 game, you win $1,000 a week for 25 years; if you win the top prize in the $5 game, you win $2,500 a week for 25 years; and if you win the top prize in the $10 game, you win an astounding $5,000 a week for 25 years, or a lump sum cash payment of $3,750,000! The new games arrive at Lottery retail locations on January 28. This new family of games will help compliment the launch of the $2 POWERBALL® game in California on April 8, 2013. The popular multistate POWERBALL jackpot begins at $40 million.
