Iowa Lottery Has Record-Setting Year
Lottery Sales, Proceeds, Prizes To Players All Set Records
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CLIVE, Iowa - The Iowa Lottery has posted the best annual results in its 34-year history, with a fifth straight year of record scratch-ticket sales leading the way. Lottery sales, proceeds to state causes, prizes to players, and retail commissions all set records in fiscal year 2019, which ended June 30.
"The Iowa Lottery continues to deliver on its promise to Iowans. A promise to responsibly raise revenue for important state causes," said Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn.
Preliminary figures released Wednesday show that the Iowa Lottery generated a record $92.8 million in proceeds to state causes for the year. Annual lottery sales in FY 2019 were a record $390.9 million, while prizes to players totaled a record $241.9 million. Lottery sales commissions to the retail locations that sell its tickets totaled $25.4 million, also a record.
Mary Junge of Cedar Rapids, chair of the Iowa Lottery Board, said she was pleased to see positive results for the lottery on other fronts as well, including a clean audit from the State Auditor's Office, record exposure for play responsibly messages as part of the lottery's support for National Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March, and operating expenses that were well below budget.
"As citizen Board members, we look to see well-rounded results across the lottery's operations," said Junge, a certified public accountant and practicing tax attorney. "We're pleased to know that the lottery is making a meaningful difference for Iowa."
The unaudited results released Wednesday show that Iowa Lottery sales in FY 2019 increased 5.4 percent from the previous year's total of $371 million, the lottery's previous sales record.
Lottery proceeds to state causes in FY 2019 increased 6.5 percent from the previous year and topped the lottery's prior proceeds record of $88 million, which was set in FY 2016.
Prizes to players increased 6.3 percent from the previous year's total of $227.5 million, which also was the lottery's prior record prize total.
Strawn thanked Iowa retailers for their work in assisting lottery customers and selling tickets, noting that annual lottery sales commissions to local businesses across Iowa increased 5.1 percent from the prior year and surpassed the lottery's previous record for retailer commissions of $24.6 million, set in FY 2016.
In general, the type of lottery product that sells best in a given year has a big impact on overall lottery results. In a year like FY 2019 when scratch tickets sold particularly well, lottery profits overall will likely be a smaller percentage of total sales simply because scratch games have a smaller profit margin. Sales in lotto games are largely jackpot driven and therefore often fluctuate greatly from year to year, while sales of scratch games, pull-tab games and InstaPlay games are more consistent over time.
Scratch-game sales in Iowa, which have set annual records each year since FY 2015, did so again in the lottery's latest year, totaling $250.6 million. That is an increase of more than $6 million from the previous record for that product set the year before. Strawn noted that scratch games have long been the Iowa Lottery's leading product category, and complimented the lottery's team for continuing to develop creative promotions and game ideas while maintaining variety in the products that the lottery has for sale.
"Having an experienced team of Iowans who make operational integrity and product innovation a priority every day at the Iowa Lottery is the foundation upon which these positive results for Iowa were built," Strawn said.
Mega Millions® sales in Iowa leaped up for the year, spurred on by jackpots that topped the $300 million mark four times and included a prize of more than $1.5 billion in the Oct. 23 drawing, the largest jackpot in the history of the game. Powerball® sales dipped slightly for the year, again a jackpot-driven result. The Powerball jackpot surpassed $300 million three times in FY 2019 compared to four jackpots at that level in FY 2018.
Another highlight for the year was the $2.5 million the lottery raised for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund to benefit our state's veterans and their families. The lottery now has raised more than $27 million for the Veterans Trust Fund since it began providing proceeds to that cause in 2008.
Here is a year-to-year comparison of annual lottery sales by product:
| Product |
FY 2019 Sales |
FY 2018 Sales |
| Scratch games |
$250.6 million |
$244.3 million |
| InstaPlay games |
$11.9 million |
$9.7 million |
| Pick 3 |
$7.9 million |
$7.7 million |
| Powerball |
$54.8 million |
$58.5 million |
| Mega Millions |
$36.3 million |
$21.3 million |
| Hot Lotto* |
------------- |
$3.8 million |
| Pick 4 |
$4.3 million |
$4.3 million |
| Lucky for Life |
$5.4 million |
$5.6 million |
| Lotto America* |
$8.8 million |
$4.9 million |
| Pull-tab games |
$10.9 million |
$10.9 million |
*The Hot Lotto game ended in October 2017.
The Top 10 retailers in Iowa for lottery sales in FY 2019 were in five different communities:
| Retailer |
Address |
City |
FY 2019 Sales |
| Hy-Vee |
20 Wilson Ave |
Cedar Rapids |
$949,363 |
| Hy-Vee |
1843 Johnson Ave NW |
Cedar Rapids |
$871,888 |
| Hy-Vee |
2540 E Euclid Ave |
Des Moines |
$829,188 |
| Hy-Vee Gas |
3935 Blairs Ferry Road NE |
Cedar Rapids |
$754,472 |
| Hy-Vee Drugstore |
1520 Sixth St SW |
Cedar Rapids |
$750,543 |
| Hy-Vee |
2323 W Broadway |
Council Bluffs |
$704,427 |
| Pronto |
810 Fourth Ave S |
Denison |
$699,660 |
| Hy-Vee |
3235 Oakland Road NE |
Cedar Rapids |
$678,174 |
| Hy-Vee |
115 S 29th St |
Fort Dodge |
$672,716 |
| JJs on Johnson Ave. |
235 Edgewood Road NW |
Cedar Rapids |
$667,203 |
The largest prize won by an Iowa Lottery player in FY 2017 was a $4.38 million Lotto America℠ jackpot. Four other Iowa tickets won prizes of $1 million during the year, including a Powerball ticket purchased in Nevada for the April 11 drawing that remains unclaimed.
| Winner |
City |
Game |
Prize |
Claim Date |
| Lerynne West |
Redfield |
Powerball |
$343.9 million |
Nov. 5, 2018 |
| Lisa Hays |
Monmouth, Ill. |
Powerball |
$2 million |
Feb. 18, 2019 |
| Robert Maser |
Urbandale |
Powerball |
$2 million |
May 16, 2019 |
| Danny Lovett |
East Moline, Ill. |
Mega Millions |
$1 million |
Feb. 4, 2019 |
| Dream Big Team |
Cedar Rapids |
Promotion |
$1 million |
June 24, 2019 |
| Angelica Chavez |
Sioux City |
Mega Millions |
$1 million |
April 22, 2019 |
| Robert Hollenback |
Milan, Ill. |
Mega Millions |
$1 million |
Nov. 8, 2018 |
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