SACRAMENTO -- During the regular meeting of the California State Lottery Commission today, officials reported sales for the first two quarters of fiscal year ‘05-06 at $1.751 billion. These figures show an increase in Lottery sales compared to the same period of last fiscal year, when sales were $1.532 billion. At the end of last fiscal year, the California State Lottery closed its books with record high sales of $3.333 billion.
The increase in sales is due to several factors; Scratchers with Bingo and Crossword themes outperformed other Scratchers for a solid 13% increase and Mega Millions to date have totaled $243 million in sales. "Today’s figures represent a $119 million increase over last year’s revenues for the same period", said Jim Hasegawa, Director of Marketing. "This is a 7% increase over the first six months of last year."
With additional promotions, advertising programs and retailer network enhancements planned for the third and fourth quarters, the Lottery projects positive growth in sales for all games and expects to exceed last years’ education contribution of $1.175 billion.