Kentucky Lottery Breaks Sales Records, Sets New Scholarship Funding Record

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (August 7, 2023) – With the close of fiscal year 2023, the Kentucky Lottery is proud to announce that it has broken the all-time sales record for the organization and transferred more money to the state than it ever has in its 34-year history. This means more money than ever before available for scholarship and grant funding for Kentucky college students.

• Total sales increased to $1,840,997,000 for fiscal year 2023. This is a 9.8% or $164.5 million increase from the previous year

• Total cash transfers to the Commonwealth increased by $19.5 million to $380.3 million or 5.4% more.

In addition to an increase in sales, the Kentucky Lottery also saw an increase in prize payouts for players. Prize expense increased from $1.15 billion to $1.29 billion or an increase of 12.2%. Research shows that players are shifting their buying habits to games with more and higher prizes.

“Our players continue to show us that the winning experience is one of the most important factors when it comes to buying decisions,” said Kentucky Lottery President and CEO Mary Harville. “But we also understand that our players like knowing that a portion of every dollar they spend on lottery products goes to fund higher education opportunities for Kentucky students. With $380.3 million transferred to the state, more students than ever before can benefit from scholarships and grants funded by the Kentucky Lottery. Our network of more than 3400 retailers across the state also benefits from increased sales. Retailers earned $84.4 million in commission during the year.”

Retail sales remained strong through FY23, accounting for 77% of total sales. The most significant portion of those sales remains scratch-off ticket sales at $943.4 million.

iLottery online play continued to see significant growth year-over-year, increasing sales on that channel by 69.5% to $424.7 million in FY23. iLottery sales accounted for 23% of total sales.

Draw game sales, including Powerball, Mega Millions, and Kentucky-specific Pick 3 and Pick 4, totaled $503.5 million, an increase of 3.4% from the previous year. Contributing to these sales were several large jackpot runs, including a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot that was won in California in November and a $1.348 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in Maine in January.

Kentucky had its fair share of big winners, with 19 players becoming millionaires from prize winnings. This includes six players who won either $1 million or $2 million in Powerball prizes.

Sales are expected to continue growing through fiscal year 2024 and in June the Kentucky Lottery Board of Directors approved a budget that projects more than $1.9 billion dollars in sales for the organization.

The Kentucky Lottery funds an array of scholarships and grants for college students, including the popular KEES program. It also funds need-based scholarships such as the College Access Program (CAP) and Kentucky Tuition Grant (KTG). For CAP, disbursements increased by 60% to $170.6 million. CAP recipients can now receive as much as $5,300 for tuition. In addition, the Work-Ready Program is also funded by Kentucky Lottery sales and saw more recipients than ever before for FY 23.

The Kentucky Lottery has sent over $4.8 billion to the Commonwealth for college scholarships and grants since 1999. Visit www.kylottery.com to learn more.

SOURCE: Kentucky Lottery.