Minnesota Lottery sales over $500m for first time ever

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Scratch card sales were the major reason why the Minnesota State Lottery annual sales topped half a billion dollars for the first time and also marked the fourth consecutive record year for the state lottery.

For the fiscal year ending June 30, the State Lottery sold $504.4 million in tickets, officials announced Wednesday. That’s just over a one per cent increase and beats last year’s record by $5.5 million.

Jenny Canfield, Acting Lottery Director, attributed the increase to “a wide array of initiatives, one of which is providing out customers with a variety of games and promotional opportunities.”

Scratch cards were easily the most popular games in the state and accounted for around 70 percent of all sales, bringing in $354.8 million. Numbers games, including Powerball, totaled $142.3 million in sales. That represents a fall of 7.6 per cent on last year.

Minnesota State Lottery paid out $310.9 million in winnings over the course of the fiscal year ending June 30th 2011.

The state’s general fund received $67.3 million from the lottery, while funds for the environment, natural resources and game and fish collected $54.6 million.