Clive, Iowa — The leader of the Iowa Lottery says sales for the fiscal year through October are slightly ahead of budget projections. But Matt Strawn says they are still facing some headwinds.
Rising jackpots create a snowball effect that pushes sales up, and that’s what’s lacking so far this fiscal year.
Strawn told the State Lottery Commission the data from November isn’t yet complete, but the sale of scratch tickets and other products have improved ahead of national industry sales averages.
Scratch tickets make up around 67 percent of Lottery sales. Chief Revenue Officer John Roth says Iowa is seeing better sales than the national industry, which was down last year and is also down so far this year.
Roth says when things are narrowed down to recent weeks, the overall industry is starting to level out and the Iowa Lottery is still running slightly ahead of the national numbers.
