(Clive, IA) -- Annual sales for the Iowa Lottery hit a record $452.6 million in the fiscal year that concluded at the end of June. Spokesperson Mary Neubauer says preliminary figures also show the Iowa Lottery generated a record $101.7 million in proceeds to state causes. Prizes to players totaled a record 4288.9 million. Lottery sales commissions to retailers selling tickets totaled $29.7 million, which was also a record number.
Neubauer says the FY 2021 results were impacted by two main factors: a spike in scratch ticket sales and two large Powerball and Mega Millions, multi-state games. The jackpots in both those games topped $700 million for the first time in January, the Mega Millions prize grew to more than $1billion.
She says scratch ticket sales have set annual records each year since FY2015, broke a record again in FY 2021, totaling $316.9 million. That total was $54.5 million over the previous year's total. She says the pandemic changed consumer behavior, but it's expected to revert back to normal.
Five Iowa Lottery players won prizes of at least $500,000 during FY 2021. Those tickets were sold in Urbana, Sergeant Bluff, and Clinton. One ticket sold in Waterloo was worth $2 million dollars. A second ticket sold in Waterloo was worth $500,000.