Scratch Cards Soar, Casinos Bore
Due to high priced scratch off tickets, lottery sales have revived, restoring growth to a state run business that has slumped in the face of casino and Internet gambling competition.
But there is something new on the market. The introduction of instant win tickets that cost more to play, 10, 20 and 30 dollars and offer top prizes of 1 million or more has taken lottery sales and set them on fire in many states. Scratch off ticket sales raised 59 percent in 4 years from 2001 to 2005. This is six times as much as the 10 percent rise during that time for Powerball, Mega Millions and other lottery games decided by drawings.
And no small beans here, based on the 2006 to 07 Indian Gaming Industry Report,
Casino gambling revenue increased 49 percent since 2000 to a whopping 55.3 billion in 2005, while lotteries contributed 16 billion dollars to the state budgets last year, just barely 1 percent of the total. Although two thirds of that revenue does go to education in the states. This makes the casinos and the lottery important funding sourcees for many schools in many states.
Since 2004 scratch off tickets have outsold traditional lotteries and are now accountable for 55 percent of lottery revenue, according to a magazine, which tracks lotteries across the country.
As more states introduce pricier scratch-off tickets more of these tickets will sell and more people will win and more money will be raised for the state. Less than half of all the states with lotteries have larger size denomination scratch offs, but this is surely to change.
