Ohio Lottery ticket sales up in May

Much of the economy may be in a slump due to the pandemic. But Ohio Lottery ticket sales are booming.

Amid high unemployment, Ohioans are spending more on lottery tickets, rather than socking away the money into an emergency fund.

Ohio Lottery Finance Director Gregory Bowers, in a report to the Ohio Lottery Commission last week, said traditional ticket sales in May were up 24% over May 2019 to nearly $352 million.

Net scratch-off sales, which make up roughly half of traditional ticket sales, surged 53% to $216 million statewide last month. Scratch-off tickets, produced by companies Scientific Games and IGT Global Solutions Corp., can cost $1 to $30. Revenue from daily numbers games tickets were up by about 35%.

However, customers bought fewer draw-based lottery tickets like Mega Millions, Powerball or Lucky for Life, a decline of about 28%, Bowers said.

However, Ohio’s seven racinos closed in March as part of the state closure orders due to the coronavirus, cutting off revenue from the Ohio Lottery’s roughly 11,500 video lottery terminal machines. From July to May, VLT revenue is down about 20% to about $261 million.

The large ticket sale increases were not enough to offset that loss. The state will allow the racinos to reopen on Friday.

Games also like Keno were impacted by the closures of restaurants and bars. Revenue for Keno fell about 29%. But Bowers said sales have recovered and Keno sales have risen each week for 10 weeks as Ohio has reopened.

By law, Ohio Lottery profits have to fund schools. As a result of the loss of VLT revenue, the Ohio Lottery said it sent nearly $94 million in May to the Lottery Profits Education Fund, $6.7 million less than May 2019. The total decline for the period from July to May is $27.9 million. In the fiscal year ending June 2019, the Ohio Lottery paid $1.15 billion into the Lottery Profits Education Fund.

Play at home

Ricky Patel, the owner of the Woodlawn Market in Jackson Township that dubs itself the “Lucky Lottery store,” estimated his lottery ticket sales for May have doubled. His store has more than 150 types of scratch-off tickets, most of them arranged on plastic cases on the front counter or in red vending machines at the side of the store.

Patel pointed out that casinos and racinos are closed.

“I think all these gambling places closed. That’s why,” he said about the increase in ticket sales. “That’s the main reason. Because a lot of customers tell me they cannot go gamble any other place. So they buy a lottery ticket. People have the extra (stimulus and unemployment) money. They sit at home doing nothing. They get bored.”

He speculated that the sales are driven by residents receiving their $1,200 federal stimulus checks. Or people who’ve lost jobs may hope to win a prize to offset their losses.

Patel said the scratch-off tickets are more popular than draw-based games where customers wait for a set time per day or per week for the next drawing to take place.

“Because it’s instant. People know right away,” he said. “They scratch the ticket and they know right away whether they win or not. And they don’t have to wait for a draw.”

Around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, a couple of customers bought scratch-off tickets from Woodlawn Market, with one man spending about $60. They went to their vehicles parked outside to scratch off the tickets. For each winning ticket, they came back into the store and exchanged their winnings from the ticket for more tickets.

One of them was John Lenhart, 35, who lives across the street from Woodlawn Market.

“More people are staying at home and they got their more unemployment money, and I think that’s why they’re spending more money on it,” said Lenhart, who referred to the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits being paid through the end of July to those who had lost their jobs.

He said he’s spending about the same on tickets, about $100 a week, on games like the $3 Million Dazzler and the 45th Anniversary.

“Some weeks you lose it all. Some weeks I’ll make $500 or $1,000,” he said.

Patel showed report slips that showed in the week prior to Thursday his store sold $67,677 worth of lottery tickets and games, which netted their buyers about $51,077 in prizes.

In Stark County, traditional lottery ticket sales from March to May rose about 9% to $32.43 million, according to figures from the Ohio Lottery. For instant scratch-off tickets, sales in Stark County were up nearly 30% to $21.65 million.

Good problem

Bill Smith, a Stark County commissioner and owner of Smith’s Waco Market in Canton Township said, “the problem is we can’t get enough tickets. ... The sales have (gone) off the charts. ... It’s been a little bit of a trial to keep a full complement of tickets in, but hey that’s a good problem to have I guess.”

He said stores keep about 5% to 6% of lottery ticket revenue.

“Some people go to a movie. Some people go to a casino. Some people buy (lottery) tickets. Their form of entertainment I would think,” Smith said.

Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

Lottery ticket sales in select Northeast Ohio counties

Here’s a look at the traditional lottery ticket sales, including scratch-off tickets from March to May 2020 and % difference from March to May 2019*:

Lake: $24.44 million, up 0.18%

Portage: $10.46 million, down 1.53%

Stark: $32.43 million, up 8.87%

Summit: $46.12 million, up 3.11%

Tuscarawas: $6.21 million, up 4.08%

Wayne: $4.75 million, up 20.3%

* Some sales figures for certain games weren’t available.

Here’s a look at instant scratch-off ticket sales from March to May, and the percentage increase from the same period last year:

Lake: $14.7 million, up 19.1%

Portage: $7.26 million, up 17.64%

Stark: $21.65 million, up 29.9%

Summit: $26.91 million, up 28.39%

Tuscarawas: $4.85 million, up 14.72%

Wayne: $3.9 million, up 35%

Source: Ohio Lottery Commission