The Texas Lottery once again broke its all-time sales record. This is the 12th consecutive year the state has set a new high mark.
Whopping $8B collected in 2022
The first lottery ticket sold in Texas was in 1992. Billions of dollars have gone to education and veterans assistance programs since then.
The Texas Lottery generated an incredible $8.297 billion in sales over the 2022 fiscal year. It was an increase of $189.7 million over 2021, or a 2.3% increase.
Their record-breaking year included new records for scratch ticket and draw game sales. Additionally, the Texas Lottery put up a new weekly record for total sales with $264.3 million in revenue between July 24 and July 30.
Looking at the last five years, the Texas Lottery has seen an increase of over $3 billion in sales, growing 63.4% during that time.
Director attributes growth to hard work
In a press release, Texas Lottery Executive Director Gary Grief pointed out the numerous obstacles the Lottery had to overcome in FY2022.
“The Texas Lottery is one of only a handful of U.S. lotteries to experience sales growth in traditional lottery scratch ticket and draw game products over the last fiscal year. Despite competing with the return of many entertainment options after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as increasing inflation, this latest sales record was buoyed by two major milestones – the launch of the U.S. lottery industry’s first $100 scratch ticket game in May, as well as the advertised $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot for the July 29 drawing.
Grief went on to applaud the efforts of Lottery staff and retailers.
“More than anything, however, this new sales record is a testament to the persistent hard work of Texas Lottery staff, vendor partners and retailers, which made it possible for the Texas Lottery to once again contribute almost $2 billion in revenue to the state of Texas.”
Public education receives almost $2B in 2022
Because of their record-breaking fiscal year, the amount of money contributed by the Texas Lottery also broke the previous record. In total, the Texas Lottery contributed $1.998 billion, with the vast majority, $1.972 billion, going to the Foundation School Fund. The remaining $26 million went to the Fund for Veterans Assistance.
In total, the Texas Lottery has now contributed $29.7 billion to Texas public education and more than $192 million to Texas veterans.
Robert G. Rivera, chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission, thanked lottery players.
“We want to thank all the players for supporting the Texas Lottery and for their participation in providing these much-needed funds for the Foundation School Fund and the Fund for Veterans’ Assistance.”
Several other records set in 2022
There were many records broken by the Texas Lottery in 2022. As mentioned above, scratch ticket sales ($6.727 billion) set a new record. Scratchers alone made up 81% of the total revenue generated by the Texas Lottery.
Scratch ticket sales grew by 1.7% over FY2021. That could partly be attributed to the addition of the $100 scratch ticket game, the first enacted in the US.
The Texas Lottery also had a record-breaking fiscal year for draw games sales. In total, $1.57 billion was collected in draw game sales in 2022, an increase of $79.4 million over 2021.
Texas Lottery’s multi-state games, Powerball and Mega Millions, combined to generate $798.8 million in sales. That’s also a new record. A big reason could be the $1.28 billion Mega Millions jackpot in July. Powerball sales totaled $405.8 million, while Mega Millions sales came in at $392.9 million. Both represented the second-highest sales totals in Texas Lottery history.
Retailers also enjoyed record year
It was also a record year for retailers. Among the Texas Lottery’s 20,720 retailers across the state, retailer commissions totaled $415.4 million. That’s the highest payment to retailers in Texas Lottery history.
In total, the amount paid out to retailers is actually a little bit higher – $441.6 million – because it includes additional commissions, incentives and the retailer bonus program. That came out to an average payment of $20,046 to each of the Texas Lottery retail partners.
Lastly, the 2022 fiscal year was great to players as well in terms of prizes paid out. Texas Lottery in total paid out $5.662 billion to prize winners. That’s, you guessed it, another broken record. The Texas Lottery paid out $170.7 million more in prizes to players compared to 2021.
If everything is big in Texas, the Texas Lottery now towers over all.
