New Sales Record Broken By Illinois Lottery

The fiscal year 2011 ended on June the 30th and Illinois Lottery managed to break records again. This year has been its ninth in a row to end with an increase in sales. From July 1st, 2010, to June the 30th, 2011, it managed to accumulate $2.278 billion, an increase of three percent from last year which saw a record figure of $2.2 billion. Since the fiscal year 2007, the Lottery’s sales have gone up by over 11 percent.

“The success of the Lottery is due in large part to the great team of professionals who work here and also our incredible retailer base,” the acting superintendent of the Illinois Lottery, Jodie Winnett, stated. “Their efforts have allowed us to show steady growth, even during a tough economy. That is something we are very proud of.”

Good causes

During the fiscal year 2011, Illinois Lottery donated $632 million to the Common School Fund. It also gave $54 million toward the Capital Projects Fund. As well as these, $4 million was put toward four additional causes: around $1.2 million went to add research into Multiple Sclerosis, over $1.12 million was given to Illinois veteran groups, $905,286 was donated to help the people suffering from AIDS, and $748,528 for breast cancer research. In total, about $690,000,000 was donated by the Lottery for good causes.

“Our goal is to responsibly grow funding for both the Common School Fund and the Capital Projects Fund,” explained Winnett. “This is the highest amount of money transferred from the Lottery in our 37-year history.”

New manager model

In the fiscal year 2011, Illinois Lottery also implemented a new private manager model. The Northstar Lottery Group took over responsibility for the management of key areas, including marketing, sales management, and product development in March.

“Players and retailers are already feeling a new energy from our refreshed brand and more winning experiences,” explained Winnett. “Northstar is taking our already successful business to levels beyond what we have seen before and will be able to continue to grow it through methods that would not have been possible as a purely state-run entity.”

Proof of the new model’s success can be seen reflected in the last five months in which instant ticket sales reached record levels for the Illinois Lottery. Tracy Owens, Illinois Lottery’s spokesperson, said that it is hard to evaluate how much the increase is actually down to Northstar and its Cash for Life games. Nevertheless, she stated “that has been a good seller.”

In order to fulfill its state management contract, Northstar will have to increase its incoming revenue even more for next year. Connie Laverty O’Connor, Northstar CEO, explained that focus would be put on instant games. O’Connor is keen to bring back old players as well as attract new ones. With this the aim, the company wants to restructure the prizes available so that more money can be streamed into mid-level prizes.