Lottery Hurt By Slot Machines?

Pennsylvania’s lottery has always been a pretty successful venture for the state. It has brought in money for lots of things that the state could not have afforded to fund had the lottery not been there. However, it seems that their days of high profits may be coming to an end, as the slot machine seems to be the new sheriff in town.

Last week it was reported that the lottery was not doing as well as it had in previous years, and that ticket sales did not increase the way they usually do. In fact, they showed their smallest yearly gain since 1999. Now, they did set an all-time record of $3.08 billion for the last fiscal year, but the increase of ticket sales themselves is just not there. They only increased their sales by .02% as opposed to the 16.1% they got the year before.

Once they pay out their winners, and commissions, and all of their expenses, they are giving the state less money than the previous year for the first time in 7 years. Some people think that sales are down because people just aren’t gambling like they used to. However, most people think it is because they are spending their money on the slot machines instead of the lottery.

This is the first year that slot machines have been in the state, and many think that by adding them into the gambling pool that the slot machines are taking money that would have previously gone to the lottery. This is of some concern because many of the programs that the state has for the elderly, etc. are funded by lottery money, not slot machine money. The government has already planned on using that for something else.

Back to August 2007 Archive.