(Radio Iowa) – Big jackpots for Powerball and MegaMillions helped push Iowa Lottery sales up in the early part of its fiscal year that started in July. Iowa Lottery C-E-O, Matt Strawn, gave details to the Lottery Board, Tuesday. “The Iowa Lottery is in record territory for both total sales and proceeds through October or the first four months of fiscal year 2023. And once audited November sales figures are available, the record-breaking performance will be even more pronounced,” He says.

Strawn says raw sales data from November indicates it was the third-highest-grossing month of sales in the Iowa Lottery’s 37-year history. “Lottery sales of 152-million-605-thousand-971 through October represent a year-over-year increase of five-point-four-six percent,” Strawn says. He says Lottery proceeds through October are up nearly two percent at almost 33-point-nine million dollars.

“With the exception of scratch tickets and pick three — sales of every Iowa Lottery product are outpacing last year’s results through October,” Strawn says. Chief Financial officer, John Roth, says the lotto ticket sales were up more than 38 percent compared to the same time last year. “Powerball generated 21-point-three million dollars in sales through October — a six-point-three percent increase versus fiscal year 2022,” Roth says. He says that is impressive considering there was also a large Powerball jackpot in that time frame last year. MegaMillions also contributed to the increased bottom line.

“MegaMillions and the 830 million jackpot in late July, delivered 18-point-8 million in sales through October compared to fiscal year 2022. And generated the fifth largest sales week ever,” he says. Roth says scratch ticket sales had been slowed by higher gas prices — but they have seen some improvement in those ticket sales as gas prices have come down.