The New Mexico Lottery today announced record profits of $40.8
million on net sales of $147.1 million for the fiscal year ending June 30.
Lottery profits, which provide tuition assistance to New Mexico residents
attending the state’s public colleges and universities, were up $5.98 million –
or 17.2 percent -- from last year’s total of $34.8 million. In fiscal year
2008, the lottery returned an average 27.61 percent to state coffers, fulfilling
a legislative mandate to return 27 percent a month of gross revenues starting
July 1, 2007.
In order to return 27 percent of revenues, the lottery made numerous
operational cuts, which included reducing lottery staffing, eliminating retailer
and sales staff incentives, reducing Scratcher prize expenses and cutting the
advertising budget by approximately one third or $800,000. The cuts
totaled $6.5 million.
“Certainly this was the lottery’s most challenging year since start-up, but
we cut expenses, largely maintained sales in a highly-competitive gaming market
and increased profits for college scholarships,” said Lottery CEO Tom Romero.
Since 1996, the lottery has raised $361.7 million for education and more than
50,000 students have attended college on Legislative Lottery Scholarships.
“We owe tremendous thanks to our employees, board of directors, retailer
partners, vendors, elected officials and most importantly our loyal players,”
Romero said. “When players choose lottery games over other forms of
entertainment, they’re making higher education a reality for their children.”
Flat Sales
At $147.1 million, net ticket sales during fiscal year 2008
were down 0.6 percent – or $900,000 – from last year’s sales of $148 million.
After generating record sales of $91.4 million in fiscal year 2007, Scratcher
sales dropped
5.2 percent – or $4.8 million – to $86.6 million. Scratcher players
claimed $53.8 million in prizes, which represents approximately 62 percent of
Scratcher ticket sales.
In fiscal year 2008, ticket sales from drawing games totaled $60.5 million,
up 6.9 percent from $56.6 million in 2007. Specifically:
- Powerball® sales totaled
$44.5 million, up from $42.6 million.
- Hot Lotto ® sales totaled $6 million, up from $3.5 million.
- Roadrunner Cash™ sales totaled
$6.5 million, down from $7.9 million.
- Pick 3™ sales totaled $2.3
million up from $2 million.
- The 4 This Way! game, which
was discontinued in October, generated sales of $216,000, down from $653,000.
- The New Year’s Eve Raffle™
generated $1 million in sales.
“We were very lucky that the Powerball game had several jackpot run-ups
during the year. These run-ups helped stimulate player enthusiasm and
sales,” Romero said. “Without those run-ups, our sales and profit
situation would have been completely different.”
In fiscal year 2008, drawing game players claimed $23.4 million in prizes.
Two New Mexico residents won Hot Lotto jackpots. In August, Edward Boyd of
Farmington shared a $2 million jackpot with a player in Minnesota while
Albuquerque resident David C. Fort claimed $5.6 million in February.
Since 1996, lottery players have claimed approximately $1.02 billion in
prizes. By state statute, the lottery is required to return at least 50 percent
of ticket sales back to players in the form of prizes. Unclaimed prizes
are used to fund prizes in drawing games and new Scratcher games.
Preparing to Return 30 Percent of Revenues in
2009
Starting in January, the lottery must return at least 30
percent of gross revenues a month to the scholarship program. A transition
to a new gaming system vendor will be instrumental to achieving the new revenue
requirement. In November, the lottery will upgrade its network of 1,100
retailers to a new gaming and communications system provided by Georgia-based
Intralot. Over the life of a seven-year contract, the lottery will pay
Intralot a base price of 1.50 percent – or $18.2 million – on projected total
net sales of $1.15 billion. If it achieves those sales, the lottery will
save approximately $35.4 million over its existing contract rates.
The Intralot contract is the result of a bidding process that started in
early 2005.
Information about lottery games and the Legislative Lottery Scholarships is
available at www.nmlottery.com.
Editors/News Directors/Reporters:
The following is a history of New Mexico Lottery
gross revenues and net revenues (profits) since inception. Fiscal year
1996 was a partial year; all other fiscal years run July 1 through June 30.
Fiscal year 2008 figures and totals remain preliminary and unaudited.
All figures are rounded. Of the total amount of money transferred to New
Mexico education, $66.5 million was used for school construction and repairs
from fiscal year 1997 through fiscal year 2001.
| |
GROSS
REVENUES |
NET PROFITS FOR
PUBLIC EDUCATION |
| FY ’96(*) |
$28.5 Million |
$6.3 Million |
| FY ’97 |
$82.4 Million ↑ |
$21.9 Million ↑ |
| FY ’98 |
$85.4 Million ↑ |
$20.1 Million ↓ |
| FY ’99 |
$89.7 Million ↑ |
$19.6 Million ↓ |
| FY ’00 |
$111.2 Million ↑ |
$24.5 Million ↑ |
| FY ’01 |
$113.7 Million ↑ |
$25.9 Million ↑ |
| FY ’02 |
$129.5 Million ↑ |
$29.6 Million ↑ |
| FY ’03 |
$133.6 Million ↑ |
$33.1 Million ↑ |
| FY ’04 |
$142.6 Million ↑ |
$35.9 Million ↑ |
| FY ’05 |
$134.7 Million ↓ |
$32.2 Million ↓ |
| FY ’06 |
$150.6 Million ↑ |
$36.9 Million ↑ |
| FY ’07 |
$148.8 Million ↓ |
$34.8 Million ↓ |
| FY ’08(**) |
$147.8 Million ↓ |
$40.8 Million ↑ |
| TOTALS (***) |
$ 1.5 Billion |
$361.7 Million |
- Lottery Tuition Fund: $295,195,765 (1996 to present)
- Public School Capital Outlay Fund: $66,553,850 (1996 to 2001)
- Raised for public education through FY ’08: $361,749,615
