The Department of the Treasury of Puerto Rico has revealed that it expects to finish the current fiscal year with $330m in revenue from Lotería Electrónica ticket sales and $170m from the traditional lottery.
According to El Vocero, lotteries lost $120m in the months that saw operations shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lotería Electrónica resumed its services on May 26, while the traditional lottery still doesn’t have a return date.
José López Ramos, assistant secretary of the Lotteries of Puerto Rico, said: “What the eleven-week sale represents is an approximate of $80 million based on the behavior of electronic players. This fluctuates and depends on the ‘jackpot’, if there is an attractive prize. If the prize is big, bets and plays increase.”
The assistant secretary stated that the end of this fiscal has been more difficult than the one from 2017, when Puerto Rico suffered significant losses after Hurricane Maria.
He added: “This fiscal year is about to close and we don’t have enough time to recover. We’ll see that from July 1, taking into account that we don’t suffer any atmospheric phenomenons, because both businesses could be affected.
“The numbers in Maria were similar because Lotería Electrónica closed the year with $325 million and the traditional lottery with $222 million. The biggest difference is that the traditional lottery had more draws for mother’s day, which cannot be celebrated this year. We will do it, but we have to move the date and it falls under next year’s fiscal. Otherwise, it would’ve been similar to 2017.”
The secretary also revealed that they aim to increase player engagement through an app integration where they can make and review plays.
“By June 20, more or less, I hope we can start the new draws, but it is subject to suspensions. The plan is to end the draws on June 19 and start June 20 with new ones. The sale of these will depend on wether we’ll be able to carry out the pending draws. We don’t want to drag this over time because players are expectant,” he added.
In regards to the sale of tickets for the traditional lottery, López Ramos assured that it will be resumed once they consider that it is safe for vendors and the community: “When we authorize it, we’ll be ready to give them advertising support, but we need the situation to be normal. e understand that June is a good month. As soon as we’re allowed to reactivate ticket sales, we’re going to allow advertising.”
