Rhode Island Lottery has experienced an improvement in sales across almost all of its product range as players return to physical shops to buy tickets following COVID-19 lockdowns.
As reported by NBC 10, total sales for FY2021 ending June 30 increased by almost $50m to $295.5m. This represents an increase of nearly 20% from the previous year, in which orders from the federal government to close down all social and public spaces due to the spread of coronavirus severely disrupted sales.
Breaking down individual products, most offerings experienced sales growth, apart from Wild Money, which decreased by 13.3%.
However, Instant Tickets (7.6%), Keno (26.7%), Daily Numbers (1.6%), Powerball (21.6%), Mega Millions (32%), and Lucky For Life (60%) all experienced significant sales increases to ensure the lottery achieved success throughout the fiscal year.
NBC 10 spoke to Antonino Rizzo, a convenience store manager, whose lottery tickets had been growing significantly. He told the network that $5 scratch tickets are among the most popular. But over the past few months, more customers have been buying $20 or even $30 scratch tickets as well.
Rizzo believed people had more money to spend, in part because of three rounds of stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
“People like scratch tickets. My store is big on Bingo and Keno,” Rizzo said. “I have plenty of regulars every day. The extra money that people got this year, too, has been a big help.”
These results come in the year Rhode Island enshrined gambling legislation into its state law, with IGT and Bally’s agreeing deals to supply and operate an economic development at the Twin River Casino Hotel.