Record Lottery Sales Lead to Record Transfers to Oregon

Oregon Lottery Dale Penn says the organization is accomplishing what they set out to do 21 years ago.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - For the past fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, the Oregon Lottery registered $1.09 billion in sales, marking the first time in the Lottery's 21-year history that sales reached the billion dollar level.

Bolstered by those record sales, an all-time high $483.6 million of Lottery profits were transferred to the State Economic Development Fund this fiscal year.

The Lottery's previous high sales mark was reached in fiscal year 2005 with sales totaling $937 million. The prior record transfer to the State was also in fiscal year 2005 with transfers of more than $415.8 million.

"When Oregonians voted to establish the Oregon Lottery back in 1984, the Lottery's mission was to earn maximum profits for the people of Oregon," said Lottery Director Dale Penn. "That mission remains the same today. Each year, the Lottery works very hard to provide games people want to play. Reaching the $1 billion mark in sales is testimony to the exceptional efforts of our retailers and our staff."

The addition of line games to the Lottery's Video Lottery product as well as outstanding Powerball sales helped drive the Lottery's revenues this year.

Video Lottery sales increased over 24 percent compared to last year's sales, while Powerball, fueled by game changes that helped create larger jackpots, experienced a 68 percent increase over FY '05. The Lottery also introduced a new daily-drawing game, Lucky Lines, in April 2006. Some of the sales highlights for fiscal year 2006 include: - Video Lottery net sales of $728.8 million, new record - Powerball sales of $58.8 million, new record - Sports Action with $12.1 million, new record - Nineteen of the top 20 all-time Lottery sales weeks were recorded during this past fiscal year

Another remarkable highlight from this past fiscal year includes the Lottery's "day of winners," October 19, 2005. On that day, a Southern Oregon family won a $340 million Powerball jackpot and four different players won $853,492 each with the Powerball Match 5 Bonus.

There was one $2.6 million Megabucks jackpot winner from Portland, as well as one $50,000 Powerball prize winner and eight $10,000 Powerball winners.

State officials say that since the Lottery began in 1985, nearly $4.8 billion in Lottery profits has gone to public education, economic development, state parks, watershed enhancement, and salmon habitat restoration across the state. Looking ahead, in the present biennium alone, the Lottery is projected to provide $1.05 billion for these programs.