Powerball revenues expected to reach record high

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(Host) Vermont lottery officials say this fiscal year will see record revenue for lottery ticket sales in Vermont. They say the increase is due to sales from the multi-state Powerball game.

VPR’s Steve Zind reports.

(Zind) Vermont Lottery Executive Director Alan Yandow says Vermonters will likely spend at least $92 million on lottery tickets for the fiscal year ending July 1. That’s $13 million higher than last year. Yandow says most of the increase is due to the addition of the Powerball lottery last summer.

First year Powerball sales in Vermont are expected to generate an additional $3.2 million for the state’s education fund this year. Yandow says that figure is in line with what officials expected the game to produce.

(Yandow) “We also forecast that Megabucks would decline about 20 to 25 percent, and it’s on the high end. It’s around 25 percent now that it has declined.”

(Zind) The Tri-State Megabucks game is played in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. Powerball amasses jackpots sometimes in excess of $50 million. With much smaller Megabucks jackpots, there’s been a flight of players to the bigger game. Yandow says it’s likely lottery players will continue to move away from Megabucks.

(Yandow) “We don’t expect the jackpots to be as high, but the odds of winning them are much better than a game like Powerball. With the state of Maine now looking at getting into Powerball, that’s going to affect Megabucks even more.”

(Zind) Maine and Massachusetts are the only New England states that don’t belong to Powerball. Maine’s governor recently came out in favor of his state joining the game. Yandow says while there may be some changes to the Megabucks game, there are no plans to retire it.

For Vermont Public Radio, I’m Steve Zind.

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