STATE HOUSE, BOSTON…….A dip in instant ticket sales dented the Massachusetts Lottery’s numbers for November but the commission plans to introduce a fresh set of tickets in the new year, including one with the largest top prize the lottery has ever offered for a crossword-style instant ticket.
Executive Director Mark William Bracken told the Lottery Commission November sales totaled $448.5 million, down $6.9 million or 1.5% from November 2024. It was partly due to a $17.5 million or 5.8% drop in instant ticket sales. So far this fiscal year, instant ticket sales are down $35.4 million or 2.2% from last fiscal year.
Instant tickets are a traditional driver of sales at the lottery, where profits are steered by the state back to Massachusetts cities and towns as a form of local aid.
Kate Sutton, the commission’s instant ticket product manager, also unveiled the instant tickets that are set to launch Jan. 6, including the lottery’s first $30 crossword-style or “cashword” ticket with a $10 million top prize, the highest the lottery has offered for a cashword. There will also be tickets available for $1 with a $10,000 top prize, $2 with a $100,000 top prize, $5 with a $1 million top prize and $10 with a $4 million top prize.
Estimated profits for November – not including accruals for prizes that were won but not paid yet – were $82.6 million compared with $125.6 million in November 2024, Bracken said. After adjusting for a shift in the calendar, November profits dropped $22.3 million compared to November 2024. The estimated payout for the month was 73.46%, up from the 70.47% payout in November 2024.
Bracken said estimated profits for the first five months of fiscal year 2026 are $446.3 million – not including accruals for prizes that were won but not paid yet – up from $435.4 million recorded in the same period last year. After accounting for a calendar shift, the lottery’s profit for the fiscal year so far is an estimated $13.8 million increase over last year, boosted in part by a $59.3 million or 154.4% rise in Powerball sales. The payout so far for the year is 74.35% compared with 74.79% last year.
Overall sales for the first five months of fiscal 2026 hit just under $2.5 billion and are up $23.5 million or 1%, Bracken said.
Treasurer Deb Goldberg told state budget writers this month that the lottery is on track to turn a net profit of $1.05 billion for fiscal 2026. Fiscal year 2025 marked the fifth straight year the lottery brought in more than $1 billion in profits. Online lottery offerings are launching next summer through the iLottery, which is expected to bring in $70 million in net profits during the first year and reach almost $360 million in a decade.
Lucky for Life, which is set to be replaced in February, brought in $19.8 million in sales so far in fiscal year 2026, down $500,000, or 2.5%, from last year.
