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Massachusetts State Lottery eyes sales lift with fresh set of new instant games, here are the details
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.
