Are you buying fewer Florida Lottery tickets? Sales take a hit, here's why

The Florida Lottery 's 12-year string of record-breaking sales, which peaked at approximately $9.8 billion in tickets sold in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, may finally break in 2024, according to state economists.

The News Service of Florida reported that ticket sales dropped to $9.417 billion during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30. The total was $132.5 million less than expected.

That makes four years in a row when Florida Lottery ticket sales topped $9 billion, pushed by a series of large Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots. But, according to the News Service, economists expect sales to drop below $9 billion for the next three years.

Saba Igbal, senior economist in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office, said a drop-off in scratch-off sales after a pandemic surge is partially responsible.

"Especially last year, probably as people now have to spend more on kind of the necessities, as things are kind of more expensive," Igbal said at an Aug. 8 meeting of a panel of economists known as the Revenue Estimating Conference. "So, we've seen the ticket sales kind of start to come down to reflect that.”

Lottery sales are projected to decrease to $8.778 billion in the current 2024-2025 fiscal year, which started July 1, the News Service said. Sales are forecast to slowly return above $9 billion by 2028.

Florida Lottery by the numbers

The 2023-2024 annual report has not yet been released by the Florida Lottery. Here are the numbers to know from the 2022-2023 report . As of June 30, 2023:

• $ 146 billion: Revenues from ticket sales since the Florida Lottery began in 1987
• More than $9 billion: Amount of ticket sales in last four fiscal years (2021: $9.08 billion; 2022: $9.32 billion; 2023: $9.8 billion; 2024: $9.417 billion)
• $44 billion: Amount of ticket sales revenue transferred to education
• $2.45 billion: Sales transferred to education in 2023
• Over $7 billion: Revenue from scratch-off games for 2021-2022 and 2022-2023
• 72%: Percentage of total sales that went to scratch-off games last year
• 1,291: Number of scratch-off games introduced since 1987
• 38: Approximate number of new scratch-off games currently launched every year

Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida, contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Are you buying fewer Florida Lottery tickets? Sales take a hit, here's why