New Mexico Lottery Sales Up Almost Six Million Thanks To Jackpots

At a time when most lotteries are trying to come up with any and all innovative ways to try and sell tickets, New Mexico did it the old fashioned way. They built up jackpots and then relied on people's dreams to carry their sales.

The state lottery announced that their sales were up nearly $6 million from last year. That figure was driven mostly because there were some big jackpots that rolled over through the course of the year.

"Without those run-ups, our sales and profit situation would have been completely different," said New Mexico Lottery CEO, Tom Romero. Powerball was one of those jackpots that rolled several times.

The state sold $44.5 million in the past year. That figure is up from the $42.6 million from the year before. Powerball had several jackpots that reached almost to $100 million, and more that went over that figure.

Net ticket sales from the previous year were actually down. They had $148 in net sales last year compared to $147.1 this year. Scratch off tickets broke records for the amount of sales they produced this year.

The state also held a New Year's Eve Raffle that generated $1 million in sales. The rest of the difference in the years was contributed to the amount of payouts from winning tickets.



2008-07-26