Sixteen months from now, Massachusetts online lottery players may be making iLottery ticket sales history. That’s because the Bay State, known for having the highest ticket sales per person among US lotteries, will begin selling online tickets around Thanksgiving 2025.
The Lottery announced on July 29 that online lottery sales will launch after it finds a service provider via a fair bidding procedure that’s expected to be complete in 16 months. The Massachusetts State Lottery is offering the new service because Gov. Maura Healey signed the iLottery into law along with the rest of the state budget.
The Lottery Executive Director Mark William Bracken said:
We are ready and prepared to offer our players a modern lottery experience in a safe and accessible environment. At the same time, the Lottery is unwavering in its commitment to our dedicated retail partners who have helped us become the most successful lottery in the country.
Unlike retail sales available to anyone 18 or older, iLottery players must be at least 21.
Why Massachusetts iLottery Sales May Be High
Massachusetts houses 7 million residents but ranks No. 1 in lottery ticket sales per person. In 2021, The Lottery saw $970 a year in lottery ticket sales per capita, “more than double any other state,” according to The Motley Fool Ascent.
Jack Caporal, the research director for The Motley Fool and The Motley Fool Ascent, continued in his March 7, 2024, article:
Massachusetts, despite its relatively small population, had the fifth-highest lottery revenue [in 2021]: $[5].8 billion. Massachusetts Lottery Executive Director Mark William Bracken has suggested that one reason the Bay State may punch above its weight, in terms of lottery sales, is due to residents of neighboring states hopping across the border into Massachusetts to take advantage of bigger payouts for the same prices they would pay in their home state.
Massachusetts residents also have among the highest median household incomes in the country, which means they may have more disposable income to spend on lottery tickets.
In 2021, the median household income in Massachusetts was $89,026; which, according to LendingTree, was 29% higher than the national figure of $69,021.
The state topping the charts by volume of lottery ticket sales, Florida, is filled with 23 million residents.
Caporal says while Florida’s lottery ticket sales in 2021 far surpassed those in Massachusetts, its $8.6 billion in receipts divides into $385 spent on tickets by each Floridian that year.
Meanwhile, in Fiscal Year 2024, The Lottery reached an all-time high in sales revenue. State Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg announced on July 30 that the total of $6.165 billion beat the previous year’s revenue by $17 million.
[Author’s note: I changed Caporal’s 2021 total in the quote because Massachusetts State Lottery Commission (MSLC) records show Fiscal Year 2021 saw $5.8 billion, not $6.8 billion in revenue.]
Massachusetts Mulled iLottery for Years
Even though some states worked to add iLottery during the pandemic, Massachusetts had already been thinking about legalizing online lottery sales for years.
Michigan was years ahead of the game, launching iLottery in 2014. However, the Wolverine State saw the full benefits of doing so during the pandemic.
I reported for Bonus in August 2023:
iLottery sales in Michigan rose 88% during the year-over-year period ending in September 2020. So during the height of the pandemic, the Michigan Lottery experienced an 8% bump in sales. In total, lottery ticket sales reached $4.2 billion.
In June 2016, Steve Ruddock reported for Bonus that the Massachusetts Senate was considering an iLottery bill.
Even in 2016, Ruddock found:
The effort to modernize and expand the state’s lottery has been several years in the making.
On July 29, Massachusetts finally had an online lottery law in place.
Implementing online lotteries can indeed take years, even in states eager to implement them.
Connecticut simultaneously legalized online casino, poker, sports betting, and iLottery. While Connecticut iGaming launched in October 2021, the iLottery debuted on desktop and iOS mobile apps on July 1. The CT Lottery promised an Android app would arrive in July. However, Bonus didn’t see one in Google Play on July 30.
Meanwhile, Ruddock now writes the gaming industry insight newsletter Straight to the Point.
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