At almost the same time they announced that the PA Lottery achieved almost $1.2 billion in 2021-22 fiscal year revenue — a drop from the prior year — lottery officials reported the first Pennsylvanian in more than four years had won the Powerball jackpot.
Lottery officials held a special event at the Sheetz store in New Stanton, Westmoreland County, Monday morning to give its operator a $100,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket worth $206.9 million from last Wednesday’s drawing. Officials have not identified a winner from that Aug. 3 Powerball drawing, when one ticket matched all five white balls drawn (9-21-56-57-66) and the red Powerball 11.
The Powerball jackpot had been building nationwide since someone last won on June 29. In Pennsylvania, the last such win was in March 2018, when a winning $456.7 million ticket was sold in Lancaster County.
Drop had been expected from record year
Lottery officials reported last week that the year from July 2021 to June 2022 represented the second-best in terms of sales and profits in the Pennsylvania Lottery’s 50-year history. Operating revenue reached $1.3 billion in 2020-21.
According to the lottery’s press release, “The 2021-22 fiscal year followed the all-time record fiscal year of 2020-21, when an extraordinary 20 percent growth rate greatly eclipsed the Lottery’s projections. As a result, it was anticipated that sales and profit for the 2021-22 fiscal year would decline slightly.”
Still, it was the 11th consecutive year that more than $1 billion was raised by lottery sales to benefit senior citizen programs like property tax and rent rebates, free transportation, and reduced prescription drug costs.
Among key statistics noted in the lottery’s annual report for 2021-22:
- Scratch-off sales totaling $3.5 billion were down 6.5% from the prior year.
- Total online play of $746.5 million was off 15.8% from the year before.
- The more than $1.3 billion in combined online and in-store sales of draw games – which include both state games and the big national drawings for Powerball and Mega Millions – was 3.6% less than in 2020-21.
- Sales through the monitor games of Keno and Xpress Sports in venues such as bars and restaurants totaled $55.7 million, a 1.5% increase.
- Total prizes paid out to players added up to $3.37 billion from just over $5 billion in sales.
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