Lottery revenues are at an all-time excessive. Right here’s the place the cash’s going.

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The state lottery paid out greater than $1 billion to Massachusetts cities and cities in fiscal 2023.

This previous fiscal 12 months has been the Massachusetts State Lottery’s most worthwhile, ever. Between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, the lottery pulled in over $6 billion in revenues and netted an estimated $1.2 billion in revenue. So, the place does all that cash go?

An estimated $4.4 billion went to prize payouts — one other all-time excessive for the state. 

Lottery retailers, who get a fee and bonus after they promote a profitable ticket, earned $350 million.

After payouts, commissions, and administrative bills, the lottery’s leftover revenue — totaling $1.2 billion in fiscal 2023 — will get paid out to the 351 Massachusetts cities and cities in unrestricted help. 

“Because of our clients, our workers and our statewide retail companions, we’ve returned record-setting funding to our native communities,” Mark William Bracken, the Mass Lottery’s govt director, stated in a launch.

That cash helps hold communities operating by funding native infrastructure enhancements, snow elimination, faculty providers, or any variety of different tasks. 

The lottery tracks how a lot cash it sends to every metropolis and city within the Commonwealth annually. Greater than $219 million went to Boston in fiscal 2023; Worcester bought over $48 million; and Springfield was awarded virtually $44 million.

The unprecedented income had been pushed by tantalizing jackpots and voracious on the spot ticket gross sales, the lottery reported. Mega Hundreds of thousands and Powerball ticket gross sales each rose dramatically final fiscal 12 months — by 116% and 31%, respectively — as gamers angled for a number of billion-dollar jackpots. And Bay Staters bought round $4 billion value of on the spot tickets – one other document – after the lottery launched a brand new $50 on the spot ticket.