As reported by CBS Baltimore, lottery sales in Maryland have seen an increase of over 20% in recent weeks when compared to the same period last year despite the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Revealed by Gordon Medenica, the state’s lottery and gaming director, earlier in the week during a virtual House Ways and Means Committee meeting, the figures show that lottery sales have been higher than 2019 every week since May 10, with four of the past five weeks seeing an increase of over 20%.
The recent increased spike follows the near 30% sales plunge that befell the lottery in March following the stay-at-home orders which were given resulting in business closures across the country.
The lottery and gaming director stated: “We were still up even that first week in March, and then we just started seeing the bottom fall out. Sales were going down 20%, 25%, 30%, and we really didn’t know where the bottom would be. Obviously we lost some of our retail base but also people weren’t going out, they weren’t driving, they weren’t visiting the gas stations.
“Our theory at this point is that there really is just no place for people to spend some discretionary entertainment dollars, there are no movies, there are no sports there are no concerts, there are no bars and restaurants.”
As a result of the recent spike, lottery officials have predicted that the fiscal year will end with $583m in profit, up $12m from a December 2019 forecast, and sizable improvement from the $50m deficit that was predicted at the back end of April.
Despite the recent bounceback of lottery sales, Medenica did reveal that the same could not be said for the casino vertical, with the director expecting the decrease in casino revenue to become a long-term issue.