Ontario Lottery and Gaming sees sharp drop in 6/49, Lotto Max sales

It's the luck of the draw.

Figures in the new annual report from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) show a sharp drop in sales of Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49tickets, translating into lower-than-expected revenue for Ontario government coffers.

Combined with a small drop in sales of scratch-and-win tickets, OLG's total lottery revenues were $259.7 million lower than budgeted for in the2014-15 fiscalyear, according to the corproation'sannual report, which was made public Tuesday.

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OLG is blaming the lottery-sales slump on its own bad luck: buyers won jackpots more frequently than expected, preventing the prizes from rising week after week to the high levels that attract huge ticket sales.

Sales of Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 dropped $167.5 millionfrom theprevious fiscal year, That works out to a drop of11.9 per cent.

OLG's annual report attributes the drop to"a marked reduction in the number ofhighervalue jackpot draws." Lotto Max only hit the $50 million mark nine times in 2014/15, compared to 17 times the previous year.

The province's gambling agency says ticket sales increase during what it calls "rolls" stretches of time when jackpots are not wonand therefore increase in size.

"Lottery performance for fiscal 2014-15 was negatively impactedby fewer rolls for Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49,"reads the report. "Customers tend to wager less when the jackpot is at or near its base level."

Fewmillennialsbuylottery tickets

OLG is also frustrated by what it calls a"demographic challenge"millennials aren't buying lottery tickets like their elders.

"Even though about 45 per cent of adult Ontariansplay the lottery regularly, only seven per cent of adults under 35 years of age play the lottery at least once a week," says the report.

Its would-be solution: make it easier to buy lottery tickets.

"OLG'scurrent terminal technology limitswhere paper-based lottery tickets can be sold and is not suited to adapt to current shopping patterns," says the report.OLGwants to expandticket sales to what it calls "multi-lane retailers, such as supermarketsand big box stores where lottery tickets can be purchased at multiple checkouts."

With OLG's revenues from casinos and slots added to the lottery takings, the corporationpaid $2.043billion to the province of Ontario, down 1.6 per centfrom the 2013-14 figure of $2.077 billion.