Editorial: Online presence gives Lottery equal digital playing field

State Treasurer Deb Goldberg’s wish has finally come true.

After years of lobbying, cajoling – virtually pleading – state lawmakers to give the Lottery an online presence, the fiscal 2025 budget signed by Gov. Maura Healey does just that.

It won’t happen overnight – it will take about 16 months to get the online platform up and running.

But that eventuality must warm the treasurer’s heart, whose office oversees that local-aid cash cow.

When the “iLottery” goes online, it will be available to players 21 and older, instead of the minimum age of 18 for sales in stores.

But unlike the revenue from the legacy Lottery, the proceeds from online lottery ticket sales will support early childhood education and care.

And the fiscal 2024 results indicate that at least for the time being, the traditional Lottery remains a money-making machine.

Lottery players received the most prize money in history during the recently concluded fiscal year, even as the state agency logged another round of record-setting revenues, officials said Tuesday.

The Lottery racked up an estimated $6.165 billion in sales revenue in fiscal 2024, up from the $6.148 billion in revenue it logged in fiscal 2023.

But it’s the Lottery’s future that Goldberg sought to ensure with this online presence.

“This will allow the Lottery to keep pace with its competition and reach newer audiences,” Goldberg said in a statement. “We are prepared to implement a safe and reliable iLottery that will produce significant resources for critical childcare services, which are so desperately needed across the state.”

Signs that the Lottery had finally convinced Beacon Hill dealmakers that it was time to go online have circulated for the past few months.

Healey’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal included $75 million in projected revenue from authorizing online Lottery sales.

And the House’s budget proposal also included an online Lottery authorization.

Though the Lottery has pushed for an online option for years, it took the rise of legalized gambling at casinos and online sports betting to finally make it a reality.

Lottery Executive Director Mark William Bracken said as much at the March launch of the “Jaws”-themed scratch ticket.

“It’s interesting… it’s called an instant ticket, you should be able to get that ticket instantly,” Bracken told MassLive on that occasion.

“If we had an online Lottery, we’d be able to do what they call ‘e-instant’ tickets… the instant ticket really isn’t ‘instant’ anymore. What’s instant now is being able to place your wager on a sports bet, on fantasy sports, on your phone from one of these gaming platform apps,” Bracken said.

And despite the fact that almost 70% of respondents to a poll in March said they’d bought “a scratch or Lottery ticket” over the last year, the Lottery’s report on February activity showed a $41.1 million decline in scratch ticket sales compared to February 2023.

Bracken blamed that slippage on several factors, but none more significant than the ease of making a sports wager online.

Not everyone shares the Lottery’s enthusiasm with this turn of events.

Some opponents, primarily retail outlets that rely on walk-in business, say it will dramatically impact mom and pop stores’ bottom lines.

This coordinated resistance by retailers contributed to lawmakers’ past reluctance to approve an online Lottery.

“We are not happy that the state will be competing against stores for lottery sales in a way that removes in-person traffic,” the Massachusetts Packages Stores Association said in a written statement.

“There was no need for this and it will do damage to retail who are already hurting due to people spending less.”

Far from hurting retail sales, the State Lottery sees potential benefits for brick-and-mortar stores.

“If you look at the states that have implemented iLottery, the retail sales have continued to grow,” said Christian Teja, director of communications for the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission.

He indicated the Lottery app would offer customers incentives to frequent retail stores, by encouraging them to spend their discretionary income there as well.

And with the graying of retail Lottery players, this online option will tap an overlooked market – younger players who’ve grown up in the digital age.

There will also be provisions to discourage gambling addiction, things otherwise not available at retail stores.

“The advantages of iLottery is that people can impose limits; we can impose limits; people can self-exclude when they want to take a break,” Teja said.

The Lottery – which over the last several years has delivered approximately $1 billion annually in unrestricted local aid to the state’s 351 cities and towns – definitely needed another outlet in order to sustain that cash flow.

And if lawmakers didn’t believe that a digital platform could create another revenue stream while still maintaining its traditional retail sales volume, it’s doubtful the Legislature would have given its approval.

The Lottery has generated over $155 billion in revenue and $109 billion in prizes over the last 50-plus years.

And this ability to offer games online will help continue that amazing run for the foreseeable future.