State took in record lottery revenues last year, a boost to Education Trust Fund

By ETHAN DEWITT

New Hampshire Bulletin

Published: 08-30-2024 8:05 AM

The New Hampshire Lottery Commission brought in record revenue the past fiscal year — money that will help fuel the state’s Education Trust Fund.

In state fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, New Hampshire took in a total $631 million in sales — a 5 percent increase from the previous year, the commission announced this month.

That came from a surge in popularity for a number of games, including the Tri-State Megabucks, which doubled sales from the previous year, the Powerball, which increased sales by more than 20 percent, and the e-instant game sales, which increased by 25 percent.

In total, $200.7 million of the revenues went into the Education Trust Fund, the state account that pays out adequacy funds for public schools as well as Education Freedom Account vouchers, school construction aid, special education aid, career technical education programs and other education expenses.

The Education Trust Fund is expected to total $1.2 million in state fiscal year 2025, which ends June 2025. Lottery funds are just one of its revenue sources; the fund is also powered by 41 percent of business profits tax and business enterprise tax revenue; the state tax on hotels and housing rentals; the tobacco tax; the real estate transfer tax; and the state utilities tax. 

Since December 2019, when New Hampshire legalized sports betting in the state and gave an exclusive contract to DraftKings to operate online betting, the state has taken in $114.8 million in revenue, according to the commission. It did not specify how much revenue came in from sports betting in the past fiscal year.

State officials hailed this year’s intake by the Lottery Commission, which has operated since 1964.

“At the New Hampshire Lottery, our goal is always to maximize revenue for New Hampshire schools, while providing our players with fun and entertaining games,” said Charlie McIntyre, the executive director of the commission. 

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