The Maryland Lottery is placing the Massachusetts Lottery squarely in its sights. Ranking ninth in the nation’s lotteries, Maryland is gunning for the Bay State, which has the highest payout percentages in the U.S. and whose sales exceeds that of much larger states: billion a year. Maryland’s sales were billion last year.
That works out to be $765 per person. The nearest competitor in terms of sales, Georgia, has a per capita sales of $446.
Maryland Lottery director Gordon Medenica told the Baltimore Sun, “Everybody looks at Massachusetts as kind of the gold standard, and a lot of their performance is instant tickets, or scratch-offs.” He added, “Nobody has been able to actually replicate the Massachusetts success.”
Maryland’s per capita sales were $317, according to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, placing it behind Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington D.C., South Carolina, Pennsylvania and, of course, Massachusetts. Way, way, way out of their league are California, Florida and New York, because of their high populations.
Nevertheless, Maryland IS in the top ten. Medenica said, “We can identify where we’re strong and where we’re weak.” One weakness is in the number of vendors, 1,300. Its population suggest that it ought to have more.
The director said the goal is to have one retailer every 1,200 population. Which, if it happened, would be 5,000 retailers for the state. Revenue from the lottery is a significant source of tax revenue, behind income, sales and corporate taxes.
Those taxes go to education, the horseracing industry, local government and to help minority and female-owned businesses.
Last year for the first time Maryland’s casinos provided more taxes than the lottery, $592 million compared to $524.9 million.
