Florida scratch-off sales may be down, but millionaire winners keep going strong

Financial reports for fiscal year 2023-2024 show a decline in scratch-off ticket sales for the Florida Lottery. Despite those reports, lottery officials have recently announced 17 lucky scratch-off players who have claimed $1 million or more!

The lucky winners

Since October 11, 2024, lottery officials in Florida have shared the good news of 17 players who have won $1 million or more playing scratch-off games in the state. Scratch-off sales may be down, but the winning is still going strong.

Those 17 lucky winners and the tickets they purchased were:

• October 11 - Artolino De Castro of Fort Myers claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. He purchased the winning ticket from 7-Eleven, located at 15261 Convenience Way in Fort Myers.
• October 11 - Clifford Rogers of Orlando claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Circle K, located at 2704 South Ferncreek Avenue in Orlando.
• October 14 - Nasser Delgado of Miami claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Kendale Service Center, Inc., located at 13700 Southwest 56th Street in Miami.
• October 14 - Sandra Kelley of Port Charlotte claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket from Publix, located at 4265 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte.
• October 15 - Lola Douglas of Marianna claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket from Beline 639, located at 4678 Highway 90 in Marianna.
• October 15 - Angel Colon of Plant City claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket from Publix, located at 775 Highway 559 in Auburndale.
• October 16 - Charles Dennison of Jacksonville claimed a $1 million prize from the GOLD RUSH LEGACY scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Winn-Dixie, located at 5647 Roosevelt Boulevard in Jacksonville.
• October 16 - Shawandra Nichols of Clearwater claimed a $1 million prize from the $1,000,000 A YEAR FOR LIFE SPECTACULAR scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket from Walmart, located at 1803 North Highland Avenue in Clearwater.
• October 17 - Corbblin Dixon of Orlando claimed a $1 million prize from the 500X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Publix, located at 2873 South Orange Avenue in Orlando.
• October 18 - Lina Johnson of Palm Beach Gardens claimed a $1 million prize from the 500X THE CASH scratch-off game. She purchased her winning ticket from Stop Wise, located at 9762 Gardens East Drive in Palm Beach Gardens.
• October 18 - Charles Grissett of Spring Hill claimed a $1 million prize from the FLORIDA 300X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Publix, located at 9595 Commercial Way in Weeki Wachee.
• October 21 - Edwin Scroggin of White Springs claimed a $1 million prize from the FLORIDA 300X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Winn-Dixie, located at 580 South Marion Street in Lake City.
• October 21 - James Muckenthaler of Apollo Beach claimed a $2 million top prize from the 100X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from 7-Eleven, located at 13220 US Highway 301 South in Riverview.
• October 22 - Jeremy Smith of Lillian, Alabama, claimed a $2 million prize from the TRIPLE 777 scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from CEFCO Convenience Store, located at 5330 Gulf Breeze Parkway in Gulf Breeze.
• October 22 - Hubert Wilkerson of Summer Field claimed a $1 million prize from the 500X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Publix, located at 8780 South East 165th Mulberry Lane in The Villages.
• October 23 - Larry Hamilton of Kissimmee claimed a $1 million prize from the 500X THE CASH scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from KK Food Mart, located at 4275 New Tampa Highway in Lakeland.
• October 23 - William Palm of Port Charlotte claimed a $1 million top prize from the MILLIONAIRE MAKER scratch-off game. He purchased his winning ticket from Winn-Dixie, located at 3280 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte.

Ticket sales down in FY23-24

While the Florida Lottery reported ticket sales of over $9 billion for the fourth consecutive year, it did see a decline in scratch-off sales this past year. For the 2023-24 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2024, ticket sales were at $9.42 billion.

This number is down from $9.8 billion in sales during the previous fiscal year. It also was $132.5 million less than lottery officials were anticipating.

What is causing this decline in sales?

Scratch-off games play a huge part in the lottery's portfolio of games. Officials say they compromise about 74% of ticket sales in fiscal year 2023-2024.

However, there was a 6% drop in scratch-off tickets sales in 2023-34. Saba Igbal, senior economist in Gov. Ron DeSantis' office, discussed this drop in sales during a meeting of a panel of economists known as the Revenue Estimating Conference in August, according to the News Service of Florida.

During the conference, Igbal said:

It's kind of the story around COVID, the time of COVID, we saw the ticket sales really start to increase. So, people were kind of playing a lot more. And then in recent years, we've seen that kind of start to decline a little bit. Especially last year, probably as people now have to spend more on kind of the necessities, as things are kind of more expensive. So, we've seen the ticket sales kind of start to come down to reflect that.

Why the increase in big winners, then?

While it seems like there has been a surge in winners recently, it seems like the reason for 17 winners since October 11 is because of a backlog in announcing the winners.

LotteryUSA.com spoke with lottery officials, who said they have to wait 90 days to announce the winners. They added that they had a backlog of winners and now have a better system in place to announce these winners, which is why we have seen an increase in the winner announcements recently.

While the winners may not have all happened recently, it still is a good sign for players since 17 lucky winners have won $1 million or more recently.

Enjoy playing the Florida Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.