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The Virginia Lottery is making history, as the state became the first in the country to have its online ticket sales bring in more money than the retail store ticket sales!
An online boom
Virginia happens to be one of the more recent states in the country to have launched an iLottery. However, the platform is thriving, as online sales have surpassed the retail channel for fiscal year 2024.
The Virginia Lottery announced they had $5.52 billion in total sales for FY2024. While it has not officially released its annual report, Bonus.com reports that over $3 billion of those sales came through from online sales.
Based on those numbers, about 55% of the money collected through sales for the Virginia Lottery between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, came from players purchasing them online. According to a Virginia Lottery spokesperson, John Hagerty, this is the first time a state lottery in the United States has seen online sales surpass retail sales.
Keep in mind that most other state lotteries report gross revenue — ticket sales minus payouts. However, the Virginia Lottery reports their actual sales figures, so you can't fully make a direct comparison between Virginia and other states.
Online sales in Virginia
The iLottery was launched in 2021 for Virginia. In doing so, they became the seventh state in the United States to offer a full suite of online options, including e-Instants. Since they launched, we have also seen North Carolina join the mix and Kansas should join the club in 2025.
Ever since its launch in 2021, online lottery sales in Virginia have grown. They grew about 70% annually for the first two years and by 40% from fiscal year 2023 to 2024, Bonus.com reported. During that same time, retail sales have remained stagnant, averaging between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion annually.
Other online lottery revenue
We first saw online lotteries make an appearance in 2012. The first states to kick it off were Georgia and Illinois. The states that offer online lottery sales have seen rapid growth and consistent growth across the board.
The only state that hasn't seen consistent growth is Michigan, which has seen its online instant sales suffering since the state started allowing online casinos to launch in 2021.
While these online lotteries are showing rapid growth, it seems most are still second choice compared to retail sales. Bonus.com says if the growth does continue, these online lottery products could begin to rival the retail sales in most states within a decade. Other states are showing less than 10% of gross lottery revenue coming from online sales, hence why the 10-year projection.
As stated earlier, there is no direct comparison between Virginia and other states since most states don't report their sales figures. However, Bonus.com said Kentucky may have beaten Virginia to more online sales. Their online lottery had $394 million in revenue for fiscal year 2023, which works out to be 21.4% of the total revenue for the lottery. This could equate to more than 50% of the sales, but there is no exact data to say.
Enjoy playing the Virginia Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.
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