2014 is going to be the fifth successful year in a row for the California Lottery. The company reported that it managed to surpass the $5 billion mark in sales for the first time in its history.
The increase in revenue has been steady for the past five years, with a 13% for 2013, setting record high earnings. The company pronounced itself to be one with the highest, if not the highest, growth in the industry nationwide. The successful fiscal year brought profits from sales of Scratchers, Powerball and Mega Millions. Sales from Micro Millions have brought more than $420 million in revenue.
The Reasons for the Success of California Lottery
Thanks to the growth of this industry, local higher education and schools have received more than a billion dollars. The director of the company, Paula LaBrie, stated that despite the considerable financing that local schools had received, her company intended to become even more focused on helping schools and students.
More than a thousand schools will receive funding from the Lottery of California.
There are other reasons for the unprecedented success as well. There were changes in the regulations which allowed the company to increase its jackpot prizes, offering much higher prize pools. California Lottery has also brought new features, which increased the chance of players to win higher jackpot prizes.
Players can choose whether they want to get an additional $1 fee, which gives them the chance to win an additional $5-million prize instead of just the standard $1-million one. The preliminary jackpot was therefore increased by $3 million, raising the minimum jackpot as well. In 2013, more than $21 million in prizes did not find their winner.
The economic recovery of the State has also helped to increase ticket sales. Similar to poker, lottery gamblers like to test their luck to win a life-changing sum of money overnight.
The California Lottery processed more than a billion dollars of tickets, and other services during the last fourteen years. A representative of the company, Mr. Alex Traverso, stated that the bigger the prize pools were, the more people tried their luck and played for the big winnings.
The company stated that its success was mainly due to its sales and marketing plans, which had been focused on long-term growth, loyalty and brand awareness.
Its Strategic Growth Plan underlines the main steps and goals, which will used to guide the company in the upcoming three years. Some of the steps the Lottery has taken include the launch of a Scratchers ticket, improvement of the Second Chance Program, new features to the Host Spot game and others.
The company has launched a number of social network brand awareness and advertising campaigns, in order to attract new customers and to strengthen the existing ones.
The newly released Powerball jackpot is coming close to the staggering $600 million. The prize money of California Lottery are record-breaking. For example, in 2012, the Mega Millions jackpot was won by a wager who went home with more than $650 million.
