Betting on the NH Lottery

Fewer people have been scratching those lottery tickets lately, which means less money coming in for funding education. In Fiscal Year 2006, the lottery generated $80.4 million for education aid and has been steadily declining since, generating an estimated $66.1 million in FY 2010. To attract more players and get retailers more excited about promoting the lottery, the NH Lottery Commission has not only introduced new games, but has also revamped its games to increase the odds of winning, and created new incentives for retailers.

Executive Director Charlie McIntyre, who took over last summer, is the former number-three man at the Massachusetts State Lottery, and has been revamping the Granite State games to generate more revenuethe majority of which goes to education aid. McIntyre started by upping the odds for players of instant tickets. Where 62 cents of each dollar used to go to players in prizes for instant tickets, that number is now 68 cents. The odds of winning are now 1 in 3 for some games.

"It's the classic Wal-Mart approach. You make a smaller margin on more units," he says. "If you want revenues, we have to make it easier for people to win. ... People want to win money. It's not a donation." Instant tickets, unlike Powerball and other games with drawings, have controllable odds.

Lottery players can choose from seven drawings and 48 instant tickets costing between $1 and $30 apiece, about half of which are new. The strategies are working.

December 2010 was the best sales month in three years with $25 million in revenue. McIntyre is also proposing to give retailers a higher commission on sales that exceed the previous year.

McIntyre is focused on getting NH residents currently buying Massachusetts lottery tickets to buy NH tickets instead. "One of the reasons I wanted to take this job is I saw a lot of folks in New Hampshire buying Massachusetts tickets," he says. "They are already buying tickets. Let's get them to buy them here." He says Massachusetts lottery sales are highest at border stores. So why are Granite Staters headed south?

McIntyre thinks a big reason is NH charges a 10 percent tax on winnings, something the Bay State does not, and he's working to get NH to drop that. For more information, visit www.nhlottery.org.