Illinois online lottery off to slow start
Daily sales remain in five figures despite record $0.5bn jackpot in play
Illinois’ foray into online lottery ticket sales has seen moderate success in its first week, racking up sales of US$425,000 in its first five days of operation.
When its system went live on Sunday morning, the state became the first in the US to launch online lottery ticket sales since the US justice Department relaxed its anti-online gaming stance in December.
The launch coincides with a record jackpot of $540m in tonight’s Mega Millions, yet the 80,000 customers who have registered to buy online tickets are a long way off the one million players that research suggested are out there.
According to Illinois lottery officials, it took just three minutes for the first online lottery ticket to sell once the system went live. However opening day sales brought in just $15,000, and daily sales remain in five figures. Retail sales regularly top $3m a day.
Illinois’ lottery superintendent, Michael Jones, described the online offering on Illinois news source stltoday.com as a “work in progress”.