TRENTON (July 20, 2023) – The New Jersey Lottery Commission held its July Commission meeting today and announced its unaudited results for the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) that ended June 30. Sales for the year totaled $3.72 billion, the highest in Lottery history.

As of June 30, the Lottery has contributed $1.13 billion in profits to the State for FY23. This is the largest contribution in Lottery history. The Lottery has contributed over $1 billion in profits to the State every year since FY18. The Lottery’s sales and the contribution to the pension system are unaudited and preliminary. The Lottery expects the total contribution to the State to increase slightly after the Lottery’s financial audit is completed later this year.

Governor Phil Murphy has made the state pension system an administration priority and with the Lottery’s contribution has bolstered the plan to restore fiscal health. The State’s total contribution in Fiscal Year 2023 to the pension system of $6.82 billion includes the nearly $1.13 billion contributed by the Lottery. FY23 marks the second consecutive year that the State will meet 100 percent of the Actuarially Determined Contribution. With the FY23 payment, the Murphy Administration is responsible for nearly 68 percent of State pension contributions since FY95.

“The New Jersey Lottery plays a very important role in the fiscal condition of the State of New Jersey and is crucial to fully funding the pension benefits that have been promised to teachers, police officers, and other public servants,” said Lottery Executive Director James A. Carey. “We had a great year, particularly the multistate games Powerball and Mega Millions, which both had billion dollar plus jackpots. But we also know that many of our New Jersey-only games were down slightly and we have more work to do.”

The record sales were driven primarily by Mega Millions, which had sales of $293.65 million, a 99.4 percent increase compared to last year. Powerball had sales of $308.62 million, a 28.1 percent increase over the previous year. Both multistate games had several huge jackpots that increased sales. These records offset decreases in some New Jersey-only games. Scratch-offs sales exceeded $2 billion for the third year in a row, but were down slightly compared to last year. Pick-3 and Pick-4, the classic numbers games and important parts of the Lottery’s portfolio of games, were both down approximately 8 percent compared to last year. Jersey Cash 5 had sales of $137.19 million, but was down 12.9 percent compared to last year. The Lottery is considering several creative avenues to attract new players to these games.

New Jersey Lottery players took home $2.23 billion in prizes, and 236 players won more than $100,000, including 56 people who won $1 million or more. This group includes the $9.8 million Pick-6 winner, the largest single winner of the year.

Retailers were also once again big winners. The almost 7,000 Lottery retailers, comprised mostly of small businesses, earned more than $200 million in commissions and an additional $2.7 million in bonuses. Lottery Executive Director Carey specifically thanked them, noting that “the Lottery’s network of retailers are our most important partner in the day-to-day operations of the Lottery.”

The Lottery's sales and marketing vendor, Northstar New Jersey Lottery Group, met the performance targets that are used to calculate an incentive payment. The calculation of the incentive payment will not be finalized until the Lottery's financial audit is completed.

The Lottery is the State's fifth largest revenue producer benefiting the residents of New Jersey. Since its inception in 1970, the Lottery has contributed over $32 billion to the State, helping to support many worthwhile programs and services. Lottery profits currently help bolster the public employee pension system for teachers, police, fire personnel and other public employees under a 30-year agreement signed into law in 2017.