01/20/2026 - JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
A new report from Missouri State Auditor Scott
Fitzpatrick shows increased spending for advertising for the state's Lottery
program has coincided with a reduction in the amount of money transferred to
education. The new report gives the Missouri State Lottery Commission (Lottery)
a "good" rating while noting additional trend analysis is needed to
determine if continued advertising for lottery purposes is effective in driving
lottery sales.
The report follows a 2023 report that
found lottery proceeds increased significantly even as funding for the
Lottery's advertising budget diminished significantly. The previous report
found the advertising budget decreased by approximately $16.7 million from 2018
to 2023 while transfers of Lottery proceeds to education increased by more than
$53 million in the same period of time. The report released today found a
significant increase in advertising expenditures of approximately $5 million
for Fiscal Year 2024 but saw total revenue generated by the Lottery decrease by
more than $49 million and transfers to education decrease by more than $18
million.
"The amount of money generated by
the Lottery for our system of public education is the best way to gauge whether
the program is succeeding. In this case we've seen transfers to education
increase while advertising budgets were nearly non-existent and then seen
transfers diminish when the advertising budget was increased significantly. I
realize there are a number of factors at play when looking at these trends, but
the information in our report should be
helpful to lawmakers as they determine the amount they want to appropriate for advertising
in the coming fiscal year," said Auditor Fitzpatrick.
According
to national lottery data, Missouri's fiscal year 2024 advertising budget of
0.31 percent of sales ranks 44th out of the 46 states that sponsor a lottery.
For Fiscal Year 2023, the Lottery had an advertising budget of 0.02 percent of
sales, which was the smallest advertising budget of any of the 45 states (plus
the District of Columbia) that sponsor a lottery.
Lottery officials indicated the
changes in advertising expenditures are not the only factor that affects
lottery sales, and multiple other factors can play a substantial role in
lottery sales. According to Lottery officials, the size of the national jackpots
are a significant factor for lottery sales, with jackpots greater than $500
million drawing more media attention and generating more revenue. The report
found total lottery jackpots for the national jackpot games that Missouri
participates in increased by 33% in fiscal year 2024 compared to fiscal year
2023. However, draw game ticket sales and overall lottery revenues stayed
essentially the same, only decreasing slightly in fiscal year 2024.
The complete audit of the Missouri
State Lottery Commission can be found here.
