Lottery Corp profit drops as punters tighten belts

The operator of Oz Lotto, Powerball and Keno has reported a fall in revenue and profit as consumers tightened their belts and purchased fewer games.

Lottery market is resilient but people playing less.

The Lottery Corporation has reported a decline in first half revenue and profit as consumers tightened their belts amid tough economic times.

The operator of Oz Lotto, Powerball and Keno said revenue dropped 5.6 per cent to $1.8bn and profit before significant items declined 7.4 per cent to $369.7m.

Chief executive Sue van der Merwe says the results demonstrate the strength and resilience of the company’s diversified game portfolio.

Ms van der Merwe said lotteries and scratch its remained low risk in terms of problem gambling. The company grew its active registered customer numbers and held onto most of the gains it made during the large jackpots last year.

“This was delivered against a backdrop of 14 per cent lower division one prize offerings across our three most popular games, and economic pressures that saw consumers increasingly seek value and purchase less frequently,” she said.

Ms van der Merwe said the company was pleased with the success of its new Weekday Windfall lottery game, which was resonating strongly with customers.

Lottery Corporation’s next game refresh would be its Saturday Lotto — its second-largest game — in May that will include increasing the division prize from $5m to $6m.

The change would be accompanied by an increase in the price per game from 75 cents to 85 cents – the first price change to Saturday Lotto in five years.

Ms van der Merwe said Keno continued to perform strongly in hotels and clubs, where its ‘Together We Play’ marketing campaign had “strengthened its position as a social connector.”

“The lotteries market continues to be attractive, delivering uninterrupted, long-term growth, generally ahead of combined population growth and inflation,” she said. “This, together with the strong fundamentals of our business, underpins our ability to generate strong returns for shareholders through the economic cycle.”

Ms van der Merwe said a recent Roy Morgan survey had validated that traditional lottery games such as Powerball, Oz Lotto and Saturday Lotto, and scratch tickets, “are associated with much lower rates of gambling harm than other forms of gambling.”

She said of Australians who only played lotteries and scratch tickets and no other forms of gambling, the incidence of problem gambling harm was less than 0.05 per cent.

”In comparison, the incidence of problem gambling among the population of Australians who participated in any form of gambling is 4.3 per cent,” she said.

The company remained committed to high standards of responsible play, and the introduction of mandatory spend limits for all online Keno players had resulted in a reduced risk.

Originally published as Lottery Corp profit drops as punters tighten belts