Iowa Lottery CEO Matt Strawn says the first month of the new fiscal year is starting with a little momentum.
“It’s been a strong start to fiscal ’26. I don’t have final edited figures, but I do know that gross lottery sales for July of 2025 ran slightly ahead of last July’s performance,” he says. Strawn says scratch tickets have remained strong, including a ticket celebrating the Lottery’s 40th anniversary.
Sales of national lotto tickets have not been producing large jackpots, but Strawn says Powerball is now above 500 million.
“So that’s the first jackpot we’ve had of that size I think in this calendar year. So I’ll be curious to see how that unfolds relative to not just sales, but jackpot growth,” Strawn says. The Powerball jackpot is at an estimated 605 million dollars for tonight’s drawing.
The other big lotto game continues to struggle. “We’ve seen some challenges with Mega Millions and I think some of that, you know, is the summer. People are focused on getting ready to get kids back to school and other activities,” Strawn says. So you know, we’ll see what we’ll see, what the next few months bring.”
Iowa Lottery sales in the last fiscal year that ended June 30th were down 11.2% from the previous record fiscal year record. The record year saw five separate lotto game jackpots that exceed one billion dollars.
