Florida Lottery's new Wheel of Fortune scratch-off game sets sales records

Apr 25, 2016, 9:15 am (5 comments)

Florida Lottery

The Florida announced last week that Scratch-Off ticket sales for the newest $5 Scratch-Off game, Wheel of Fortune, exceeded $6.1 million in its first week, setting a record for the highest first week of sales by any game at that price point.

The game also set a record for having the highest single week sales ever for a $5 game, with $7.6 million in sales in its second week, eclipsing the previous record set by $500,000 Gold Rush in 2015 by 10 percent.

"Every new game the Florida Lottery releases is done with our players in mind, and based on these tremendous sales figures, I think we nailed it with this Wheel of Fortune Scratch-Off game," said Florida Lottery Secretary Tom Delacenserie. "When we release a game as successful as Wheel of Fortune, it's not only a win for the Lottery, but more importantly, it's a win for education."

The Scratch-Off sales have resulted in more than $2.59 million being generated for the benefit of Florida students and schools. Six million more Wheel of Fortune Scratch-Off tickets have been ordered after just two weeks of sales, which will bring the total contributions to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund to $16.65 million once the game is sold out.

The new $5 Wheel of Fortune Scratch-Off game launched on April 5 and features eight top prizes of $250,000 and more than $42 million in total cash prizes. Players can also enter non-winning tickets into the Wheel of Fortune Big Money Second Chance Promotion for the chance to play an exclusive, non-broadcast Wheel of Fortune game in Hollywood, CA.

Scratch-Off games are an important part of the Lottery's portfolio of games, comprising approximately 67 percent of ticket sales and generating more than $632 million for the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) in fiscal year 2014-15.

Press Release, Lottery Post Staff

Comments

music*'s avatarmusic*

 Congratulations to the Florida State Lottery and all of the players. Especially the winners!Smile

Bleudog101

Great news for Florida players.  The world's most popular slot machine now in a scratcher, though not from the same company of course.

sully16's avatarsully16

Must be a really fun game, good luck to the players.

canyon

Does anyone know why this game is so successful and Monopoly didn't succeed?  Or is this just due to a new game experience/novelty and will wear off just like Monopoly?  I liked Monopoly scratcher and would have thought it would last for years with the second chance tv show trip and winnings.

Groppo's avatarGroppo

Quote: Originally posted by canyon on Apr 26, 2016

Does anyone know why this game is so successful and Monopoly didn't succeed?  Or is this just due to a new game experience/novelty and will wear off just like Monopoly?  I liked Monopoly scratcher and would have thought it would last for years with the second chance tv show trip and winnings.

Well, I would first ask you, is the Monopoly game exclusive to Florida, like WOF?
Then, if it is NOT, my guess is there are way more people in Florida that play lottery in general.
That's why I would guess WOF has thus far exceeded expectations.  It too has a second chance
component, like your Monopoly game.

In fact, I think this 2nd chance component will become more and more popular all over.

People need new things all the time. They are greedy.  That's you, me, my next door neighbors, everybody.

But I'd really like to know why it's so successful, as well.

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