Less people are gambling on lotteries, with digital spend limits hurting the take on one popular game.
Financial results from The Lottery Corporation show spending limits lowered digital traffic on Keno in the past few months.
The company also notes top lotto payouts have shrunk as people buy into fewer draws and games; overall, revenue has shrunk 5.6 per cent to $1.8bn for the first half of this financial year.
Profit before significant items fell 9.9 per cent to $175.7m. The company did not disclose what the $22m significant items were.
In the results, The Lottery boss says her company’s growth is outpacing inflation and population growth.
Comparing the first half of this financial year with the previous, Oz Lotto turnover has fallen more than 20 per cent (down to $521m), and Saturday Lotto is pulling in 12 per cent less revenue ($755m).
Powerball is still The Lottery Corporation’s biggest money spinner; attracting $1.2bn of revenue in the first half of this financial year, down just 0.2 per cent.
“We grew our active registered customer numbers and digital share on the (previous corresponding period) and, pleasingly, held onto most of the gains we made during the large jackpots in 2H24,” chief executive Sue van der Merwe said.
There are now 4.71 million active registered lottery users, the company says.
“This was delivered against a backdrop of 14 per cent lower Division 1 prize offerings across our three most popular games and economic pressures that saw consumers increasingly seek value and purchase less frequently.
“The below-model jackpot outcomes are part of the variation in jackpots that can impact volumes in the short term but naturally smooth out over time.”
Despite a reduced prize pool, Lottery still put on two $100m-plus Powerball draws in the first half of this financial year.
The chief executive acknowledges a downturn but says the business is well placed.
“The lotteries market continues to be attractive, delivering uninterrupted, long-term growth, generally ahead of combined population growth and inflation,” Ms van der Merwe said.
“This, together with the strong fundamentals of our business, underpins our ability to generate strong returns for shareholders through the economic cycle.”
As spending limits reigned in Keno traffic, Ms van der Merwe says marketing has bolstered the game.
“Keno continued to perform very strongly in hotels and clubs where local area marketing and our ‘Together We Play’ campaign have helped strengthen its position as a social connector that brings people together,” she said.
In September, Lottery voluntarily brought in mandatory spend limits for all online Keno players. This move slashed digital Keno turnover by 17.5 per cent, “largely offsetting the strong retail performance”, it says in the results. The change also reduced the problem gambling risk rate of Keno from high to medium, the company says.
Included in the results is independent research about problem gambling. The Roy Morgan survey finds Australians who only play lotteries and scratch tickets exhibit problem gambling tendencies only 0.05 per cent of the time. The Australian problem gambling average, across all forms of punting, is 4.3 per cent.
The Lottery Corporation is offering an unchanged 8 cent interim dividend.
