Coronavirus Pushes MA Lottery Sales Down 29 Percent

BOSTON — Weekly sales for the Massachusetts Lottery have dropped 29 percent since March 1 as the coronavirus emergency kept people from running to the corner store to pick up tickets.

Lottery proceeds makeup one of the biggest proportions of the Massachusetts Local Aid program, which gives direct payments to municipal governments. The sales drop is also hurting small businesses which rely on lottery ticket sales to drive foot traffic to their stores.

For the week ended March 28, lottery sales were $78.9 million, down from $111.6 million for the week ended March 7. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency on March 1 and ordered all nonessential businesses closed March 24 to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Lottery officials said its Keno game has taken the biggest hit, with ticket sales falling 52 percent. Instant ticket sales were down 24 percent, while ticket sales for numbers drawings were down 17 percent.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).