Casinos are booming. Can the New York Lottery keep up?

New Yorkers love the lottery.

$8.2 billion in ticket sales makes it the fourth-largest lottery market in the country, and its $419 in sales per resident is one of the highest of any state. It’s an immense responsibility to manage a lottery that includes a massive game portfolio, online sales, and new multi-state games, including Millionaire for Life.

In addition to those responsibilities, New York State Lottery Director Gweneth Dean must also contend with increased competition for gaming dollars from legalized online sports betting and the expansion of licensed casinos, particularly in New York City.

Director Dean has over thirty years of lottery experience, and she shared with us how she continues to deliver for New York players and what the future looks like for the lottery in the Empire State.

Will the global expansion of Powerball impact New York players?

Powerball may be America’s most iconic lottery game. Still, the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) made a major shift in July 2026 by allowing players in the United Kingdom to buy tickets and compete for the same jackpot as US players.

While some players may worry that increased competition could hurt their chances to win a solo jackpot, Dean believes that international growth will ultimately be beneficial to players everywhere.

“New Yorkers enjoy playing Powerball and become excited with larger jackpots,” she told Lottery USA in an exclusive interview. A growing player base contributes to faster-growing jackpots and increased entertainment. Thus, the addition of the UK means Powerball jackpots will increase faster.”

She also allayed fears that international players would take any of the revenue generated from ticket sales in New York, where it supports education initiatives.

As where a ticket is sold is where the benefits stay, the addition of UK players will not change or redirect how proceeds from New York Powerball sales are allocated. We are unaware of any additional efforts to take other state-based games international.

Novelty games

While Powerball is going global, the New York Lottery works hard to release new, fun, state-exclusive games, offering new instant-win and draw games about every six weeks. 

One of the most popular was the Erie Canal Million Dollar raffle, which celebrated the bicentennial of the canal and gave 15 players the chance to win $1 million.

We asked Director Dean if New Yorkers could expect any other new games celebrating state milestones.

Yes. The Lottery is always considering new, interesting, and appealing games and features to broaden the player base, as well as reintroducing older games to newer players. Consumer behaviors and expectations are always changing, and we try to meet those expectations. Most recently, we launched Millionaire for Life and Powerball Double Play, both of which have been received well by players.

Will New York expand into iGaming

The New York Lottery currently offers a limited number of digital options. While players can’t purchase physical tickets directly from the state online, they can set up digital subscriptions that let them purchase a set number of tickets for each multi-state game the state offers.

However, many states are now building out much more robust online presences, including offering digital games that can be played over the phone. With the upcoming expansion of in-person casino gambling in New York City, we wanted to know whether the lottery planned to expand its iGaming offerings to compete.

While the director is cognizant of the growing competition, she said that increasing their subscription program for buying game tickets is a possibility, but she doesn’t believe they’ll offer digital lottery games anytime soon.

The New York Lottery offers Powerball, Mega Millions, and Millionaire for Life online subscriptions. While other games in the Lottery’s portfolio are under consideration for online subscriptions, the Lottery does not anticipate offering iLottery in the near future.

How New York regulates lottery ticket courier services

While the New York Lottery doesn’t sell individual tickets online directly, players who want to purchase single-game tickets on their phones can do so through digital courier services, which fulfill orders by having a courier buy a ticket from a physical retailer.

Courier services have been hotly debated since the first app-based service launched in 2013. 

While some states see them as a way to help players who lack the time or ability to buy tickets at a retail location, others see them as poorly regulated and prone to scandal, such as when the courier service Lottery.com was implicated in the infamous 2023 Lotto Texas bulk-buying scandal.

New York decided it was better to allow couriers to operate within a regulatory framework than to ban them outright. In April, 2019, the lottery authorized the licensing of courier services, and Jackpocket officially launched its service in the state in January, 2021, with several other companies opening there in subsequent years.

We asked Director Dean what New York’s experience with the services has been like.

The Lottery’s relationship with licensed courier agents has been professional and courteous, and we appreciate their ability to reach an untapped consumer segment. We have found that regulatory oversight of these services is important to protect both the Lottery’s brand and consumers.

Competing with casinos

A new challenge facing the lottery is growing competition from in-person casinos, with the expanded Resorts World New York City currently operating and two more expected to open by 2030. The three new casinos are projected to offer a total of 14,500 slot or electronic games and over 1,400 table games across more than 12 million square feet of gaming space.

The expansion of casino gambling could capture some of the gaming dollars that players would otherwise spend on the lottery, but Director Dean sees the new casinos as complementary to the lottery, rather than a threat.

No, as we have found, casinos are another pillar in the gaming portfolio, not competition.

In addition to expanding casino gaming, New York authorized legal online sports betting in 2021, but Dean says the lottery is confident that it will continue to thrive despite the competition.

The Lottery continues to analyze impacts of all other types of gaming on sales, but notes that it continues to meet fiscal year projections, even with the addition of online sports betting.

Millionaire for Life

One way to stay on top of a competitive market is to offer innovative new games. New York is among the wave of states that have added the new multi-state game Millionaire for Life, which features a drawing every night and offers a top prize of one million dollars every year for the rest of a winner’s life.

Director Dean says the game has proven popular, perhaps spurred by the fact that a New York player was among the first to win the game’s jackpot.

The new Millionaire for Life game has been well-received, as “for life” games perform well in New York. We offer “for life” scratch-off games at every price point except $1 and $5. Adding the $5 draw-game Millionaire for Life was a natural extension that fit well into the “for life” category. All three of our multi-state games are strong performers.

Responsibilities

The job of a state lottery director is unique in government. It's the only position responsible for both collecting billions of dollars in retail sales and paying out billions of dollars in prizes, while also overseeing the immense security operation required to protect the games.

We spoke with Director Dean about what she saw as the most important part of a lottery director’s job.

Maintaining the integrity of every aspect of this lottery is the most important part of my job. I take it seriously because it’s the foundation on which everything else is built. New Yorkers have been playing our games for nearly 60 years because they trust us and the integrity of our games. It’s my number one priority to ensure that the Lottery operates with the highest integrity, credibility, and quality.

New York benefits

It's not just winners who benefit from the lottery. In fiscal years 2024-2025, the New York Lottery paid out over $3.6 billion to support education initiatives in the state, with funds distributed among 700 state school districts.

That money goes to pay for several important educational services, including teacher salaries, special education programs, transportation, and textbooks.

Director Dean explained how funds from lottery services are distributed equitably to schools throughout the state.

New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education. It takes into account both a school district's size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding. One can see exactly how much their local school district has benefited on an annual and cumulative basis at https://nylottery.ny.gov/aid-to-education.

From introducing new games to managing courier services to paying out nine-figure prizes, a lottery director faces no shortage of challenges in running a successful operation. Still, with her integrity and experience, Director Dean has shown that the New York Lottery is in good hands and well-positioned to thrive in the future.

We thank Director Dean for taking the time to speak with us.