Massachusetts Lottery's online bet pays off: $139M in month one

Online lottery is no longer a side bet for Massachusetts. It's a revenue engine.

In its first full month, the Massachusetts Lottery Online platform pulled in $139.4 million in sales and an estimated $10.6 million in profit. That's according to Lottery chief Mark William Bracken, who briefed the Lottery Commission this week. The platform launched in late July, and the numbers suggest bettors didn't need much convincing.

Where the money came from

Almost all of it came from one place: eInstant games. Those accounted for $137 million of the $139.4 million total. Bracken tempered the profit number too, noting it's "realistically... somewhat closer to $8 million once the August bills get paid."

Still, $8 million in profit for a one-month-old product is a strong start by any measure.

Retail held steady, mostly

Traditional retail sales dipped. August brought in roughly $540 million at lottery retailers, down $30 million from last year. But the online launch more than covered the gap. Combined, overall unadjusted sales came in $109.3 million above last August's total.

Profit told a different story. Retail profit fell an estimated $16.2 million, which left the agency's overall profit about $5.5 million lower than in August 2025. Fiscal year 2027 is still up, though. Two months in, Bracken reported sales up $113 million combined and profit up more than $26 million, with $10 million of that attributed to online games.

How will retail compare to online sales? It is still too early to say.

Two new retail giants join the lineup

Bracken also announced a retail expansion the agency has chased for years: Walmart. Over 50 Walmart locations across Massachusetts will now sell Lottery products. Bracken stated:

We were never able to get Walmart in Massachusetts to sign up to be a Lottery agent. So we are in the process of installing machines and doing agent promotions at those stores.

Walgreens joined too. Every Walgreens location in the commonwealth is now a Massachusetts Lottery agent.

A new game is coming: Post Time Payout

The commission also approved a new online game modeled on virtual horse racing. Bracken described it as a random-number-generator game dressed up as a race, "fingers crossed," for launch next month. He explained:

What we will be offering is a game called Post Time Payout, which is a virtual horse racing game... the winners are picked by a random number generator. And instead of showing bouncing balls, they're shown as racing horses. It has nothing to do with live racing or anything like that.

What comes next

The Lottery's own projections are ambitious. The first 12 months of iLottery are expected to generate $70 million in profit. By year ten, that climbs to $360 million.

Massachusetts already leads the nation in per capita lottery spending and ranks near the top worldwide. The Lottery built its projections by benchmarking against Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, four states with mature online lottery markets. From here, retention and advertising will decide how close the state gets to those numbers.

Bracken put the strategy plainly:

Our plan has to work. I don't want to be reactive. I want to be proactive. I really think the onus is on the lottery to make sure that when players come on, they want to come back.

One month in, the early numbers back that ambition up.