Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg is asking lawmakers to increase the state lottery's advertising budget for fiscal 2016 by $2 million to $10 million.
Pending competition from casinos should prompt the move, she said.
"The lottery must operate in a rapidly evolving marketplace and will soon face competition from a slots parlor and casinos fighting for disposable income dollars," Goldberg told the legislature's Joint Committee on Ways and Means recently.
In fiscal 2014, the lottery produced about $4.9 billion in sales and $974 million of net profit, according to Goldberg. "At $8 million, Massachusetts ranks last in the nation in advertising dollars as a percentage of sales," she said. With a $10 million ad budget, she said, the lottery's profit projection for fiscal 2016 would bump from $925 million to nearly $930 million.
"As a businesswoman, I firmly believe that the last thing you do when you're trying to increase revenue is cut advertising, and especially when new competition is coming into your backyard," said Goldberg, whose family owned the Stop & Shop supermarket chain. She took office on Jan. 21.
The lottery system is replacing much of its technology with $65 million in funding from a $1 billion technology bond bill that lawmakers passed last year.
