How much does the state make off Delaware Lottery ticket sales? We found out.

While big-figure lottery jackpots mean players keep their eyes on the prize, they aren’t the only ones holding out for a payday. States get a hefty cut of those big checks, too.

For traditional lottery dealings, the state of Delaware gets almost 30% of Powerball and Mega Millions sales before lottery overhead, said Helene Keeley, director at Delaware Lottery.

Instant games and draw games like Play 3 and Play 4 have higher expenses, are more unpredictable and do not have set expenses like Powerball and Mega Millions do.

When top prizes are higher for instant and draw games, “the state will get a slight advantage on those increase of sales,” she said.

The total share the state made from traditional lottery in fiscal year 2022 was $67,653,523 or 29.4% of the revenue. The Powerball cut of that was 10.2% and the Mega Millions cut was 4.8%, according to Delaware Lottery data.

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In fiscal year 2021, the state brought in $66,244,221, or 28.3% of traditional sales. Of that, 8.3% was from Powerball sales and 7.1% was from Mega Millions sales. Fiscal year 2020 brought in $56,045,765, or 30.2% of traditional sales, with Powerball sales contributing 7.7% and Mega Millions sales contributing 5.9%.

The Delaware lottery contributes its profits to the state’s general fund. Since 1975, $5.8 billion has been transferred to the general fund from Delaware Lottery proceeds. In fiscal year 2021, the lottery’s contribution was $215.7 million, making it the state’s fifth-largest revenue generator.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: This is how much the State of Delaware makes from lottery ticket sales