Trade War With Canada Having A Negative Effect On Massachusetts Lottery

President Donald Trump’s tariff plans have whipsawed back and forth, and with that, so have the financial markets.

There is a lot of confusion all over the world as Trump (choose one) is either wily like a fox and is positioning America to reap massive financial benefits in the long term or is cratering the economy and has no idea what he’s doing.

While we at Lottery Geeks choose to remain firmly apolitical in matters of state, we do, have a duty to report lottery news as it happens, and as such, there’s this: The Massachusetts Lottery now needs millions of extra dollars to keep up with “dramatically” increasing costs — this, according to testimony last week from Massachusetts Lottery Treasurer Deborah Goldberg.

According to a report from WWLP.com, Goldberg said the lottery needs a cash infusion of $13.6 million over this coming fiscal year to bring the lottery operating account up to $123.8 million. Gov. Maura Healey is recommending a $5.4 million increase to the account in her fiscal 2026 budget proposal.

So why the more-than-$8-million difference?

“From thermal paper costs to shipping and phone contracts, our hard costs have increased dramatically. This leaves little room to put product on the shelves,” the treasurer said in written testimony to the Joint Ways and Means Committee.

Back in December, the lottery’s executive director, Mark William Bracken, put a bit of a finer point on it — with “it” being the paper.

“A lot of the paper that these companies uses come from Canada and come across border, so we could be seeing some significant increases if, in fact, tariffs are implemented like it has been said that they will be by the incoming president,” Bracken said at a commission meeting at the time.

Tariffs, commence

And lo and behold, Trump has indeed slapped a 25% tariff on goods coming in from Canada, including paper products.

In response, Canada has imposed the same 25% on pulp and paper coming in from America.

Paper, as it turns out, creates a lot of paper. In fact, in 2024, two-way trade for pulp and paper products with Canada was worth over $14 billion, according to PackagingDive.com.

But not all of the Massachusetts Lottery budget woes are due to grown men arguing over the price of paper; Goldberg claims lottery sales are projected to be flat in 2026, with a net profit of $1.05 billion due to the lottery fighting for the consumers with casinos and sports betting.

To that end, she is looking for $10 million to increase the lottery’s advertising budget.