New Jersey Lottery: Last NJ Lotzee drawing will be Sept. 13The last drawing of the New Jersey Lottery's Lotzee game will be Sept. 13. The game is being discontinued due to declining sales that do not support fixed prize levels, officials said Friday.
Sales for the $2 game, which debuted in 1998, dropped by more than 32 percent in fiscal year 2003 compared to the previous year. Just over $16 million worth of Lotzee tickets were sold compared to almost $24 million in fiscal year 2002.
"A game cannot survive when the average draw sales are less than the top prize," Lottery Executive Director Virginia S. Bauer said. "Although we have made numerous attempts to revitalize Lotzee through game enhancements and tailored advertising campaigns, it seems that this game may have been ahead of its time in terms of complexity."
The twice weekly Lotzee drawings offered a top prize of $500,000. Each ticket had 21 sets of four numbers between 00 and 76 that were divided among five prize levels. Players had to select one row of numbers in the $500,000 prize level, while the machine selected the remaining 20 rows.
Prizes of $100,000 and $50,000 were also paid to players who matched all four numbers in other tiers. Matching two or three numbers resulted in smaller prizes.
Bauer said there were no immediate plans to replace Lotzee with another game.
