Louisiana Lottery may add Mega Millions next year

Aug 30, 2011, 2:15 pm (21 comments)

Louisiana Lottery

With the price of a Powerball ticket slated to increase from $1 to $2 starting next year, state lottery officials are betting that adding a second multi-state jackpot game will help draw in additional revenue. The game, Mega Millions, is offered in 41 states, plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

For $1, players pick five numbers, from 1 to 56, and one "Mega Ball," from 1 to 46, and are eligible to win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.

In 2010, 23 state lotteries signed on to offer Mega Millions, on Tuesday and Friday nights, as part of a cross-selling agreement between the game and Powerball. Louisiana officials passed on bringing it into the fold, opting instead to "study the prospect, and that's what we've been doing," said Rose Hudson, president of the Louisiana Lottery Corp.

At the time, Louisiana officials believed that "the striking similarity between the two games, the saturated gaming market in Louisiana, weighed against the operational cost of launching and maintaining a new draw-style game, we are not confident that enough players would play Mega Millions on a regular basis in addition to what they already play," as Kimberly Chopin, a Louisiana lottery spokeswoman, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in January 2010.

Now, that's changed: Hudson believes the time is ripe because Powerball is set to make the jump in price, and adding Mega Millions will let the state retain a $1 jackpot game. It's also projected to add as much as $8.5 million in lottery sales to the state's books, according to estimates.

The starting jackpot for Powerball is going to double as well, from $20 million to $40 million. "That's the exciting thing for us," Hudson said. "By expanding the portfolio, for us to go to Mega Millions, we will still have a $1 jackpot game that we will be able to offer our players."

While costs to operate the game, including prize expense and retailer commissions for selling winning tickets, would depend on sales volumes, the state estimates that the price tag is expected not to exceed $4.9 million a year.

Louisiana officials held a public hearing to discuss the move in Baton Rouge on Friday. A final report from the lottery board is expected to be forwarded to the state Legislature this fall, with plans to move forward before the end of next year.

Powerball is offered in 42 states, on Wednesday and Saturday nights, as well as the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. It also uses six numbers: five are drawn from a pool of 1 to 59 and one "Powerball" is selected, from 1 to 39.

So far, Hudson said most feedback on the proposal has come from retailers and lottery players who live along the Louisiana border, and typically cross state boundaries to get their Mega Million fix.

"We know that the players are interested in having the opportunity to purchase Mega Millions, and we get that kind of feedback from our sales reps and from our sales partners," she said.

Talk of adding Mega Millions in Louisiana and the recent spread of cross-selling one game with another comes as some lottery officials across the country have discussed prospects for creating a national lottery game, which proponents say would have a larger jackpot potential.

Ultimately, it's the prospect of a high windfall that has kept the tickets printing, state officials say.

"That's kind of the draw for players," Hudson said, adding that crafting the rules for a national game would require "a delicate balance."

In Arkansas, lottery officials began offering Mega Millions in 2010, "the first second we could sell them," said Julie Baldridge, director of public affairs and legislative affairs for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

Baldridge said offering both Powerball and Mega Millions complement each other, because players tend to gravitate toward the game with the higher jackpot. And sometimes, it'll be tough for them to choose.

"Two good jackpots, and we're getting two good sets of sales," she said. For instance, Aug. 5 drew $142,000 in gross sales for Mega Millions tickets in Arkansas, for a $99 million jackpot. The next day, for a $180 million Powerball jackpot, the state sold $298,000 in tickets.

"It's the high jackpot that dictates the play," she said. "It'll draw people who seldom play the lottery."

Once the Powerball changes at the beginning of the year, Baldridge expects players' habits to change as well. "What you're going to have is, you're going to hit $100 million jackpots really fast, but it's a different price point, so your $1 price point is going to evaporate in January," she said.

"It's not that you're going to double your sales," Baldridge added, "but you're going to have more sales."

In Arkansas, the lottery brought in about $500 million last year, she said, compared to $383 million in 2009, for the nine months when gaming was first offered.

Gerald Busald, a mathematics professor at San Antonio College who has studied state lotteries, said he believes in the current format, players will be drawn to the higher payoff between the two games. Texas had already offered Mega Millions when it added Powerball to its roster, and Busald said the games "fed off of each other, that is, they cannibalize each other to some extent."

"I think that pretty much it depends on the one with the greater jackpot which is going to get the greater play," he said.

Times-Picayune

Comments

Truckstop

Do you know my Opinion about that, a couple years ago we had  only two lotteries here, Canada 6/49 and Select 42. 6/49 used to cost 1$ and Select 42  50 cents ( a 6/42 game with a fixed 500 000$ jackpot ) drawing were Wednesday and Saturday, then they changed the Select 42 for Quebec 49 based on Canada 6/49 still 50 cents with a fixed 1 Million jackpot, then add Lotto Super 7  a (7/47) at 2$ game , but get 3 winning combination on Friday night, next they increased 6/49 and  to 1$ to 2$ and Quebec 49 to 50 cents to 1$ with a fixed 2 Millions fixed jackpot for Q 49. After that they replaced Super 7 for Lotto Max 2$ to 5$ and became a 7/49 game with a Maximum jackpot at 50 Millions + several Mega Millions ( 1 Millions dollars jackpot add after every week ) they also ad a new Lottery call Payday ( Jour de Paye)  on Thursday that cost 2$, it's a 6/36 Lottery that has a fixed jackpot of winning 1000$ TAXFREE every week for the rest of your life. You know what ? After those changes a lot of people were thinking they will stop play lotteries, but People kept playing and playing more than before even if it's more expensive, so I don't think people will stop purchase lotteries...

ressuccess's avatarressuccess

Good luck to them. I'm happy that Louisana is going to gain more revenue by adding Mega Millions.

TheRightPrice

Sounds like Good News for Louisiana. Hopefully, they will do the same for Florida.

There are rumors that Florida Lotto Sales are weak ever since Florida started Powerball.Group Hug

bobby623's avatarbobby623

There are rumors that Mega Millions will increase it's single ticket price to $2 next year, or later, depending on how well players adapt to the Powerball price increase.

Also, there are rumors that a third jackpot game is in the works. No one knows what the ticket price will be, but, there is some speculation
that it could cost $5 a play for multiple sets, similar to Canada's Lotto Max, or not.

One has to wonder if players can afford to play the more expensive games on a regular basis.
Personally, I can't. If I buy jackpot game tickets, I don't play any of the other games.
There have been times when I've played both jackpot games, mostly when the jackpots are in the $100 million range. When I
do, there is no extra money for any other game for several weeks.

One thing that could help Texas is that the higher prices could cause player to renew their interest in Texas Lotto, which will
probably remain a $1 game.

The mathematics professor is probably right - one game feeds off another depending on the jackpot amounts.

OldSchoolPa's avatarOldSchoolPa

Quote: Originally posted by TheRightPrice on Aug 30, 2011

Sounds like Good News for Louisiana. Hopefully, they will do the same for Florida.

There are rumors that Florida Lotto Sales are weak ever since Florida started Powerball.Group Hug

Well I always like to have a dog in the hunt, so I play every drawing of the jackpot games and whenever I visit Florida, I purchase the maximum advance play possible.  To date I have only won $9 from Florida Lotto (well actually I have won more than that but I forget the amounts I won when I played it back in the early 90s).  No problem as I hope my day will come when I can be hoisting that ceremonial check up for all to see my face...for the last time as I will travel til my hearts content.  No really I would just claim it in anonymity and travel til my hearts content, and my heart won't be content until I visit most every country in the world!  Yep I love to fly and it shows!!!

joshuacloak's avatarjoshuacloak

its about freaking time Louisiana

their like turtles when it comes to change.....

glad to see they understand the fact "overall" we will make more profit then past sells of just having only 1 big jackpot game.

congrats,   your now starting to be  smarter then FL and CA lottery's,

 

now it be a race to see who blinks first, CA, to add powerball,     or fl, to add mega, 

then we have  True national Game, a jackpot game sold in ever lottery state!

 

players in fl and ca,  cry and whine to your lottery's to get with times, and add the both games,

 hell just leave a remark at retailer you buy form when you buy a ticket, wish i could also buy Mega in fl, and wish i could buy pb in ca when you buy

if retailer rembs it, he put it down in feedbacks to ca/fl lottery

i just think ca and fl , are just being dumb,lazy ,    they know perfeatly will they make a few more million in profits by having both jackpot games

, they just want to be lazy, not do their jobs to get their state ever peny it can get.

or they just suck at their jobs,

or want to save face and pretend their state lottery's dont suck compared to having both  MM/PB both selling their in  states offer to players.

players love having more options,   give it to them.

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

Could this be a sign that not every lottery was in favor of the changes to Powerball, or a sign that a lottery actually listened to the players?

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

"A final report from the lottery board is expected to be forwarded to the state Legislature this fall, with plans to move forward before the end of next year."

Don't you love the way government expedites everything with such blazing speed?

Who's running the show there in Louisiana, the Post Office?

"Plans to move forward" in a year and a half...  Bang! Zoom!

chuye

Quote: Originally posted by joshuacloak on Aug 30, 2011

its about freaking time Louisiana

their like turtles when it comes to change.....

glad to see they understand the fact "overall" we will make more profit then past sells of just having only 1 big jackpot game.

congrats,   your now starting to be  smarter then FL and CA lottery's,

 

now it be a race to see who blinks first, CA, to add powerball,     or fl, to add mega, 

then we have  True national Game, a jackpot game sold in ever lottery state!

 

players in fl and ca,  cry and whine to your lottery's to get with times, and add the both games,

 hell just leave a remark at retailer you buy form when you buy a ticket, wish i could also buy Mega in fl, and wish i could buy pb in ca when you buy

if retailer rembs it, he put it down in feedbacks to ca/fl lottery

i just think ca and fl , are just being dumb,lazy ,    they know perfeatly will they make a few more million in profits by having both jackpot games

, they just want to be lazy, not do their jobs to get their state ever peny it can get.

or they just suck at their jobs,

or want to save face and pretend their state lottery's dont suck compared to having both  MM/PB both selling their in  states offer to players.

players love having more options,   give it to them.

I saw on the channel 4 Los Angeles News that Powerball is probably coming by the end of the year to California. I also wanted Powerball come here like many people who kept asking the CA Lottery's facebook page. I think we want it because we haven't had much luck with SuperLotto and Mega Millions (but $2...that might be too much).

Prob988

I won't be playing Powerball much when it goes to $2, since the expectation value will never get very high, so I'm looking forward to faster rising Megamillions.   This can only help.

myturn's avatarmyturn

The Louisiana Lottery should also introduce a subscription service, which would also increase revenue.

Simba774

I was born and raised in Louisianna, and I didn't even know about Mega Millions until we moved to the midwest.

freeobama's avatarfreeobama

Quote: Originally posted by Simba774 on Aug 31, 2011

I was born and raised in Louisianna, and I didn't even know about Mega Millions until we moved to the midwest.

I use to have an apartment in Elgin, glad those days are behind me.

rdgrnr's avatarrdgrnr

Quote: Originally posted by Simba774 on Aug 31, 2011

I was born and raised in Louisianna, and I didn't even know about Mega Millions until we moved to the midwest.

When I hear Loozianna, I think of fried crawdads. I eat em like popcorn.

I'd go down there just for the Cajun music and the crawdads around the Breaux Bridge and Henderson area.

I hope them crawdads don't taste like oil now.

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