Tickets on sale Sept. 8
by Todd Northrop
Seven United States lotteries will offer a first-of-its-kind multi-state raffle that goes on sale in about a week.
Called the Multi-state Millions Raffle (and possibly other names in the participating states), it's guaranteed to hand out $1 million prizes — just how many depends on how many of the $10 tickets are sold in the participating states.
"All of the lotteries are looking for new ideas and new games and new things to do to generate revenue," Ohio Lottery spokeswoman Danielle Frizzi-Babb said. "This one comes with less financial risk. We're in it with a large group."
The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) in Urbandale, Iowa, will run the game. It is the same group that now oversees the Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries.
So far, seven state lotteries have committed to the raffle: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
Raffle tickets will be on sale at lottery retailers in the seven states from Sept. 8 through Oct. 31. The raffle drawing will take place on Nov. 1.
Unlike Mega Millions and Powerball, in which the money keeps growing until someone matches six numbers, the raffle is guaranteed to hand out cash.
"Raffles are a popular concept and the must-be-won concept is popular with a lot of folks," said Charles Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.
He said the plan is to hold the raffle — which will go by different names in different states — only once or twice a year.
The association estimates that there could be 16 to 30 $1 million prizes given out. If there's no $1 million winner drawn from a participating state, there will be a $50,000 runner-up prize awarded to one winner from that state.
In the past decade, raffles have become a somewhat popular and successful new game type in some states. Most states have tried raffles, and a few states have raffle drawings regularly during the year.
For a state lottery, raffles can be risky ventures, because although they typically guarantee certain prize payouts, there is no guarantee they will sell out all the tickets. Although there is still no guarantee of success for the lotteries in a multi-state raffle, banding together with other states may help spread the risk, as well as spreading the marketing cost and impact.
"This is something that really has never been done before," Frizzi-Babb said.
People will be able to buy as many tickets as they want in the upcoming Multi-state Millions Raffle.
Frizzi-Babb said it's not clear how much states could profit from the venture. The Ohio Lottery has estimated it could sell anywhere from $5 million to $10 million in tickets.
Sounds good to me
Oklahoma
is this a joke
Ridge they finally took your idea of a National Raffle Lottery
Thanks rdgrnr for your ideas
I absolutely love the idea. MUSL is finally being used in different ways by the the lotteries. They are an excellent lottery operator, and their involvement normally indicates that the game was thoroughly vetted and will be well-run.
I don't know yet I am the OLC website trying to find more information.
Oh no, NJ is involved. Finally something different. I'm glad, but amazed NY joined in.
Crackin up man, soon as I seen N.Y. on the list I thought they'll win most. LOL
On a more serious note, looks like I found a use for the $208 a year I won't be spending on MM
If they have 2 raffles a year @ $10 a ticket I can afford 10 tix. ea. time and remain on budget.
Well I'm confused. Michigan is advertising a Halloween raffle that starts September 3.
Will we have two raffles running at the same time?
Yeah, seems to me I oughta get free tickets for life or something for comin' up with the idea.
And at least one of 'em a guaranteed million dollar winner.
That's the least they should do.
Not one southern state.
What a rip.
I'd like to know if this was open to all states and only those 7 signed on.
You can B the first winner. Only $10. per ticket.
You're welcome.
So far, seven state lotteries have committed to the raffle: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Oklahoma.
So how will the draws be conducted? One thing I don't like of the raffles I've seen, is the winners are all picked "behind the curtain" by computer and just kind of show up, you never know the methodology.
I read somewhere else that this will be computer draw also:
"A computer will pull the winning ticket numbers, Frizzi-Babb said."
So will this affect the state's scorecard?
Or, they could do a two stage hybrid draw, pulling the finalists by computer, and then a live raffle manual envelope draw like Irish Natl Lottery below:
Just hope the dude don't drop your friggin' envelope!
Perhaps that information will be in the rules, they are supposed to be published Sat. Aug. 31.
Since raffle tickets are usually sold 000001 thur XXXXXX, it's not hard for a computer to pick a number from 000001 to XXXXXX. Having a live drawing after that would just be for show.
The question isn't being "hard" for a computer to pick, it's the integrity and how trustworthy, or how easy it would be to code a specific number to show up in the list.
Isn't that the point behind the physical ball draws? That everything is seen and out in the open?
In theory, they can do the raffle draws with the same kind of bouncey ping pong ball machines used for pick3/4, just have one for each digit of raffle number.
"In theory, they can do the raffle draws with the same kind of bouncey ping pong ball machines used for pick3/4, just have one for each digit of raffle number."
The problem with ping pong balls is they will come up with any possible number within the perimeters whether that number of tickets were sold or not. They would have to limit the number of tickets to a multiple of 10 and sell every one of them.
It would need some handholding yes, to look out for the very rare duplicate draw. The leftmost digit would be limited (fewer balls) by actual sales, and the rightmost digit would need to be verfied to be within range in the very rare event all the other digits were matching sales, etc. And that methodology may not be fair and equally weighted. How about the computer methodology? Do we get to see the code?
So that's why the two stage hybrid draw I mentioned previously is probably the better way to go. As the Irish Natl Lottery did.
So how far is it to the line to buy tickets...people will travel for this one ridge.....u just take over Tn lottery why dont ya.If I ran it people would play and people would win....just like Georgia and Florida.
206 miles to Louisville ky then over to Indiana...cool
"So how will the draws be conducted?"
That's an interesting question because if the lotteries sell their tickets like RJ suggested, the same ticket number could win in all seven states. Without knowing how many tickets each state lottery will sell, they can't assign 000001 to 500000 for one state and 500001 to 1000000 for the next state especially if one or two states don't sell all their allotted tickets.
If there's no $1 million winner drawn from a participating state, there will be a $50,000 runner-up prize awarded to one winner from that state.
Based on this statement it looks like they will start with ticket 000001 and the tickets sold in each state will be the next available ticket number. We already have conspiracy theories about the recent number of NJ jackpot winners and if the tickets are sold as I suggested, there is a possibility two or three states might get most of the $1 million winners.
From the player's point of view, this raffle does give player the best odds of winning $1 million on a $10 wager.
Right, the first 2 $1 million winners will come from the first $4.6 million in sales. After that each $2 million in sales will produce another $1 million winner. As close to a 50/50 Raffle as it gets.
That's a good point about the multi-state, an extra wrinkle to deal with. They may duplicate the same sequential numbers in each state. Typically, the numbers are assigned by the state's lottery equipment. I suppose it's possible to link multiple states to make a unique list, but I doubt that will happen, too much problems to implement for next month launch.
So they may have to add a left most significant digit to represent each state, for instance, like 01 for NY, 02 for NJ, etc. And then for the draw in their computer algorithm the'd have to weight each state selection differently based on the sales, or else it wouldn't be fair and evenly weighted. Kind of like selecting multipliers for MM and lotto. That's something they can do in a computer, but difficult or very rough with physical balls. Or convert/match all the entries collected from each state to a sequential list for the draw internally.
Still, it could be slightly unfair and not an accurate representation of all states raffle entries. Kinda like our electoral college. We don't know until the methodology is explained. A two stage draw with a final manual draw can help alleviate some concerns of impropriety.
The Dragon Lady is a paty pooper.
TnTicket you are more than welcome in Oklahoma
Lol I meant party pooper to the post above my edit time expired.
2 1/2 hrs if you drive 70 how many you want