Includes video report
BILOXI, Miss. — In less than two weeks, you'll be able to buy scratch-off lottery tickets in Mississippi. Leading up to the Nov. 25 launch date, state lottery officials and retailers are putting the finishing touches on to make sure sales go smoothly.
"It's just a lot of work and a lot of heavy lifting in a short period of time," said Gerard Gibert, Vice Chairman of the Mississippi Lottery Corporation.
Speaking to a meeting of America's Future Foundation in Biloxi, Gibert said 1,600 retailers have applied to sell lottery tickets and 1,200 have been approved. Gibert credited his staff for working diligently to walk retailers through the process.
"Once we got our sales team on board that started calling directly on the retailers that many of them weren't sure how to deal with the application process, so we helped them with that," Gibert said. "We found some retailers that didn't know a lottery law had been passed, so we were able to bring them up to speed and help them through the application process."
The C Store in D'Iberville is one of about 1,000 retailers who've already gotten lottery equipment installed. Store Co-Owner Jennifer Cvitanovich said her employees have participated in training, and it's been a smooth process.
"When they said they were going to do something, they did. They were on time, installation was quick and easy, and we expect that to be the same thing when they bring in the scratch-offs," Cvitanovich said.
Cvitanovich is expecting to receive those scratch-offs any day.
"I think people have been looking forward to it for a long time. I think they're very curious. We're trying to get the word out that we've got them and let them come in and try it out," Cvitanovich said.
The bulk of lottery profits (the first $80 million in net profits) are designated to go toward improving the state's roads and bridges. Looking at projections and results from other states, Gibert believes Mississippi's lottery is in good position to meet expectations.
"Right now, based on the number of retailers we have, I have a high degree of confidence that we'll hit the $300-400 million of sales mark," Gibert said.
While you'll be able to buy scratch-off tickets later this month, Power Ball and Mega Millions tickets don't go on sale until Jan. 30. Other games of chance will be available later next year.
Prospective lottery players who want to find the closest Mississippi Lottery retailers can use the free Lottery Places app (www.lotteryplaces.com). Lottery Places is the only app available that can locate lottery retailers in every state and jurisdiction throughout the United States. It also finds lottery retailers in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, and much of the Caribbean.
Lottery Places can pinpoint any of the 1,000+ lottery retailers already approved for selling Mississippi Lottery tickets.
VIDEO: Watch the report
* Launch!- Get this thing off the ground and let's see..
So, the Mississippi Lottery is starting off with scratch - offs. I'm wandering if this lottery will be smart enough to install a few scanners people can use for them selves before they head to a clerk or check out counter. I hope we hear about it here on the Lottery Post if it is big wins. So, we're at the "On the mark get set , Go stage. " Thank's Todd for the up date.
Congratulations to the MS Lottery!
January 30, 2020, will be here swiftly. I hope to see you and the lottery players in the winner's circle with Mega Millions and Power Ball.
There needs to be at least one close by retailer at the Mississippi border area heading from Slidell, Louisiana towards Waveland, Mississippi. At the moment, the closest retailer from Slidell is in Waveland 27 miles from the Mississippi / Louisiana border. Also, the closest retailer from Bogalusa, Louisiana is 28 minutes away in Poplarville, Mississippi. People wanting to play the lottery in Mississippi within the Slidell, & Bogalusa vicinities have to travel far to play.
Wow! 27 miles that way, 28 minutes this way....
Are Louisiana lottery products that bad that players in Louisiana would rather play out of state?
Before Primm opened on the CA - NV border many in Las Vegas drove to Nipton, CA to pay lotto
(Lotto is sold in the gas station, which is in CA)
Distance from Las Vegas, NV to Nipton, CA
DISTANCE
64 mi
TIME
1 hour 1 min
Yes, oh yes. I would rather go eastward 60 to 90 minutes one way driving time out of my area to buy Mississippi lottery tickets.
The Louisiana draw style games are RNG, and there is a blatant problem with employee theft of winning tickets in my area.
I had $40.00 in winning $5.00 scratchers, and the cashier tried to keep one, and scanned $30.00 He was showing my that I had $30.00 in winnings as the terminal printed receipt showed, not mentioning that he put one aside for himself. I'm not stupid when I'm cashing my tickets. A lot of these stores, the terminals are secluded in the middle, and you can't see what the cashier is doing. He said he missed one. Uh-huh, you missed one.....
It's the ethics, and morals of the cashiers working in the stores.
Sounds like you need to sign your tickets before you go cash them. Take a picture of it too. And I would give him the tickets one at a time. If he says it's no good or a loser, get the ticket back.
Also a phone call to the lottery office is in the future if he does that
again. The number should be on the back of the ticket. I would do it right in front of him too.
1 hr 1 min CT?.. is that a dig at the 28 min away piece?
Brilliant!
Yup......and some would drive to Baker and some to Needles
You should make a complaint to the lottery if that occurs. It's something that's known to happen yet lotteries don't talk about it openly because it's a negative aspect of some of their retailers. That's why I'd recommend cashing in at grocery stores customer service counter as I think they are much likely to be consistently honest about payouts. Convenience store clerks/owners can get away with it because they can always pretend like they miscounted or forgot about if called out on it. There was a kind of older woman in front of me at a 7-11 yesterday who was cashing in a bunch of tickets. The store representative said it was $43 and the woman cashing in said "I counted $45". I don't know who was in the right though the person cashing in the tickets should know exactly how much they're owed to prevent theft.
Makes ya wonder how much of player winnings is "stolen" every day by clerks and not just in LA, but where ever they sell lottery tickets. Check your tickets at a ticket scanner or a lottery kiosk before giving it to a clerk and only cash your tickets in stores where you can watch a clerk scan your ticket and has a monitor where you can see for how much.
I wouldn't doubt a lot of money is lost when some one walks into a store and asks a clerk to "check these for me".
The player should always know how much they won, and TELL, not ask, the clerk how much the winnings are before handing them the tickets.