Torch for leading the game's future is passed to Virginia Lottery Director
By Kate Northrop
The Mega Millions Consortium announced the selection of the game group's new Lead Director on Tuesday: Virginia Lottery Director Khalid R. Jones.
Virginia Lottery Director Khalid R. Jones will take the role as Lead Director for the Mega Millions Consortium this coming year.
The Lead Director is responsible for steering discussions regarding game policies and rules, serving as the national spokesperson for the game, and generally spearheading the game's overall direction. The role is typically held by a person who is already serving in a director capacity for a state lottery, and Consortium members will elect the appointee. Whoever leads the game group does so in one-year terms.
In taking over the role, Jones is succeeding Joshua Johnston, the Director of Washington's Lottery.
"I am especially grateful for the example that Josh Johnston and Gretchen Corbin have set in this capacity during my time as a director," Jones told the North American Association of State & Provincial Lotteries (NASPL). "I look forward to working with everyone in this new role as we all push the industry forward together."
Jones thanked his fellow Consortium members and welcomed in the game group's newest member, Brian Bennett, who recently took over as Washington's Lottery Director in November.
The new Mega Millions Lead Director said to NASPL he is optimistic about the future of the game.
"The challenges of the present may be different than those of the past, but I am confident in our collective resolve to meet them head on," Jones added.
The Mega Millions jackpot stands at $60 million for the next drawing on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. One ticket in New Jersey won a $90 million jackpot this past Tuesday.
Mega Millions is currently offered for sale in 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets cost $5 each.
The Mega Millions winning numbers are published at USA Mega (www.usamega.com) minutes after the drawing takes place.
Speaking of Mega Millions, some lucky soul had X2 multiplier in CA with five #'s. Though no fan of parimutuel like they have, they scooped up just over $5 million.
We'll see what direction, if any, this new Director takes.
A bit of context for people who might not be aware. California's multiplier numbers do not work like the other states' do.
California divides the prize money derived from sales into 8 different "buckets" representing the 8 non-jackpot prize levels. Each bucket is its own prize pool that all the winners of that prize level share.
The multiplier number on each winner's ticket represents its "share" of that prize pool. So someone with a "2x" on their ticket has "2 shares". A "5x" multiplier has "5 shares".
So let's say last night California had two second-prize winners, not one. For illustration purposes let's say one winner had a 2x multiplier, and the other winner had a 3x multiplier.
The total prize pool for the second prize in California hadn't been won in some time (it rolls over ever time it is not won), so it was a huge $5,104,960.
Between the two winners in this scenario, there were a total of 5 "shares" (the 2x multiplier plus the 3x multiplier). That makes each share worth $1,020,992. ($5,104,960 divided by 5.)
So the 2x multiplier winner would get $2,041,984, and the 3x multiplier winner would get $3,062,976.
But what happened last night is that there was only one winner, so they take home the entire $5,104,960 prize pool, and whatever multiplier number they had on their ticket didn't matter.
It works exactly the same way with all the other prize levels in California. Each level is a prize pool, and the multiplier number is the number of shares of the prize pool the ticket will win.
Of course, this is totally different from all the other states, in which the multiplier number does actually multiply a root fixed prize amount to determine the take-home prize.
Thank you Todd for the information.
Now to back to CA on the $775 million Powerball Wednesday. Normally in all other states one would receive $1 million for having five #'s....but not good old CA. Their Powerball paid $255,789. Grant it, sometimes as in the case of the MM winner, it is much higher!
I really don't care much. If you ask me Mega Millions jumped the shark over 10 years ago. This year MM died when it rolled 40 times and didn't even get to a fake billion.
Say what you will but Mega Millions is in a state of collapse.
The only other question is "will Powerball follow?".
I quit playing Mega Millions totally after the $5 ticket price run to 40 rolls with almost no second place prizes and no multibillion dollar jackpot as promised.
I doubt this new person will do anything exciting.
Wow this'll surely help it grow more than $10m a draw
Increasing the price of the MM ticked to $5 was a failure. There is a Psychological barrier about it. Where they can, people is playing more Powerball. We can't care less about minor prices. We play these lotteries for the jackpots.
Can you imagine the emails, texts and phone calls he will get about the $5 ticket price? It's really doubtful it will change though.
They just changed there web page. And it kinda sucks now. I dunno why they can't leave the web pages alone.....
Congrats and good luck
Looks the same to me both on a computer & phone.
Hopefully he's intelligent enough to decrease the game price
The states are constantly leaning on those who run the lotteries to generate more revenue. I'm sure that's what led to them bumping up the cost and odds on the MM. States love it when jackpots are high and millions are pouring in each drawing because people who don't normally play are chasing the billion dollar payouts.
I imagine a meeting after the last big jackpot got hit when the weekly revenues dropped back to normal levels. The question is asked how do we change things to get those big jackpots back more quickly? Easy. Make it harder to hit and while you're at it jack the price up to $5 a ticket. So they run it past the focus groups and get enough evidence that those changes will fly with the public. Except it doesn't work as planned. The people who play normally are staying away because of the $5 price, which slows down the build-up, so we don't get to the feeding frenzy stage.
And then somebody in NJ is lucky enough to hit and it drops the jackpot back down to the starting point. Nobody's happy about that except the guy in NJ.
I'm pretty certain they wouldn't be changing leadership if they were happy with the current set of changes. The last guy oversaw the bump up to $5 and increased odds, so he's the fall guy. Something going to change because how it is isn't working the way they'd hoped. Stay tuned for something different, but if their past behavior is any indicator, you probably won't like it.
It used to show pick 3-5 together. Then I could click which pick game. And look at previous numbers. Now I have to look at each pick game separate. There front page now is filled with trying to get you to play computer games...