Pennsylvania Lottery officials today announced the last Super 6 Lotto drawing will take place on Tuesday, January 27, 2004.

"Super 6 has been a great game for the Pennsylvania Lottery, generating more than one billion dollars in sales over the past five years," said Lottery Executive Director Ed Mahlman. "Recently, however, interest in Super 6 has decreased, as Powerball has established itself as Pennsylvania's premier jackpot game."

Mahlman said the Lottery plans to distribute of the remaining Super 6 prize money during the game's final drawing on Jan. 27. If no one wins the jackpot prize that day, the jackpot money will be shared proportionately by second, third and fourth tier winners as indicated in the table below. Money allocated to each prize category will be divided equally among the winners.

Mahlman said the Lottery decided to reward loyal Super 6 players by rolling down the jackpot prize into lower tiers for the final drawing.

"If no one wins the jackpot in the final Super 6 drawing, many of the game's players will win significant prizes for matching three, four or five numbers," Mahlman said.

Mahlman stressed that the jackpot roll-down will take place only if the jackpot is not won on Tuesday, January 27.

Super 6 was introduced in September 1998 as Pennsylvania's new large-jackpot game. When Pennsylvania joined the national mega-jackpot game Powerball in June 2002, Super 6 sales declined significantly from the previous year. Super 6 offers smaller starting jackpots than Powerball and can't grow jackpots as quickly as Powerball.

Super 6 sales for the current fiscal year are about 21.5 percent below last year's sales.

Tickets for the Lottery's new Match 6 game will go on sale on Wednesday, January 28, 2004. The first Match 6 drawing will take place on Saturday, January 31, 2004 after the 7 p.m. Daily Number and BIG 4 drawings. Live, televised Match 6 drawings will be held every Tuesday and Saturday evening.

"Match 6 responds to suggestions made by Lottery players," Mahlman said. "It will offer much better odds of winning, and many more ways to win."

Match 6 will offer players better overall odds than other Lottery numbers games - 1-in-5.9 - and 11 ways to win. The new game will also introduce Pennsylvanians to a new style of play; players will be able to match numbers in the traditional way -- on one horizontal line of play - as well as on a combination of lines. Players will receive three Match 6 plays for $2.

Player preferences were taken into account in developing Match 6, and popular features of current numbers games and instant products were incorporated into the new Lottery product. Featuring a starting jackpot of approximately $500,000, Match 6 will offer more small- to mid-size cash prizes, ranging from $2 to $2,500.