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SC lottery error prompts class-action lawsuitNews Story
It was Christmas Day in South Carolina and plenty of people were feeling lucky. For just $1, they could buy a ticket for Holiday Cash Add-A-Play at their local convenience store. The ticket looked a bit like a tic-tac-toe game: get three Christmas trees in a row on a nine-space grid and you won, maybe 2 or 20 bucks. Get all nine Christmas trees to fill the grid entirely and you won the $500 jackpot. The odds of that happening were 1 in 4,800. But something amazing started happening at exactly
Jun 2, 2018, 9:10 am - Lottery News

South Carolina Lottery says no prize for 71,000 'winning' ticketsNews Story
The South Carolina Education Lottery says players who thought they won $500 from a December 2017 game, will not receive their winnings. Lottery officials announced in a press release Wednesday that anyone who purchased a Holiday Cash Add A Play ticket on December 25, 2017 between 5:51 p.m. until the close of the game at 7:53 p.m. that depicted nine tree symbols will receive a refund for the ticket. Those ticket holders will not receive the winnings because officials say the tickets were erron
May 30, 2018, 6:24 pm - Lottery News

Georgia Gov. signs bill allowing lottery winners to remain anonymousNews Story
By Todd Northrop Georgia has joined a small but growing number of states that allow lottery winners to remain anonymous. On Monday Georgia governor Nathan Deal signed a bill allowing lottery winners with prizes over $250,000 to keep their identity secret upon request. Prior to this point, Georgia state law required disclosure of big lottery winners' names and hometown be disclosed if requested under the state's Open Records Act, but did not require them to take photographs with oversize
May 12, 2018, 8:47 am - Lottery News

Lottery tickets will not be sold in South Carolina for more than 12 hours this weekendNews Story
You're out of luck if you planned on buying Powerball or Pick 3 tickets in South Carolina on Mother's Day morning. Stores will stop selling tickets for computerized lottery games including Mega Millions and Palmetto Cash 5 at 11:45 p.m. Saturday as the state switches to a new contractor's computer system. Exactly when stores will start selling again is unclear, but it will be sometime Sunday afternoon, more than 12 hours after going dark, state lottery Director Hogan Brown said. The lotte
May 10, 2018, 11:02 am - Lottery News

Illinois Lottery sells tickets for instant games after top prizes are goneNews Story
At $30 a ticket, the Illinois Lottery's World Class Millions instant game was not only one of its priciest offerings it was also potentially one of the most lucrative for players. WIN UP TO $15,000,000! THE HIGHEST INSTANT PAYOUT IN ILLINOIS LOTTERY HISTORY, shouted a banner across the magenta and silver ticket. But for the last five weeks the game was on sale this year, none of the three $15 million prizes remained. Yet players purchased an estimated 26,000 tickets during that time, spen
Apr 23, 2018, 7:34 am - Lottery News

$521 MILLION: Mega Millions jackpot raised due to surging salesNews Story
By Todd Northrop A rush of ticket sales for the half-billion-dollar Mega Millions jackpot has prompted lottery officials to revise their estimate for the Friday night drawing to $521 million. The all-important lump-sum cash value is now estimated to be a staggering $317.2 million. Friday's drawing will be the 24th since Mega Millions had a winner. The current jackpot run-up started on Jan. 9 as a $40 million grand prize. According to the Maryland Lottery, if nobody wins the Friday ja
Mar 30, 2018, 12:25 pm - Lottery News

$502 MILLION: Mega Millions grows to 10th-largest lottery jackpot of all timeNews Story
Half-billion jackpot comes 6 years after first reaching the same level By Todd Northrop Six years to the day after becoming the first lottery in history to feature a $500 million jackpot, the multi-state Mega Millions game is right back at the same level, offering a $502 million grand prize to be drawn Friday evening. During that nascent period in 2012, when the word billion first entered lottery jackpot discussions, Mega Millions tickets were being sold so quickly that the lotteries we
Mar 28, 2018, 11:32 am - Lottery News

$458M Mega Millions lottery jackpot is game's 4th-largest everNews Story
By Todd Northrop Lottery players across the United States will be lining up at lottery retailers for their chance to win Tuesday's massive $458 million Mega Millions jackpot, after nobody won Friday's $421 million grand prize. The cash value stands at a staggering $274 million. Tuesday's $458 million annuity jackpot is the 11th-largest United States lottery jackpots of all time, and the 4th-largest in Mega Millions game history. The cash value is the 14th-largest in history. (See full t
Mar 26, 2018, 9:00 am - Lottery News

Multi-state lottery games offer combined $800 million jackpotNews Story
By Todd Northrop Lottery fever is spreading across the USA with two huge jackpots adding up to $800 million. The ability to walk into a lottery retailer and purchase two separate opportunities to win nearly a half-billion dollars is unprecedented. This is only the second time in history that two US lottery games have combined to $800 million or more. Powerball grew overnight to $455 million for Saturday's drawing. Meanwhile Friday's Mega Millions jackpot stands at $345 million its highe
Mar 15, 2018, 9:03 am - Lottery News

S.C. lottery glitch could result in $35 million in prize payouts; NJ firm will investigateNews Story
South Carolina lottery officials say a computer glitch that made winners out of everyone who played a holiday game for two hours on Christmas Day could result in a more than $35 million prize payout nearly double the initial estimate. The S.C. Education Lottery Commission announced the new figure Tuesday at a special meeting called to discuss the ongoing fallout from a programming error. The mistake had players of the Holiday Cash Add-A-Play game seeing three matching Christmas trees print
Jan 23, 2018, 6:00 pm - Lottery News