Could be first state to offer both Mega Millions and Powerball
New Jersey could become the first to participate in two multi-state lotteries.
Two state officials who have been briefed on the budget Gov. Jon S. Corzine will present to the Legislature on Tuesday say it includes a proposal that New Jersey become the 31st state to offer Powerball.
The officials say the game could generate $10 million a year.
New Jersey's other lottery games, including the multi-state Mega Millions, generate about $860 million a year for education, senior programs and institutions.
The lotteries are New Jersey's fourth-largest revenue producers behind taxes on income, sales and businesses.
Lottery sales were off nearly 2 percent in January but still generated $66 million for the month.
States traditionally pick one multi-state game or the other. The groups that operate Powerball and Mega Millions normally do not approve a state's membership in the game if it participates in the other game.
MUSL, the company that operates Powerball, may be enticed to accept the offer based on New Jersey's large player base and long history of lottery success.
Thanks for LckyLary for the tip.
Todd-
What do u think? Im guessing Jersey cant wait to get its greedy hands on powerball $$$. But Im definately down!!!!
Heck, I think it would be great - can't wait to get my hands on it too!
May go down as the first good achievement of our governor.
That would be kind of cool, but I always thought that to two games would never want to be in the same state at the same time.
Just say no to this.
The article said it would raise $10 million. Is that per month? I mean that would be a very low estimate for a year...especially how well NJ sells Mega Millions. If this does happen I can definetly see a merger of the two games on the horizon.
Brad
This would be huge. But how would the Mega Millions consortium react to this? Me thinks they might be peeved. Peeved enough to give New Jersey Das Boot.
I'm sure that $10 million number is a net number to the government's bottom line, not gross proceeds for the game.
I don't see a merger at all. From a revenue perspective there is no benefit to merging, and in fact would probably produce less revenue than having two separate games in one state.
I'm not so sure. It may actually have the opposite effect, with more states wanting to join both. On the flip-side I'm sure there are some Powerball states that would love to add Mega Millions.
Wow! Talk about confusing..
..I don't think I could handle the pressure.
lol however, it would save me a drive to Virginia
Naw, only the folks at Powerball have hard feelings over the Big Game (Mega Millions) as if you read in the Powerball History sheet, it says, "The Georgia Lottery Corporation stops selling the Powerball game and joins some other lottery game...that some other lottery game being Mega Millions! Heck, GA only offered Powerball for a little over a year before jumping to the Big Game. I guess the PB folks are perhaps hoping NJ will do to Mega Millions what GA did to Powerball...which would be a dumb move on NJ's part as NJ has had quite a few jackpot winners as of late. Personally, I would hate for NJ to join Powerball as I would really hate for their penchant for winning the jackpot to carry over to Powerball.
it should save me a drive to virginia also...
For lottery fanatics this would be heaven. They can play 4 days a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Todd is from Jersey? What exit? :)
For a very mature, geographically compact, with lots of "border fuzziness" (lots of people from Jersey commute to NYC, Philly and towns in other states I don't even know about) lottery, I can see them looking at having both games.
There is an investment for ad/promo for the lottery, and for the lottery vendor in programming, playslips, updating training materials, etc. But unless they do a big ad campaign, that investment is pretty limited.
Will PB cannibalize MM? Yes
How much? Hard to say. Other states have seen a "hit" of 40% - but I don't think that will apply to a "daily numbers heavy", Eastern state like NJ.
How much will incremental sales be? Ahhhh - that is the kicker. To the extent that combined sales are even a little bit higher incrementally, the Lottery wins. When PB gets a big JP, they will generate even more $$$ on the margin.
While this would have been considered "heresy" just a few short years ago, I'm actually pretty warm to the idea.
Seems like a bad idea. It's bad enough being behind someone who NEVER plays the lotto but wants a ticket for the big jackpot. I can only imagine being behind someone who doesn't know the difference btw Powerball and Mega Millions! It's bad enough when the clerk is trying to explain QP's to a person or how they have to fill out a playslip but to Multi-State games?? It would be awful for someone who wasn't aware of the difference to buy a Powerball ticket instead of a MM and miss a Jackpot!! Imagine having the right numbers but on the wrong Game! I think MM's will drop New Jersey if they adopt Powerball...........
Wow!!! That would be a dream come true for lottery players. However, I don't think MM is just going to say, OK. There will be a lot of talking among administration for both games and NJ in the future. And dare I say lawyer activity... Fun stuff!
New Jersey have been hitting the Mega Millions jackpots so much that their government is saying "why not?" to having Powerball. I'm surprised the NJ Lottery Commision is not top when it comes to total lottery sales. For 2008 NY leads followed by MA. Interesting.
Well, we have Pick 6 Monday and Thursday , Mega on Tuesday and Friday. So it would be pretty awsome to have a jackpot game wednesday and saturday. II'm sure NJ won't have a problem keeping up with both games. I see people spend ALOT on lottery tickets already, so im sure players will just play less cash 5 on those powerball days. I can't wait
I was thinking about all of the gas money I would save if Maryland added Powerball to the mix.
This is so awesome, but i wonder if the state can support it..They say they already have Pick6, so i dont know....for MM and PB people will go one when the jackpot is high and the other when the other is high...What a cool thing...
at least is better than 1 combined MM & Powerball Together in all the states...
Georgia are you listening, this is what you also need to do...
but i still think they should charge 2 dollars per ticket that way the jackpot will be high pretty quick, every month in fact...
great idea....
They DON'T need to double the price of a ticket.The jackpot grows at good pace as it is.
Not sure this could ever happen. It would hurt sales of Mega Millions drastically.
I can see it now ...
I would welcome PB in nj but miss the trips to PA.. but they have other games I like too.
I would imagine that MM sales would certainly drop with PB added, the question is, will people play additional tickets for PB, or will they play PB *instead* of MM, with both available? Some will be asking at the counter, which jackpot is higher, and play that one only. I know I do better on MM but I'd always play at least one PB, more on a higher jackpot.
Every time they add a State, they add more balls. They just did this, so even if nj joins it might be a month of Sundays before it's here unless no matrix change but then they won't get as big jackpots as they hoped for.
Although I live in Bethesda, Maryland, and buy PB Tickets in Washington DC, It would certainly be intersting to watch and see how this develops. I actually like the competiveness of MEGAM$$$$$$$$ VS PB...in the Metropolitan area...I enjoy the excitement of watching the Jackpots soare and the long lines of people trying their chances to win.........:;......)I play MEGAM$$$$$ in MARYLAND and then play PB in the DISTRICT
.I really do not want to see the games consolidated and hope that they remain separarte, especially in the MARYLAND , WASHINGTON,VIRGINIA AREAS......;.....) IT will be very interesting to watch what Jersey does
most of us play 2 or 3 tickets most of the time anyways so why not raise the ticket to 2 dollars that way the jackpots will get bigger quicker and more people will want to play them...I don't see how this set up is going to work, they will either have to increase the price of each ticket to 2 dollars or they will have to increase the price of the Pick6 to 2 dollars...That's how i see it...i am not a sales ingeneer or whatever you call them that investigates that sort of thing...It was just an idea anyways...
i say people are not going to choose one over the other because of odds...How many people IN YOUR STATE know that MegaMillions has more odds than Powerball? Unless they read the back of the slip which must of us don't do....I say they are going to go after whichever jackpot is bigger...
First of all, the only lottery I would and have paid $2 or even $3 for a ticket was when Florida added that booster feature to the jackpot (10 million extra for $2; 15 million extra for $3 ticket...oops I forgot that I made a mistake and bought a Canada lotto ticket that also cost $3.27 - punk ass clerk hit me up for the extra few cents when the Canadian buck was trading higher than the USD which is why I won't spend another red cent in Canada for awhile as they wouldn't do that (adjust for the exchange rate) when the USD was waxing the Canadian dollar).
Oh and Powerball actually has the higher odds now with the matrix change. The odds to hit the MM jackpot is 1:175,711,536 while the odds to hit the PB jackpot is now 1:195,249,054.
I've yet to read a post where MUSL, the company that operates Powerball, concurs with the NJ governor.
A former member of the Texas Lottery Commission pushed hard for MegaMillions and PB, but it hasn't happened.
Representatives for MM and PB presentedd their packages when Texas decided to join a jackpot game. MegaMillions
won because the drawings are on Tuesday and Friday, and wouldn't compete with Texas Lotto.
The PB folks weren't happy. Does anyone really believe they will give Texas a second chance?
The folks who run the jackpot games make the decisions, not the governors or individual lottery staffs. While the latter
might express an interest, the former (MUSL) decides.
If New york got Powerball too I wouldn't have to drive up to Connecticut to buy my tickets. Before NY got Mega I'd take the Path train one stop into Jersey to get my tickets and the office group tickets.