Looks like having MM and PB in same state has been rejected.
Texas and few others are now looking to start a new game, as described in this
Texas Lottery Commission meeting extract,
MR. GRIEF: Very good, Madam Chair.
9 Commissioners, in addition to the information that I
10 provided you in your notebooks today, I have a few
11 other items I'd like to brief you on.
12 The first thing I'd like to cover is
13 that from June 22nd to June 25th, I attended the
14 Spring Director's meeting, which was held in
15 Nashville, Tennessee, and which was sponsored by the
16 National Association of State and Provincial
17 Lotteries, which is known as NASPL, which Texas is a
18 member.
19 This is an annual event, and it brings
20 together all the state lottery directors around the
21 country. It's an opportunity for the directors to
22 talk about common challenges and opportunities and new
23 game ideas, discuss industry best practices and
24 standards. And in addition at least one full day
25 during this time is allocated for meetings to occur of
0122
1 both the Powerball and the Mega Millions multistate
2 lottery consortiums, and those meetings are what I
3 want to highlight for you today.
4 The Multistate Lottery Association,
5 which oversees Powerball, which is also referred to as
6 MUSL, is the umbrella organization. MUSL considered
7 two issues of interest during their meeting on June
8 the 22nd. The first issue that MUSL took up was a
9 request from the new Arkansas Lottery to join
10 Powerball, and Arkansas was granted admission to
11 Powerball. And my understanding is they're looking to
12 start their scratch-off tickets around November and
13 start selling Powerball possibly as early as
14 January 1st.
15 The second issue had to do with a recent
16 letter that I sent to MUSL asking them to act upon
17 their 2003 invitation for Texas to join Powerball.
18 Now, my understanding is that during this meeting a
19 member of the MUSL group produced a copy of a letter
20 which was sent from Reagan Greer, our former Executive
21 Director, back in 2003, in which Mr. Greer declined
22 the 2003 invitation to join Powerball. MUSL then
23 determined that since Texas had formally declined that
24 invitation, that that invitation had closed and it was
25 no longer valid. So, therefore, my recent letter to
0123
1 MUSL was now going to be considered as a new request
2 for Texas to join that game.
3 Subsequently a vote was taken on that
4 issue, and it was denied. It was my understanding
5 that there was a great deal of concern expressed among
6 the small border states of Texas and about the
7 potential negative impact that Texas joining Powerball
8 would have on those states' Powerball sales.
9 The following day our Mega Millions
10 group met, and I briefed our group on what had
11 occurred, at least any understanding of what had
12 occurred, in the MUSL meeting. And once we were all
13 made aware of that decision, we've set aside now the
14 idea of trying to sell both Powerball and Mega
15 Millions in Texas and in other Mega Million states, at
16 least for now. And we're turning our attention to the
17 development and the launch of a new national game,
18 with the idea being that the 12 Mega Million states
19 along with any other MUSL states that might be
20 interested in joining us would come up with a much
21 higher population and potentially offer that national
22 game at a higher price point than the one dollar that
23 we're currently selling Mega Millions and Powerball
24 today.
25 Under that concept, the game could
0124
1 potentially start with a much higher starting jackpot,
2 and jackpots could potentially reach far greater
3 levels than we currently have today in either
4 Powerball or Mega Millions.
5 At this point, it's all conceptual in
6 nature, and we anticipate another joint meeting of the
7 five member subcommittees that have been appointed in
8 both Mega Millions and Powerball to continue those
9 discussions. Now, once again, I've been asked to
10 serve as a member of the Mega Millions subcommittee,
11 and I plan on keeping you informed as we move forward
12 on that.
⭐The inner machinations of my mind is an enigma.
