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DELAWARE STATE LOTTERY EVALUATING OPTION TO SELL BOTH MEGA MILLIONS AND POWERBALL® GAMES
October 13, 2009
Dover, DE --The Delaware Lottery responded today to significant news in the gaming industry as the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) and the Mega Millions Consortium cleared the way for development of a future game that may be offered in a combined 42 states, Washington D.C., and the US Virgin Islands. In the interim, and as part of the emerging arrangement, all of the combined member lotteries have been offered the option to sell both of the high-jackpot games, Powerball® and Mega Millions, side-by-side in retail locations.
"While many of the technical details and costs to our individual state are yet to be known, we will be looking very carefully at the near term option of selling both games. Our job will be to determine whether selling the two similar games would be both profitable and convenient to our Delaware players," said Delaware Lottery Director Wayne Lemons. "The additional prospect of selling a combined single game at a later date seems favorable, and we will begin communicating with our network of retailers and customers immediately to identify preferences and to develop a successful strategy that will benefit both the public convenience and increase revenues that support state services," added Lemons.
Prior to the announcement, the Mega Millions consortium and MUSL conducted several joint meetings to discuss the potential of cross-selling and combining the popular games into a single game offering larger jackpots and more prizes. On Oct. 7 the two groups reached an agreement in principle and have since begun identifying the process steps for an implementation that may be completed in early 2010. At the same time, the conceptual work of designing a single game to be available in all states offering lottery sales began, with an anticipated game launch date tentatively established for late fall 2010.
States that currently sell Powerball and other lottery products will have the opportunity to begin offering Mega Millions tickets to their players via authorized lottery retailers, pending the approval of each jurisdiction's governing body. In addition, states offering the Mega Millions game may choose to undergo any required authorization process enabling the sale of the Powerball game as a complement their existing game mix. The 12 Mega Millions states sold more than $2.5 billion in tickets last fiscal year, while the 33 Powerball jurisdictions sold $2.1 billion in tickets.
Powerball offers $1 tickets for Wednesday night and Saturday night drawings, with players picking five numbers between 1 and 59, and an additional Powerball number from 1 to 39. Jackpots begin at $20 million for the annuity option and set prize levels range from $3 to $200,000, which may be multiplied to a $1 million prize for players selecting the Power Play multiplier option.
The Mega Millions game offers jackpots starting at $12 million and awards other prizes ranging from $2 to $250,000. Similar to Powerball, Mega Millions tickets cost $1 per play and players select five different numbers from 1 to 56 from one pool of numbers, and one number from 1 to 46 - or select Easy Pick. You win the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing. Drawings are conducted on Tuesday and Friday nights.
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