August 2019, the Mississippi Lottery Corporation (MLC) was approved by the board of Directors of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), to become their newest member to sell both Powerball and Mega Millions lottery tickets. At the time of the announcement, the MLC anticipated that sales for both would commence the first quarter of 2020 – and they weren’t wrong.
Excitement buzzed around the boats on the Mississippi Sound early on Thursday morning, when Sen. Philip Moran made a ceremonial purchase of both Powerball and Mega Millions tickets.
January 30th saw the first multi-state draw games go on sale with more than 1500 approved retailers on board the new system. President Tom Shaheen of the Mississippi Lottery Corporation (MLC) said: “Yesterday was another incredible day for MississippiPowerball® and Mega Millions® combined sales were $516,986. This is slightly over double of what we expected for jackpots at the current levels. Mississippians sent a resounding message that they were glad both games are here…
…We are extremely grateful for our loyal retailer base and players as we moved forward with our mission to raise needed revenue for roads, bridges and education.”
MLC Board Chairman Mike McGrevey agreed that January 30th was a big day for the 32nd largest and 34th most populous of the 50 states in the US: “I am grateful for the hard work of President Shaheen, the MLC staff, retailers and all the players. The Mississippi Lottery Corporation continues to bring more exciting game options, while benefitting the state in important ways.”
Making Lottery History
MLC is now the 46th state in the US to sell both lottery jackpot style games. There are two draws a week for each lottery game and there have been jackpots of £ $1 billion in the past. Mississippians now have the chance at four big jackpots a week thanks to the new legislation.
It’s estimated that the first $80m of net lottery annual proceeds will go towards infrastructure needs around the state. Once the 10-year period is up, lottery proceeds will go directly into the state’s general fund (collections of up to $80m) …
…Any funds over that initial $80m will be awarded to the Education Enhancement Fund; this helps fund pre-kindergarten and the classroom supply fund.
Big Balls
There are nine ways to win on the Powerball each drawing. All prizes are set cash amounts, except the grand prize; aka the jackpot. Power Play (from 2x to 10x) is an added incentive which can boost your winnings drastically. With no multiplier option, he prizes are as follows:
- Match the Power Ball to win $4
- Match 1 number and the Power Ball to win $4
- Match 2 numbers and the Power Ball to win $7
- Match 3 numbers to win $7
- Match 3 numbers and the Power Ball to win $100
- Match 4 numbers to win $100
- Match 4 numbers and the Power Ball to win $50K
- Match 5 Ball to win $1m
- Match 5 numbers and the Power Ball to win the jackpot – Sunday’s was for £60m or $42.9m cash value.
Mega Millions is almost the same, only the jackpot for Tuesday’s drawing is a cool $202m – or $142m cash value. Now can you see why it’s known as the MEGA Millions?
What are the odds of winning? Powerball: 1 in 292,201,338, Mega Millions 1 in 258,890,850 and winning the National Lottery? 1 in 45,057,474. Could you be that lucky 1 in all those millions?
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Comments (1)
Bubles12
02/10/20, 07:02:21 AM
I thought all states would be on-board this. Perhaps they will be now that Mississippi has joined up.
