Last day for Lotto South

Feb 25, 2006, 8:30 am (29 comments)

Lotto South

One day you're in, and the next day you're out.

Like Carrot Top and Ugg boots, the Virginia Lottery's Lotto South has fallen in the latter category.

Today will be the last drawing for the nearly 5-year-old game with roots dating to 1990. If no one wins the final $4.5 million jackpot, all secondary prizes from $5 to $1,000 will be doubled.

Virginia Lottery officials say many of today's lottery players have turned their backs on Lotto South in favor of multistate games such as Mega Millions and Powerball that seduce with huge jackpots. Powerball created a frenzy last weekend with a record $365 million jackpot. Mega Millions offered an alluring $212 million in Friday's drawing.

Because these games are played in several states (Mega Millions, for instance, is played in Virginia and 11 other states) they draw more players, meaning a higher jackpot than with games sponsored by a single state or just a few — as well as more challenging odds. Chance of winning the jackpot in Mega Millions is 1 in 176 million.

Lotto South, according to the Virginia Lottery's 2005 annual report, went from a high of selling 86.7 million tickets in 2002 to 66.6 million in 2005. Virginia shares Lotto South with Georgia and Kentucky.

Hazel Garrison passed on a Lotto South ticket at the Quick-Ette in Fincastle this week after cashier Sharon Painter told her the night's jackpot was a mere $4 million.

"That's not enough," said Garrison, who works at Koyo Steering Systems USA.

Lotto South will be replaced with Win for Life, beginning Wednesday. Instead of a minimum $2 million jackpot, winners get $1,000 per week for the rest of their lives.

Win for Life players choose six numbers, from one to 42. The Free Ball is a seventh number drawn from remaining numbers that helps to determine lower-level prizes, which range from $2 to $52,000.

Virginia Lottery officials hope Win for Life will foster Mega Millions-level excitement while giving players better odds at taking the top prize, said Virginia Lottery spokeswoman Jennifer Mullen. Odds of winning the top prize in Win for Life will be 1 in 5.2 million, compared with 1 in 14 million for Lotto South.

The Virginia Lottery selected Win For Life as its new game after working with focus groups. "They really liked the idea of a supplemental income," Mullen said.

The idea of winning a huge jackpot prize may sound like a universal dream, but some players find it intimidating, explained Jill Vaughan, communication director for the Virginia Lottery.

Stories in the media have featured jackpot winners telling stories of being beleaguered by requests for money, mismanaging their funds and watching marriages disintegrate over money arguments.

With Win for Life, players probably don't risk that situation.

"This isn't a life-changing prize," Vaughan said. "It's a nice cushion."

As with Lotto South, the Virginia Lottery will partner with Georgia and Kentucky for Win for Life.

Ken Bandy of Fincastle bought a Lotto South ticket for Wednesday's drawing. He's a regular player, but wasn't traumatized to hear the game will soon be history.

"I never won nothing anyway," he said.

James Kyle, a salesman for Virginia Truck Center, regularly plays Lotto South with the same two sets of numbers. He stays up to watch the nightly lottery drawing on television, a ritual he calls "his little thrill."

But the death of Lotto South won't be a big whoop for Kyle either. He plans to play the same two sets of numbers with Win for Life.

About 13,500 people had subscriptions to Lotto South, meaning they paid in advance for numerous lottery drawings, according to Mullen. They've received the option of transferring their subscription to a Mega Millions subscription or receiving a refund for their remaining plays.

For most gambling addicts the Virginia Lottery's decision to replace Lotto South with Win for Life won't help to nip their problem, according to Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

He compared it to the idea that an alcoholic will give up drinking if a favorite brand of vodka is discontinued.

"Generally the deeper problems people have, the less they're influenced by game design," Whyte said.

Lotto South evolved from Virginia's pick-six Lotto game, which began in 1990.

In 2005, the Virginia Lottery turned over more than $423 million for education.

Roanoke Times

Related news stories

Three states replacing Lotto South gameJan 12, 2006

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

Todd's avatarTodd

I'm sad to see this game go.

DoubleDown

Question:

 

If no one wins the jackpot, what happens to the money  ?

NoCompLotto!

Question:

 

If no one wins the jackpot, what happens to the money  ?

It will be rolled into the secondary prizes, as the article said... they apparently will be doubled.

CalifDude

I have posted my predictions for the final draw on the Prediction Page.

 

CASH Only

LS was not perfect (IMO the matrix was too small) but it will be missed when compared with Lose for Life. The new game won't last as long as LS, especially since GA (still don't know about KY and VA) won't offer a cash option.

LotteryPlayer

Interesting. So they're going to pay out a jackpot that barely puts a person over the poverty level because giving millions of dollars to a person is too intimidating and may lead to money mismanagement and divorces?

These people are so nice, aren't they? Always looking out for our best interests. But isn't there still a chance a $1000/week could lead to money mismanagement and divorces, too? Better lower the payments to $500/week, just to be sure. [/sarcasm]

Lets discuss the real reason they're cancelling Lotto South: to make more money for the lottery commissions. That's it. Nothing more.

Let me give ya'll an example of how this works, using a fictitional jackpot game:

Assume the lottery commissions keep 50% of the sales from this jackpot game and the jackpot sales were $8 million per month in 2004 and $6 million per month in 2005:

 

2004 ($8 million/month in sales)

$4 million/month -- Goes to the lottery commissions

$4 million/month -- Paid to the lottery players

 

2005 ($6 million/month in sales)

$3 million/month -- Goes to the lottery commissions

$3 million/month -- Paid to the lottery players

 

Notice that the lottery commissions made $4 million per month in 2004, but only $3 million per month in 2005.

So what's their solution? Simple: just make a new game that takes more than 50%. For example, lets assume they make a new game that takes 67%. Here's how the numbers would work if they made $6 million in sales as they did in 2005:

 

New Game ($6 million/month in sales)

$4 million/month -- Goes to the lottery commissions

$2 million/month -- Paid to the lottery players

 

Do you see what just happened here? The lottery commissions are now back to making $4 million per month, just as they did in 2004. But, the lottery players are only getting half of what the got in 2004.

They only thing I can't figure out is, don't all states have regulations that compel them to pay out a certain percentage of the lottery sales? Or do only a few states have these regulations?

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

How does Lotto South have roots dating back to 1990?  Was that the old Lotto games on those states?

KY Floyd's avatarKY Floyd

Question:

 

If no one wins the jackpot, what happens to the money  ?

It will be rolled into the secondary prizes, as the article said... they apparently will be doubled.

Unless they're going to do something with the money that isn' mentioned in the article, it looks like the correct answer may be that a lot of it is going to stay in the state coffers. If Kentucky lists the number of winners on their website they don't do it in a very obvious place. I'm not going to spend a lot of time looking, but based on the numbers for Virginia and Georgia it looks like doubling the payouts for lower prizes won't  even come close to using all of the money from the jackpot prize pool.

For the last draw the total payout  for Virginia and Georgia was about 287 grand, so unless Kentucky has really huge lottery sales, the total payout for all three states wouldn't have been more than perhaps 500 grand. Doubling the payout for the last draw would then require an extra 500 grand, but the cash value of the jackpot is about 2.25 million. That sounds like the states may be pocketing about  1.75 million from money that's in the prize pool. The 2nd place prize paid $1665 in the last draw, but the article says that prizes up to $1000 will be doubled. If that's the case, I guess they'll be keeping even more.

hockeyguy858

according to a wikipedia post about Win For Life, there is lump sum offer, but its on the guaranteed 10 yr payout ($520,000), now it may not say what states offer it, but then GA doesn't even have a page about win for life on its website, and wikipedia is as reliable as it is unreliable.

starchild_45's avatarstarchild_45

i will miss this game. whenever i was in va i would play. never won but i did play a lot.

LOTTOMIKE's avatarLOTTOMIKE

I'm sad to see this game go.

me too.i would've played it had the offered it here in tennessee.....

konane's avatarkonane

How does Lotto South have roots dating back to 1990?  Was that the old Lotto games on those states?

Lotto South morphed from the Virginia Lottery,  and both Kentucky and Georgia which had 6 number lotto games killed theirs and joined into something with longer odds, smaller payouts than Lotto Georgia at its worst.  

In Georgia we had no studies or group feedback that I was ever aware of and our discontinuing Lotto Georgia was a singular pronouncement that it was over.  

 

CASH Only

according to a wikipedia post about Win For Life, there is lump sum offer, but its on the guaranteed 10 yr payout ($520,000), now it may not say what states offer it, but then GA doesn't even have a page about win for life on its website, and wikipedia is as reliable as it is unreliable.

GA won't offer a cash option. I don't know for sure about KY or VA.

konane's avatarkonane

according to a wikipedia post about Win For Life, there is lump sum offer, but its on the guaranteed 10 yr payout ($520,000), now it may not say what states offer it, but then GA doesn't even have a page about win for life on its website, and wikipedia is as reliable as it is unreliable.

GA won't offer a cash option. I don't know for sure about KY or VA.

Supposed to go on sale today but no information on the Georgia Lottery site yet, only a notation about it in their daily updates email.

However, am happier about the lower matrix. 

Now I wonder if they're going to lower the Fantasy 5 matrix back to the original 5/35 one.  Bet they'd get more players and old players returning if they did.  Big Grin

Subscribe to this news story
Guest