New Penn. Lottery raffle game on sale next week

Nov 15, 2006, 12:35 pm (16 comments)

Pennsylvania Lottery

Return of popular Millionaire Raffle to award more than $6 million; computerized drawing to be used

Millionaire Raffle, the successful groundbreaking game developed last year by the Pennsylvania Lottery, will create even more millionaires when the game returns for a third drawing on Saturday, Dec. 30.

Millionaire Raffle tickets go on sale Tuesday, Nov. 21, at more than 8,400 Lottery retailers throughout the commonwealth. Only 625,000 tickets will be sold. Each of the game's $20 tickets will offer a 1-in-125,000 chance of winning $1 million. The Millionaire Raffle game provides the best odds ever offered by the Pennsylvania Lottery for winning a $1 million prize.

"Both the first and second Millionaire Raffles were well-received by Lottery players," said acting Lottery Executive Director Ed Trees. "We anticipate that this third Millionaire Raffle will be just as successful and sell out just as quickly as the first two."

The Dec. 30 Millionaire Raffle drawing will award five top prizes of $1 million, five $100,000 cash prizes, and 750 prizes of $1,000 cash. A total of 760 prizes worth $6.25 million will be awarded.

Each Millionaire Raffle ticket will contain a unique, eight-digit raffle number issued sequentially across the commonwealth from the Lottery's central computer, starting with raffle number 00000001. The last raffle ticket issued for the game will contain the raffle number 00625000. When the last raffle number is issued, the game will close and no additional tickets will be available for purchase. Tickets for the Dec. 30 Millionaire Raffle drawing will be on sale from Nov. 21 until 5 p.m. Dec. 30, or until sold out.

Because Millionaire Raffle tickets are scheduled to be sold over a six-week period, Trees urged players to sign the backs of their tickets and keep them in a safe place until the Dec. 30 drawing. The winning raffle numbers will be randomly selected at 7 p.m. on Dec. 30 when the Lottery's live drawing show will televise the selection of the five $1 million top-prize raffle ticket numbers and the five $100,000 second-prize raffle ticket numbers. The 750 $1,000 winning raffle ticket numbers will also be selected, but will not be displayed due to time constraints. A complete list of all 760 winning raffle ticket numbers will be available later that night at Lottery retailers and on the Lottery Web site, http://www.palottery.com.

The winning ticket numbers will be selected by a random number generator certified by Gaming Laboratories International.

The eight-digit raffle number printed on the ticket must match the eight-digit raffle number combination selected in the drawing — in the exact sequence in which it was selected — to be considered a winning ticket and to be entitled to a Millionaire Raffle prize.

Odds of winning a $1 million top prize are 1-in-125,000; odds of winning a $100,000 prize are 1-in-125,000 and the odds of winning $1,000 are 1-in-833.3. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1-in-822.

Forty-one tickets from the Dec. 31, 2005, Millionaire Raffle drawing — each worth $1,000 — are unclaimed and will expire Dec. 31, 2006. Eighty tickets from the July 4, 2006, raffle drawing — two of them worth $100,000 each and 78 of them worth $1,000 each — remain unclaimed. Those tickets will expire July 4, 2007.

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CCHS13's avatarCCHS13

How are the odds the same for the 1 million and the 100,000 when

there are more than one 100,000 prize?

wizeguy's avatarwizeguy

Quote: Originally posted by CCHS13 on Nov 15, 2006

How are the odds the same for the 1 million and the 100,000 when

there are more than one 100,000 prize?

There's 5 of each in the drawing.

Todd's avatarTodd

From the article:

The Dec. 30 Millionaire Raffle drawing will award five top prizes of $1 million, five $100,000 cash prizes, and 750 prizes of $1,000 cash. A total of 760 prizes worth $6.25 million will be awarded.

LckyLary

I got one last year. Maybe another one this year. Your chance at $1,000 is good enough to be worth playing just for that. My only complaint is that it has to be quick-pick and the drawing is computerized.

qutgnt

Great game and idea but my God would it hurt to have a payback percentage of more than 50% on a 20 dollar game.

JimmySand9

Price of Ticket : $20

Odds of winning your money back : 1 in 822

What does that equal : A bad game

"But, Jimmy, the odds of winning $1,000,000 are so good".

Doesn't matter. You can buy the new $20 christmas scratch-off, where the odds of winning $1,000,000 are only 3.36 times slimmer than the raffle, but the odds of getting your money back (or better) are 251 times better than the raffle. Plus, the raffle pays out 50%, the $20 scratch-off pays 75%.

If you're going to spend $20 on a lottery ticket, make it a scratch-off. 

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

I would play it in a heartbeat.  I would buy $500.00 worth of tickets..  that's just me..LOL

CASH Only

Quote: Originally posted by JimmySand9 on Nov 15, 2006

Price of Ticket : $20

Odds of winning your money back : 1 in 822

What does that equal : A bad game

"But, Jimmy, the odds of winning $1,000,000 are so good".

Doesn't matter. You can buy the new $20 christmas scratch-off, where the odds of winning $1,000,000 are only 3.36 times slimmer than the raffle, but the odds of getting your money back (or better) are 251 times better than the raffle. Plus, the raffle pays out 50%, the $20 scratch-off pays 75%.

If you're going to spend $20 on a lottery ticket, make it a scratch-off. 

In NY state it would be wrong to buy a $20 scratch, or two $10s, as they are annuity-only. Buy $20 of Instant Take Five ($1) instead.

Right now it would be a good idea to take the $20 and play Hot Lotto, even if you have to drive a bit to New Hampshire, West Virginia, or DC.

rdc137

Quote: Originally posted by LckyLary on Nov 15, 2006

I got one last year. Maybe another one this year. Your chance at $1,000 is good enough to be worth playing just for that. My only complaint is that it has to be quick-pick and the drawing is computerized.

How exactly would you propose drawing 760 winning 6-digit numbers in one day as a non-computerized drawing?

sirbrad's avatarsirbrad

Yeah I posted about this in the jackpot forum. $20 is tough for me to spend on one ticket, but I might get one. Wish I could get more though. My last number was less than 50 off for the million, so close it made me cringe. But $20 buys you more tickets for the even "badder" games.

sirbrad's avatarsirbrad

Depends what you are playing for. Personally I play for a "life altering" jackpot, not chump change. So granted you are going to lose more often and get nothing. But when you do hit, that is when all those losses no longer matter...

JimmySand9

Quote: Originally posted by CASH Only on Nov 16, 2006

In NY state it would be wrong to buy a $20 scratch, or two $10s, as they are annuity-only. Buy $20 of Instant Take Five ($1) instead.

Right now it would be a good idea to take the $20 and play Hot Lotto, even if you have to drive a bit to New Hampshire, West Virginia, or DC.

Hot Lotto would be a much better choice than one of these Millionaire Raffles.

CASH Only

Quote: Originally posted by JimmySand9 on Nov 16, 2006

Hot Lotto would be a much better choice than one of these Millionaire Raffles.

Keep pushing Pennsylvania into looking at HL. Maybe you can get Match 6 replaced by it, even though M6 certainly is not a bad game.

JimmySand9

Quote: Originally posted by CASH Only on Nov 16, 2006

Keep pushing Pennsylvania into looking at HL. Maybe you can get Match 6 replaced by it, even though M6 certainly is not a bad game.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm gonna get carpal tunnel if I keep typing 'NO'!

Match 6 is sacred ground. Perhaps the best, if not at least in the top 3, of on-line games in the U.S. It should never be replaced. I don't care what's replacing it.

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