Michigan Lottery to debut $50 'Super Raffle' tickets

Apr 28, 2007, 9:31 am (20 comments)

Michigan Lottery

The most expensive ticket in the Michigan Lottery's 35-year history goes on sale May 7, offering the best odds ever of winning a $2 million top prize.

Tickets for the "Super Raffle" game will cost $50 each, and only 250,000 will be sold. In the June 18 drawing, two players each will win $2 million, 25 players will collect $100,000 each and 4,500 will get $500 apiece.

But will folks balk at the unprecedented $50 ticket price?

"We don't think that's going to be a problem," Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters said Friday. "We've been hearing from our retailers that players are asking when the next raffle game begins and they are eagerly awaiting it. We're confident the market is there."

Lansing bartender Steven Keast, 31, agrees. Keast, who was buying lottery tickets at a Lansing convenience store Friday, said he wouldn't hesitate to pay $50 for a chance to win the new game.

"People are looking for a way to win lots of money, and the odds in this game are better than in the regular lottery games," said Keast, who spends about $15 a week on lottery tickets. "I'll definitely buy one."

There have been two "Millionaire Raffles" this year, offering top prizes of $1 million. Tickets in those raffles each cost $20. The first raffle was limited to 500,000 tickets and sold out in 11 days. In the second raffle, drawn April 20, all 600,000 tickets were sold in six days.

The odds of collecting one of the new $2 million prizes: One in 125,000.

Peters said as an added sales incentive, the prize payout will be increased to 59 percent of the total money wagered. In the two earlier Millionaire Raffles the prizes amounted to 50 percent of the money wagered.

The huge interest in the raffles is credited with record-breaking lottery sales this year.

For the first six months of this fiscal year, lottery sales were nearly $1.2 billion, up 3 percent from last year's pace, Peters said.

Last year, the lottery shattered all records, with sales of $2.2 billion. Players pocketed $1.3 billion in prize money.

All proceeds from the lottery go into the School Aid Fund to help pay for K-12 education. Last year, that totaled $688 million.

Detroit News

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BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

I don't think the raffle sounds good at all.  In the state of Mass., their July raffle has a top prize of $20 mil, with a ticket cost of $20.  A much better deal.

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

It will be interesting to see if the market is there.  I am sure they will sell them but I wonder how long it will take.  But the odds are better, I mean 1 in 50.  I can't believe they are actually paying more than 50% out.  That was a shocker to me.

In Mass though the odds of winning are ridiculous.  I believe they are like 1 in 7000 or something like that.  I could go for the better odds on raffles then bigger prizes.

Brad

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

I correct that....the odds of winning any prize in the Mass game are 1 in 70000+.

rdc137

Delaware's was a much better deal.

Tnplayer805's avatarTnplayer805

$50 is pushing it!!!  I'm going to watch this evolve.  It's going to be no doubt entertaining.

tnlotto1's avatartnlotto1

Quote: Originally posted by Tnplayer805 on Apr 28, 2007

$50 is pushing it!!!  I'm going to watch this evolve.  It's going to be no doubt entertaining.

i have to admit if i lived in michigan i would buy some tickets but we will see if the people in michigan agree with me. i think their last raffle sold out in a week but the tickets were not $50 that time.

Badger's avatarBadger

I really wonder if they'll sell all of them.

Wisconsin has their raffle going at $10/ticket with 500,000 available. The deadline is 9PM tonight and the have only sold about 65% of their tickets.  They will still make money of course. ANd those that buy a ticket will have even better odds due to about (estimating) 20% of their tickets not being sold.

But if they can't sell 500,000 at 10 bucks each, at least here, they wouldn't be able to sell half that many at five times as much.

Tnplayer805's avatarTnplayer805

TN's raffle isn't doing all that great either.  Out of 800,000 tickets only 500,000 have been sold and the drawing is May 14.  Bet they don't try that again.

Littleoldlady's avatarLittleoldlady

The prize tier in TN is bad..

liberal47's avatarliberal47

These tickets will certainly sell out in less than a week. Every time I go to the store I run into someone who says 50 bucks is no object to them. Most are ticked off that they waited too long, and missed out on getting one of the 20 dollar tickets in the last raffle. They say on the State website, that they are only doing this 50 dollar thing once this year, LOL! we will see about that! I have a hunch, the price of these raffles is still to be determined.

fbird's avatarfbird

GEEZ 50 bucks!!!!!!! when does the $100 one start??? the greed of the MSL is appalling at times!! But one thing about Michigan...we can't sell houses,but we can sell the heck out of raffle tickets!!!!!!!!!

HiYoSilver

$20 is my limit for any one ticket. Beyond that I feel too bad if I lose. If I could find two other people I trust I would split the cost. Wonder if George and Hillary would like to go in with me.Wink

Tnplayer805's avatarTnplayer805

If any of you from MI are planning on buy one I wish you the best of Luck!

Think's avatarThink

Well I supose if I were at that place in Jackson that sold the top prize $650,000 winners for two raffle draws in a row I would buy a ticket.  I am going to be realllllllllllyyyyyyyyy suspicious if they sell a $1,300,000 winning ticket.  I'm not going to buy any more tickets if Jackson winds up with all the prizes anyway...what is the point?

*IF* I buy a ticket I wont be playing the Fantasy 5 for a long time.

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