During the past three years, the Missouri Lottery has been doing more than just saving its players time when entering promotions on-line at its Web site; it has saved players more than $97,000 in postage.
Since 2000, players have enjoyed a new option for entering Missouri Lottery promotions entering on-line at the Lottery's Web site, www.molottery.com. With just a few simple keystrokes, players have saved themselves the traditional time and postage costs previously required to participate in player promotions.
"Our very first Web-entry promotion was offered to players when the Lottery introduced the Pick 3/Pick 4 prize structure increase during the fall of 2000," said Jennifer Kempker, Missouri Lottery promotions manager. "Players were able to enter unique serial numbers from non-winning Pick 3 and Pick 4 tickets for a second chance to win prizes."
Since that time, more than 262,000 entries have been received through this method of entry.
"During last year's holiday Scratchers promotion, approximately half of the entries we received were from the Web," added Kempker. "We're predicting that more than 250,000 entries will be received through our Web site in this year's holiday Scratchers promotion'Big Sleigh Giveaway'as opposed to mailing them in. The cost savings to our players will be tremendous and detailed drawing procedures ensure the odds of winning a prize are the same for each entry, regardless if an entry is mailed in or entered through our Web site."
New to players entering on-line this year is the My Lottery program, a new on-line service that offers players a variety of benefits and more opportunities to win at molottery.com. Once players create a free My Lottery membership account and are logged in, they will only have to enter the serial number(s) on their ticket(s). They also have the advantage of viewing and editing their entries at any time prior to the promotion drawings.
One of the priorities of the My Lottery program is to provide the utmost security to players when entering promotions through the Lottery's Web site.
"We want our players to feel completely confident about entering our promotions on-line, and we have taken many steps to ensure that the information they provide us is protected and secure," said Julie Beck, managing Web editor for the Missouri Lottery.
The Missouri Lottery's Web site is managed and operated by a diverse team of in-house employees consisting of public relations, IT, research, marketing and promotional disciplines.
This is an excellent idea...I hope other states join in on this idea. Promotions are the second-chance player's best friend. When you have to include 37 cents postage on each second-chance ticket it's like losing twice...once to the state and once to Uncle Sammy (and we all know we're going to lose on THAT one)
Go Missouri...or as one of my transplanted friends calls it...Misery. Just kidding, Bryan and MO players!
Virginia does MO one better. On the games where Virginia offers a second chance drawing, you can enter the traditional way (by mailing in losing tickets) or you can enter online with no purchase necessary. Of course, they don't go out and advertise that fact in big, broad letters, but if you read the fine print in the entry information on the back of the ticket or in the second chance brochures, the alternate entry is listed.