Texas Two Step likely to move to new days

Dec 19, 2003, 3:17 am (2 comments)

Texas Lottery

Texas Two Step lotto games probably will be moved to new days because of a loss in sales to Mega Millions, the multistate game new to the state.

Drawings for both games are on Tuesday and Friday nights, and Reagan Greer, the lottery's chief administrator, said Thursday that average weekly ticket sales for Texas Two Step have slipped below $1 million for the first time.

Those sales, which previously averaged $1.5 million, dipped to an average of $936,091, he said.

Mr. Greer told lottery commissioners at their monthly meeting in Austin that he wants to move Texas Two Step drawings to Monday and Thursday nights to avoid the conflict.
Tom Clowe of Waco, the commission chairman, said he and his fellow commissioners probably won't have any objections.

"We must be open to change," Mr. Clowe said. "I would generally be in favor" of the move.

Mr. Greer said he plans to propose the rule change at the commission's next meeting.

There had been some talk that Texas Two-Step might have to be scrapped, but Mr. Greer said that the game has a loyal following and that he wants to keep it.

He said some "cannibalization" was inevitable because of the disparity in the jackpots.

The Mega Millions Friday jackpot is an estimated $85 million compared with Texas Two Step's $250,000.

Lottery officials, meanwhile, said they are pleased with Mega Millions' early showings.

The lottery commission has sold an average of $2.9 million worth of Mega Millions tickets for each of the four drawings since the game began in Texas on Dec. 3. And officials said the two-week revenue on overall lottery ticket sales increased from an average of $56 million before Mega Millions to $65 million during the last two weeks.

Online lotto ticket sales overall were up 2.4 percent for the fiscal year with the introduction of the game, officials said. But the gains were largely at the expense of the older games.

Lotto Texas ticket sales were off 19 percent compared with their previous averages since the start of Mega Millions, a drop that was not unexpected.

But officials said it's too early to say whether there will be any changes made to Lotto Texas.

"We're not losing the dollars," Mr. Greer said. "They are shifting in other directions."

Dallas Morning News

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CASH Only

I doubt they are considering Tuesday-Saturday, like the PA Match-6 will be.

CASH Only

I was wrong about Match-6...Tue & Sat seemed awkward.

TX 2-Step and FL Mega Money are both "4+1" games. However,                Mega Money will undergo a format change. The biggest difference in the new version in FL is that the jackpot will be ANNUITIZED.

Assuming TX 2-Step is retained, the jackpot should stay ALL-CASH, especially since TX has _not_ adopted the 60-day window in which jackpot winners can choose cash or annuity AFTER winning.

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