Tennessee lottery players may have a chance at $1 million in prize money even before the Ping-Pong balls start popping up for the state's big money drawings this spring.
Yesterday lottery President and Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Paul unveiled Tennessee Millionaire along with three other scratch-off ticket games that will go on sale in February, officially launching the drive for funding college scholarships through lottery sales.
''At about 10:30 p.m. last night, we printed our first lottery ticket,'' Paul said before announcing Tennessee Millionaire.
The lottery's instant ticket vendor Scientific Games based in New York printed the tickets in Alpharetta, Ga. Samples were driven to Nashville for a lottery board meeting yesterday morning.
For a $1 Tennessee Millionaire ticket, players have a chance to win up to $1,000 instantly by matching dollar signs.
Players who match ''entry'' symbols will have a chance to win $1 million by sending the ticket in for a special drawing.
The drawing dates depend on receiving approximately 500,000 entries, Paul said. In all, there will be three drawings in which three people each are picked.
First place wins $1 million, while second and third place winners will get $25,000 and $10,000, respectively.
The odds of landing an entry ticket are 1 in 20.
Clearly the odds of winning the $1 million are quite long.
But calculating the odds is difficult, Paul said, because it depends on how many tickets are sold and how many entries are received. She said she has introduced similar games in Georgia and Florida, lotteries she ran before coming to Tennessee. Paul said she always has trouble explaining the odds of becoming a millionaire. ''They're impossible if you don't buy a ticket,'' she joked.
Three other games unveiled yesterday offer top prizes of far less than $1 million.
" Tennessee Treasures, a $2-per-ticket game, shows scenes from around the state on ticket stubs and offers a chance to win up to $25,000. One ticket shows the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. A Beale Street picture represents Memphis.
" Lucky 7's is a $1 game played like tic-tack-toe to win up to $7,000.
Hopefully the folks running Lottery TN won't force the $1 million winner(s) to receive annuity payments.
Difficult to predict the odds of a million dollar winner, my foot. How many tickets are being printed?
gl
But not everyone who has a winning entry ticket will send it in. Hence the odds can not be calculated. Although they could probably have just said approximately 1 : 500,000
Interesting on the Lucky 7's game --it is identical to the Lucky 7 game that GA has.
Did Rebecca Paul not bring any creativity to the game for that huge salary she is receiving ?
In NJ & NY you choose Cash or Annunity for the MegaMillion ticket at the time you purchase the ticket not after you win.
jacaesar:
Todd pointed out in another forum that in NJ a ticket marked "annuity" CAN be changed to "cash" if you win.
NY (and TX) will not let you change your mind on Mega Millions.
smd173 -
The article didn't refer to the number of winners who cash in their tickets, it was referring to the chances of winning. There are going to be x amount of tickets printed and y amount of million dollar tickets.
johnph:
I think there will not be actual "million-dollar" tickets; those prize(s) would be awarded in a special drawing.