MO Lottery Blog

Today's the day!

The drawing for the Million-Dollar Raffle takes place today.  Winning numbers should be posted by 5 pm on Molottery.com.  Good luck. 

UPDATE:  The winners have been selected.  Visit here for a list of lucky tickets. 

Promotion Completion!

The final drawing for the "Holiday in the Driveway" promotion is complete.  The unofficial winners list is posted on Molottery.com.  If you were one of the lucky winners who submitted their entry on-line through My Lottery, you'll need to submit those tickets for verification.  Follow the directions you'll be receiving from us via electronic and snail mail.  Once all of the winners are verified, the winners list will become official and prizes can be claimed. 

There were more than 394,000 entries for this drawing, the largest of the three for this promotion.  Seventy-three percent of those entries were submitted over the Internet.  Congratulations to all who won. 

Get your tickets!

Only a handful of tickets remain for the Million-Dollar Raffle! MDR offers your best odds for winning $1 million! Don't be left out in the cold.  Get your ticket today! 

It's getting hot!

While it's starting to really feel like winter outside, the games are heating up at the Missouri Lottery!  The Powerball jackpot for Jan. 16 is an estimated $95 million!  What could you do with that? 

And if $1 million is enough to make your dreams come true, don't forget about the Million-Dollar Raffle!  Only a few tickets remain and the drawing is less than a week away.  Don't miss your best chance to win $1 million.  You can buy Powerball and Million-Dollar Raffle tickets at thousands of retail locations across the state. Get yours today! 

Start thinking Powerball!

Don't look now, but the Powerball jackpot for Saturday, Jan. 12 is estimated at $83 million.  Time to dust-off those playslips and get in the game! 

A winning gift

In recent years, giving Lottery tickets as gifts has become a popular choice.  Obvious benefits to the Lottery aside, we think it makes an easy, fun gift for people, especially for that difficult-to-buy-for-person on your list.  Aside from a little fun, there's always the chance that the ticket could be a big winner. 

As it turns out, that's what happened to a family in Pennsylvania.  A raffle ticket given as a gift ended up being worth $1 million, and everyone involved couldn't be happier.  Do you give Lottery tickets as gifts, and would you be satisfied seeing someone else win? 

Hat tip to the Lottery Post.

Beat the deadline!

There are some important dates to remember this January.  First, don't forget to submit all of your entries for the "Holiday in the Driveway" promotion by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 8.  The final drawing for a Chevrolet® Avalanche truck will take place on Jan. 17. 

Tickets are running out for the Million-Dollar Raffle.  Once they are gone, the game is over.  Don't be surprised if the game sells out before sales end on Jan. 19.  The Million-Dollar Raffle drawing will take place on Jan. 21. 

Finally, the second-chance promotion for "Deal or No Deal" is coming to a close.  To be eligible for the final drawing, you must have your non-winning "Deal or No Deal" Scratchers tickets submitted by Jan. 28.  Time is running out on all of these great promotions - don't be left out in the cold.  Good luck. 

Sorry folks, the game is closed

"The snowman out front should have told you."  Even Lotto balls like to quote Chevy Chase movies on occasion.  I'm joking about a recent comment from Jeff, but I'm not making light of his concern. 

I think it's a bunch of bull you end games and over half the top prizes are not given out! 

He has a good point.  What is the policy behind when games end?  Jeff is referring to "Frosty Bingo," one of our recent holiday-themed Scratcher games.  (Thus the snowman instead of a moose.)

All of our online games have a 180-day redemption window.  That means you have about six months from the date of the drawing your ticket was purchased for to claim a prize.  After that 180-day period, the ticket "expires" and any unclaimed prizes are returned to the state.  Scratcher tickets like "Frosty Bingo" are a little different.  They are often on sale for several months and can be claimed anytime while the game is "open."  When a ticket has been completely distributed, all of the top prizes claimed, or in the case of some of the holiday-themed games, no longer relevant, the game will be "closed."  That action means that the game will no longer be distributed to retailers.  After a few more weeks the game will "end," which is the start of the 180-day window for prizes to be claimed.  It should be noted that tickets may still be available at various retail locations and that prizes can still be found and claimed until that game expires. 

The Missouri Lottery makes every effort to award all of the top prizes in every game, but in certain circumstances the game may be pulled before all prizes are claimed.  We don't know where the winners are - a ticket may have been thrown away or lost, or someone may be holding it to claim at a later date, like after the new year.  And even though a game is closed, there still could be tickets available at retailers across the state.  Before the game expires, the Lottery asks retailers to return the unsold portion of the game so that players can't buy a game that they can't redeem.  But that's to protect players from buying expired tickets, not because we "already have your money" and we don't want to pay the prizes.  A series of special pre- and post-internal and external audits conducted by the Lottery's instant ticket printing company confirms that each Lottery Scratchers game produced meets all rules in accordance with the game's working papers and that all prizes are distributed randomly.  Because the prizes are randomly distributed throughout the game and based on the number of tickets for sale, the Lottery does not benefit from ending sales before a ticket is sold out.  It's a wash - we don't sell as much, and players don't win as much. 

Closing a game is kind of like stopping a fight early - it's either a knock out, you've already gotten the best of us by finding all the prizes, or we're packing it in because you don't like our game.  We get rid of the stale bread and reload with some fresh slices.  The beauty of it is that we tell you what prizes remain on our Web site, so you can keep searching for those top prizes tucked away in some remote retail location.  The prizes are out there, just waiting to be found.  Good luck.   

5-5-5

2007 is already a distant memory, but with the appearance of triple 5s in Pick 3 on Dec. 29, it was the 10th time triples were selected last year.  Two of the 10 were the combination 5-5-5.  What is your favorite combination or hot game for 2008?