Tennessee to join Powerball by early summer
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Members of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. board of directors voted unanimously to join the 26-state Powerball, an Urbandale, Iowa-based game with a jackpot that has risen as high as $315 million. The District of Columbia and U.S. Virgin Islands also are members.
“Powerball is a highly visible, recognized brand name,” lottery chief Rebecca Paul told the board before the vote.
Board members chose Powerball over Mega Millions, an 11-state game based in Atlanta that Paul helped set up while director of the Georgia Lottery. Two states bordering Tennessee — Kentucky and Missouri — already participate in the game, in which drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday night.
“We’re very pleased that Tennessee has decided to join Powerball,” Powerball spokesman Chuck Strutt said. “Rebecca Paul is one of the top lottery directors in the nation, and we look forward to her lottery skills in continuing to make Powerball the best game in America.”
Paul said the Powerball jackpot starts at $10 million and grows each week until there’s a winner. On Monday, the Powerball was estimated at $26 million, according to the game’s Web site.
“The bigger the jackpot, the more tickets people buy,” Paul said. “When we have a $200 million jackpot, folks will drive from Atlanta, Mississippi, Alabama or Virginia to play.”
There are no estimates on how much revenue Powerball will generate for the state, according to Paul, but she did say that 30 cents of every dollar spent on the multistate game will go toward college scholarships for qualifying Tennessee students.
Also on Monday, Paul said lottery players will be able to buy tickets for Cash 3, a daily televised drawing that will award prizes up to $500, in just over two weeks.
Paul has been working on startup of the online games since the lottery launched scratchoff ticket sales Jan. 20. She received a $192,500 bonus for beginning those games before Feb. 10, and needed to begin the online side within 60 days (March 20) to receive a second bonus of $52,500.
In Cash 3, a game common to other state lotteries, a player pays between 50 cents and $1 to pick three numbers from zero to nine in hopes of matching them with those drawn that evening by the lottery.
The lottery also unveiled two new scratchoff games to begin Feb. 17:
— Shamrock Green, which costs $2 per ticket and awards prizes up to $25,000.
— Money Bags, which costs $1 a ticket and awards prizes up to $3,500.
In other news, Paul said the state attorney general’s office has ruled that phone cards that resemble scratchoff lottery tickets and offer prizes up to $25,000 are illegal in Tennessee.
Officials began looking into the cards, sold at locations across the state, after several Tennesseans who believed they were purchasing authentic tickets called the lottery to ask for their money back — only to find out the cards had no affiliation with the state games.
Paul has said she was first informed of the cards several months ago by state lawmakers who had seen the tickets at markets in West Tennessee.
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On the Net:
Tennessee Lottery, www.tnlottery.com
Powerball, www.powerball.com