By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — State lottery officials expect the debut of four new scratch-off games on Tuesday to generate some interest among players, but they say the big event of the month will be next week’s debut of Powerball.
“It’s just like any other product: When there’s something new out, people try it. If we experience the same thing as other lotteries do, there should be some boost in sales” when the new scratch-off tickets go on sale, Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said last week.
The games starting Tuesday are Super 7’s, which costs $5 to play and offers a top prize of $77,777; Crazy 8’s, which costs $2 and offers a top prize of $18,888; Money Madness, which costs $2 and offers a top prize of $18,000; and Money Bags, which costs $1 and offers a top prize of $2,000.
The four scratch-off games that debuted on Sept. 28 will continue to be available. The lottery will launch about four new games a month, said Carolyn Cabell, the lottery’s director of product development.
Passailaigue has said players eventually will be able to choose from about 24 scratch-off games.
The top prizes of the games launching Tuesday are smaller than the top prizes of the first four games, which range from $3,000 to $100,000, yet the new games will cost just as much to play. Lottery officials say they don’t expect that to discourage people from buying the new tickets.
“What motivates lottery players, especially instant ticket players, is not necessarily your top prize but a nice prize,” Passailaigue said.
“It’s just something new,” said Cabell, who formerly worked in product development for the South Carolina Lottery. “$100,000 will remain the highest prize that we have, but these new games bring in some variety.”
People with a fondness for the numbers 7 and 8 appear to be the targeted group for the Super 7’s and Crazy 8’s games, named for their top prizes of $77,777 and $18,888, respectively.
Why is it $18,888 and not $88,888?
“For a $2 ticket, we thought that $18,000 was a good range,” Cabell said.
For instant-win players who are motivated by the chance of winning a big prize, the lottery will unveil a $10 game with a $500,000 top prize on Nov. 10.
Any boost the lottery gets by adding new scratch-off games is likely to pale in comparison to the Oct. 31 introduction of Powerball.
Passailaigue said the lottery is planning a series of events around Arkansas to build up excitement for the multi-state game, which costs $1 to play and offers a minimum jackpot of $20 million.
The most recent jackpot awarded to a Powerball player was a $259.9 million prize won in August by a Columbia, S.C., man.
The first Arkansas-only draw game is scheduled to start Dec. 14. Passailaigue predicted that when all the games are in place, about 60 percent of the lottery’s revenue will come from instant-win tickets, about 20 percent from Powerball and about 20 percent from in-state draw games.
Even without draw games, the lottery has been averaging well over $1 million a day in sales. If that rate of sales were to continue indefinitely, the lottery could reach its projected net of $100 million a year to fund college scholarships with instant-win games alone.
Passailaigue said that’s not likely to happen.
“Realistically, I don’t think that particular sales rate, especially (with just) the instant tickets, can be retained,” he said. “I might be proven wrong, but if we keep that sales rate up then we’ve really underestimated how much this lottery can gross and net.”
