California State Lottery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The California State Lottery, also known as the California Lottery, began on November 6, 1984 after California voters passed Proposition 37, the California State Lottery Act of 1984, authorizing the creation of a state lottery. The first tickets were purchased on October 3, 1985.
The minimum age to purchase or redeem California Lottery tickets is 18.
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[edit] Lottery Act
The lottery act was passed to provide extra money to schools without imposing additional taxes. Thus, the California State Lottery is mandated to provide at least 34% of its revenues to public education, supplementing, (not replacing), funds provided by the state.
A mandated minimum of 84% of all funds must be given back to the public in the form of money given towards education or prizes. Of the 84%, 50% must be given back in the form of prizes, the rest may be given towards education (making up part of the 34%) or more in prizes.
A maximum of 16% is to be spent on administration, such as running the games, wages, etc.
The Lottery Act mandates that a commission, appointed by the Governor, is to operate and administer the lottery.
California, by law, is a pari-mutuel state, meaning that prize values are not fixed, but are dependent on sales and number of winning tickets. However, the Lottery has recently set fixed prize levels for its Hot Spot game.
[edit] History
The California State Lottery began on November 6, 1984, when a majority (58%) of California voters passed Proposition 37, the California State Lottery Act of 1984, authorizing the creation of a state lottery.[1] On January 29, 1985, Governor George Deukmejian appointed the first lottery commissioners: William Johnston, Laverta Montgomery, John Price, Howard Varner, and Kennard Webster.[2] Deukmejian appointed the first director, Mark Michalko, formerly Ohio lottery legal counsel, in May 1985.[3][4][5] The first lottery games were Scratchers, and sales began on October 3, 1985. A weekly Lotto game began on October 14, 1986.[1]
California joined Mega Millions on June 22, 2005 becoming the 12th state to join the multi-state lottery. A draw was held in Hollywood, CA to commemorate the event.
California, while never desiring to offer Mega Millions's rival Powerball, was briefly a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) because an "international" lottery game that would have included a number of states was in the works; however, the game never came into fruition.
[edit] Games
[edit] Make Me a Millionaire
Make Me a Millionaire is the California Lottery's second TV game show. It succeeded the previous show when it debuted for an initial four-year run on January 17, 2009, with host Mark L. Walberg and co-presenter Liz Hernandez.[6] Each of the twelve contestants wins at least $2,000; seven of the contestants are selected randomly to play games of chance with a top prize that begins at $1,000,000 and increases by $200,000 each week that it is not won. Winners from Big Spin Scratchers and Fantasy 5 second-chance drawings now qualify for the Make Me a Millionaire show, along with winners of Make Me a Millionaire Scratchers.[7]
The show's first game is Lucky Penny, which offers to each of three players a minimum prize of $2,000 and a maximum prize of a car. The second game is Safe Cracker, in which two players compete for prizes ranging from $2,000 to $92,000. Next is California Cool, with one player and prizes ranging from $5,000 to $200,000. The last game is Millionaire, also for one player; it guarantees a minimum of $10,000 with a potential jackpot of at least $1,000,000.[7]
The Big Spin was the California Lottery's first game show; the final episode, broadcast on January 10, 2009, ended its run as the longest-running lottery game show in the United States.[6] The lottery had several methods for choosing contestants, including prizes in Scratchers games, and "second-chance" drawings from other games. The top prize was fixed at $3,000,000 and the minimum guaranteed prize was $1,750. While the Big Spin Scratchers game remains in circulation, its winners, who would previously have spun the wheel on The Big Spin, still have the option to spin the wheel--untelevised--as an alternative to going to the Make Me a Millionaire show.
[edit] Scratchers
Scratchers are scratchcard--also called instant--lottery games. A player scratches off a thin film from the cardboard ticket to see if the ticket is a prize-winner. The prizes are smaller than other lottery games, but there are better odds (averaging 1:5). There are dozens of Scratchers games on sale at any time, and the selection of games changes frequently. Winners must be claimed within 180 days of the announced end-of-game date.[8][9]
Scratchers range in price from $1 to $5, with higher-priced tickets typically putting a higher percentage of sales into prizes. The payout percentages for each price point are as follows:
| $1 | $2 | $3 | $5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53% | 55.8% | 60% | 64% |
[edit] Other games
In these games, players purchase tickets in advance, and winners are chosen by computer at specified draw times.
[edit] Daily 3
Playing Daily 3 involves picking 3 numbers, zero through nine, and a playstyle. Players can choose Quick Pick to have the numbers picked randomly by computer. The playstyle choices are straight (this is the default if the player doesn't choose one), box, or straight/box.[10] The game costs $1 per play, per draw, and the Advance Play option allows up to 14 consecutive draws. There are two draws every day, televised at 1:29pm and 6:59pm.[11]
[edit] Daily 4
A "pick 4" type game premiered on May 19, 2008. Each play costs $1 and drawings are held once per day. Playstyles, like the Daily 3, offer the straight, box, and straight/box option.
[edit] Daily Derby
Daily Derby is a mock horse racing betting game. Players choose three horses, one to finish first, one to finish second and one to finish third; players also choose a race time from 1:40:00 to 1:49:99, by marking the last three digits of the time on the playslip. Alternately, players can select Quick Pick, to have the computer choose the horses or the race time or both. The game also offers Advance Play for up to 7 or 14 draws in a row. The game costs $2 per play, per draw. Draws are held every day at 6:35pm and televised at 6:59pm.[12]
[edit] Fantasy 5
Fantasy 5 players five numbers 1 through 39. A ticket includes up to five sets of numbers; they can be played up to 12 drawings at a time. Tickets cost $1 per play. Fantasy 5 is drawn evenings at 6:35pm and televised at 6:59pm. Jackpots start at $50,000.
A player who buys a $5 Fantasy 5 ticket gets a coupon to mail in for a "second-chance" draw. Winners of this random draw become contestants on the Make Me a Millionaire show.[13]
[edit] Hot Spot
In Hot Spot, players choose whether to play 2, 3, 5, or 8 numbers on a ticket from 01 through 80, either $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $10, or $20, for a maximum of 100 consecutive drawings, which occur every four minutes from 06:05 am until 02:00 am. Many lottery retailers have monitors that display Hot Spot drawings and recent results from other lottery games.
[edit] Mega Millions
In 2004, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of his redesign of state government, suggested that California join a multistate lottery. The next year, California became part of Mega Millions.
Mega Millions players choose six numbers for $1; five "white ball" numbers, 1 through 56, and a sixth ("Mega Ball") number, 1 through 46; the Mega Ball number can be a duplicate of a "white ball" number. Multi-draw is available; the same numbers can be played in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, or 20 drawings in one transaction. Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm Pacific time. The minimum jackpot is $12 million. California is unique among the 12 Mega Millions participants in that all nine prize levels for Mega Millions within the Golden State are always parimutuel, rather than each non-jackpot prize having a set value (e.g. the normal second prize in the other 11 Mega Millions jurisdictions is $250,000; it is not unheard of for that prize level to pay over $1 million to a California winner. The second prize pool within California frequently rolls; it is, in effect, a "secondary jackpot").
Overall odds of winning a Mega Millions prize are 1 in 39.89. Odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 175,711,536. The odds can be easily calculated from the game rules. In order to win the jackpot, the first ball picked has to match one of the first five numbers (odds of occurrence: 5 in 56), the second ball picked from the 55 remaining balls has to match one of the other four remaining numbers (odds: 4 in 55), and so on, plus odds of 1 in 46 that the Mega number will be matched. Thus, the odds are 1 in (56/5 x 55/4 x 54/3 x 53/2 x 52/1 x 46 = 175,711,536); if the first five numbers had to be picked in one specific order to win the jackpot, the odds would be 1 in 21,085,384,320.
[edit] SuperLotto Plus
SuperLotto Plus is a California-only game played in the style of Mega Millions every Wednesday and Saturday. Five main winning numbers are selected from a set of 47 rubber balls, as is a "Mega number" which is chosen from a separate set of 27 rubber balls. California has historically offered a number of jackpot-style games, beginning with the "6-49" game in 1986, which was changed at various times to a 53 number game (in 1990) which included a seventh bonus number, then to a 51 number game which lasted until sometime in the year 2000.
The current 47/27 variant began in the year 2000 and continues to this day under the name SuperLotto Plus (successor to California Super Lotto).
On February 16, 2002, the California Lottery's then-highest payout of $193 million was won by three winning tickets.
Overall chances of winning a prize are 1 in 23. Chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 41,416,353 (41,416,353 = 47/5 x 46/4 x 45/3 x 44/2 x 43/1 x 27; if the first five numbers had to be picked in one specific order to win the jackpot, the odds would be 1 in 4,969,962,360).
The minimum jackpot prize is $7 million.
Of California's draw games, only Mega Millions (drawn in Atlanta) and SuperLotto Plus use "traditional" drawing mechanisms; the other games use a random number generator.
[edit] Former games
Decco: played in a similar fashion as most U.S. "pick-4" drawing games, except players had to match one playing card (2 through Ace) in each of the four suits.
Topper (add-on game): each SuperLotto Plus ticket automatically was printed with the names of three of California's 100 then-most-populous-cities (e.g. Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento). If the player wagered an additional $1, they were eligible to win up to $25,000 in the Topper drawing, which was computerized, rather than drawing from 100 balls with city names printed on them.
[edit] Claiming prizes
For each prize of less than $600, players may collect from either a lottery retailer or the lottery itself. Prizes of $600 or more must be collected from the lottery.[14]
[edit] Claim period
All prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the draw or the announced end of the game. If the 180th day is a weekend or state holiday, the final claim date is extended to the next business day. Any unclaimed prize money is transferred to the education fund in addition to the minimum 34% that the Lottery is already obligated to transfer from income.
Because many of the partner states participating in Mega Millions have a one-year claim period, the California legislations recently changed the language in the Lottery Act to allow for a one-year claim period for a jackpot/grand prize from Mega Millions. AB 1251 which was authored by Tran modified California Government Code section 8880.321. This is the only prize in California that has a one-year claim period. All other prizes have the 180-day claim period. This legislation only affects Mega Millions drawings after July 5, 2008.
[edit] Payment options
All prizes on Fantasy 5, Daily Derby, Daily 3, and non-jackpot Super Lotto Plus and Mega Millions prizes, are paid out in one payment, less between 25% and 33% (depending upon the winner's tax documentation) Federal withholding if the prize is over $5,000. Merchandise prizes over $5000 are subject to a 33% Federal withholding. Scratchers tickets are generally one payment prizes but some games have annuity options for payments each year or even some where the prize was a certain payment per week. California recently stopped deducting State Tax on lottery winnings. For Super Lotto Plus and Mega Millions jackpots, the player may choose a single cash payout for 50%-60% of the jackpot, or a 26-year annuity. The Super Lotto Plus annuity payment schedule is on a graduated basis, (every year the payment is slightly more than the previous year, such that the 25th payment is twice as much as the first), whereas payments in the Mega Millions annuity are the same every year. Until 2005, when California joined Mega Millions, the payment choice on Super Lotto Plus had to be made when the ticket was bought. Now, like most US lotteries, there is a 60-day window after winning in which the choice of lump sum or annuity is to be made.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Collection Overview, Collection Number R181, Inventory of the California State Lottery Commission Records, The Online Archive of California
- ^ Deukmejian Appoints Five to Run California's Lottery Sales Not Expected 'Til Summer, Jan. 29, 1985, Los Angeles Times, found in L.A. Times Archives
- ^ DUKE DOWN TO 4 FINALISTS FOR LOTTERY CHIEF, April 20, 1985, Page A01, The Sacramento Bee
- ^ Ohio Official Favored for State Lottery Director, John Hurst and Nancy Skelton, May 8, 1985, Los Angeles Times
- ^ Mark Michalko on LinkedIn.com
- ^ a b "3 Ball takes chance on lottery game show" The Hollywood Reporter, Nielsen Business Media, Inc., January 7, 2009.
- ^ a b "Commission Advisory, Videos of the Commission Meeting" of December 3, 2008, Agenda Item 7E, California State Lottery.
- ^ Claiming Prizes, California State Lottery
- ^ End of Game Information, California State Lottery
- ^ How To Play Daily 3, California State Lottery
- ^ Televised Draw Results, California State Lottery
- ^ How To Play Daily Derby, California State Lottery
- ^ Make Me a Millionaire, California State Lottery
- ^ Claiming Prizes, California State Lottery
[edit] External links
- California State Lottery Official Site
- [1]Official Results Page
- [2] AB1251
