Multi-State Lottery Association

The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is a non-profit, government-benefit association owned and operated by agreement of its member lotteries. MUSL was created to facilitate the operation lottery games, including lotto, daily games, instant (scratch) tickets, and video lottery terminals (slots) between lotteries.

It was formed in December 1987 by six states and the D.C. Lottery. Its first game was launched in February of 1988. MUSL sold one multi-state jackpot game called Lotto*America. That game was changed to Powerball (whose first drawing was held on April 22, 1992). Powerball was a unique game using two drums, suggested to MUSL by Steve Caputo of the Oregon Lottery. Powerball is played in 29 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.(Florida announced on July 2, 2008, that it will offer Powerball beginning in January 2009.) All MUSL members currently offer Powerball, which has changed several times, and will again to accommodate Florida, which will become MUSL's most-populated member.

MUSL Games

Besides Powerball, MUSL also currently operates Hot Lotto, Wild Card 2, 2by2 and Cashola, a video lottery progressive jackpot game. MUSL has also retired several games; Daily Millions, Rolldown, Cash 4 Life, Tri-West Lotto and the Powerball scratchcard game that based a weekly television game show that ran for two years from Hollywood and for two years from the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

In September 2007, MUSL launched Midwest Millions, a scratch ticket game, in Iowa, and Kansas; it was the country's first multi-state scratch game since the "Powerball" television game show series.

MUSL is currently one of three organizations, with Camelot (U.K.) and Francaise des Jeux (France), developing a world lottery game.

MUSL Services

MUSL provides a variety of services for lotteries including game design, managment of game finances, production and uplinking of drawings, the development of common minimum IT and security standards and inspections of state lottery vendor sites; the building of a quantum-based RNG, coordination of common promotions and advertisements, coordination of public relations, emergency back drawing sites for state lottery games, and more. MUSL also hosts the Powerball web site and the state lottery websites for more than a dozen state lotteries. The Powerball web site average over 350,000 pageviews per day (over 10.5 million per month). MUSL provides these services to the lotteries at no cost. MUSL earns its income from non-game sources such as earnings on its accounts, bond swaps, and licensing of its trademarks. MUSL owns the patents and trademarks involved in its operations, holding them for the benefit of its members.

MUSL's current director is Chuck Strutt, who was the association's first employee in 1987. Strutt directly responds to players and writes MUSL's unusual FAQ which elicits strong responses from readers who may find it humorous or insulting. MUSL currently has 12 full-time employees located in an offices at 4400 Urbandale Avenue, Urbandale, Iowa.

MUSL games operate under the same core game rules in each state but each lottery is free to vary rules pertaining to such things as purchase age, the claim period, and some validation processes.

With Florida's entry into Powerball, MUSL will move the Powerball drawings to Florida beginning with the first draw in Florida in January 2009. The other MUSL numbers games will continue to be drawn in Iowa.

External links

Multi-State Lottery Association home page Powerball's FAQ Page