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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // January/February 2016
dents in the six states that don’t participate
found ways to get their hands on tickets.
Some of the biggest Powerball sales come
from stores bordering states that don’t sell
the tickets. Prior to this Jackpot, the high-
est Lottery Jackpot won in the U.S. was a
Mega Millions Jackpot of $656.0 million. It
was won on March 30, 2012, and shared by
three winning ticket holders (from Kansas,
Illinois and Maryland). The previous high
form Powerball was $590.5 million, won by
one lucky Floridian on May 18, 2013.
How much do we spend on lottery
tickets? Americans spend more on lottery
tickets ($70 billion) than sports tickets
($17.15B), books ($14.6B), video games
($13.1B), movie box office ($10.7B), and
music ($6.8B) combined.
Everybody Wins At Powerball:
How Playing the Lottery Benefits
Schools, Seniors, Taxpayers & More
Millions of Americans buy Powerball tick-
ets every week and tens of millions bought
Powerball tickets during the second week of
January when the Jackpot exploded to $1.58
billion. Likewise, the UK National Lotto
Jackpot set during the first week of Janu-
ary. In Spain, it’s every year the week before
Christmas when the largest prize pool in the
world gets funded by tens of millions play
Spain the week before Christmas.
The life-changing impact of winning
the Lottery Jackpot is amazing and won-
derful. But the real story is the impact
that funds generated by Lottery helps ev-
eryone else in society. The World Lottery
Association Compendium of Global Data
estimates that Lotteries generate over $55
Billion USD for Good Causes like Educa-
tion, Amateur Sports, Senior Citizens, and
many others. The Good Causes supported
by Lottery benefit everyone!
The Tipping Point: Where Jackpot
Fever Takes Hold
Every time someone wins the Powerball
Jackpot, the jackpot resets to $40 million.
The Jackpot of $144 million was won on
November 4, 2015, and so it was re-set to
$40 million on November 5. The Jackpot
size increases as people buy Powerball tick-
ets without the Jackpot being hit. Over the
next 50 days with nobody winning the big
Jackpot, the Jackpot rose $215 million to
reach the Jackpot size of $255 million on
December 26. That’s when sales began to
really take off. Everyone came out to buy
Powerball tickets in hopes of winning the
huge Jackpot. So, over the next 18 days, the
Jackpot rose by over $1.3 billion, to a high
of $1.58 on January 13.
The vast majority of sales kick in after
reaching that “tipping point.” Now, the
goal is to make sure that tipping point does
not go up! However, the phenomenon of
“jackpot fatigue” has also been referred to
as “press fatigue.” The key to bringing out
the players is jackpot awareness, just mak-
ing sure everyone knows about it. If the
headlines screamed “Powerball hits $250
million,” it is likely that the consumers
would get excited at the prospect of win-
ning that huge amount of money. If the
press does not report on it until it reaches a
higher number, then the casual players will
not know about and so will be less likely
to play. Unfortunately, there is no easy so-
lution to the challenge of getting the press
to think of $250 as being news-worthy and
reporting on it with the same enthusiasm as
they do when the Jackpot sets a new record.
Why doesn’t the press just report the
TRUTH. The headline should read
“Would $40 million change your life? The
odds of winning the Jackpot may not be
great, but they are infinitely worse if you
don’t buy a ticket!”
Everyone wonders if there are any tricks to
improving your odds. For one lucky woman,
the secret turned out to be to make sure you
cut in line when trying to buy a lottery tick-
et. In 2013, Mindy Crandell of Zephyrhills,
Florida, was in line to buy a Powerball ticket
when an older woman stepped ahead of
her. Crandell, who was busy tending one of
her two daughters, told the woman to “go
ahead.” Friends joked that Crandell’s gener-
osity would cost her the $590.5 million jack-
pot, the largest ever at the time. And it did!
The line-cutter, 84-year-old Gloria McKen-
zie, is currently the biggest lone Powerball
winner in history.
■
Powerball Hit at $1.584 Billion
…
continued from page 57
Rebecca Hargrove, second from right, president and CEO of the Tennessee
Lottery, presents a ceremonial check to John Robinson, right; his wife, Lisa,
second from left; and their daughter, Tiffany.