Following is an edited version of a panel dis-
cussion that addresses these two topics. The
video-recording of the actual panel discus-
sion can be viewed at
.
Moderator:
Rebecca Hargrove
, Chief Executive Officer,
Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation and Senior Vice
President of the World Lottery Association (WLA)
Panelists:
Gary Grief
, Executive Director, Texas Lottery,
President of the North American Association of State
& Provincial Lotteries (NASPL)
Carole Hedinger
, Executive Director, New Jersey Lottery
Stephen Martino
, Director, Maryland Lottery
and Gaming Control Agency
Charles McIntyre
, Executive Director,
New Hampshire Lottery
Connie Laverty O’Connor
, Senior Vice President
and Chief Customer Officer, GTECH
Rebecca Hargrove:
There was a time, not so long ago and
not so far away, when people would drive for hours or even get
on an airplane to go to a store where they could buy a ticket for
the chance to win a $40 million jackpot. Hard to imagine that
now. Times have changed and now our customers don’t get that
excited until the jackpot is way north of $100 million. In fact, it
is becoming a real challenge for lotteries to keep up with rising
consumer expectations. We just heard Chuck Strutt’s presenta-
tion in which he described the relationship between jackpot size
and level of play or ticket sales. We’ve had Mega Millions jack-
pots in the $600 million range. Powerball jackpots in the $500
million range. Is that jackpot chasing mentality sustainable?
Public Gaming International • September/October 2014
20
In 1997 (the launch of “Big Game” Mega
Millions), there were nineteen state lotter-
ies that sold Powerball and five lotteries
that sold Mega Millions. Additional state
lotteries proceeded to join one or the other
game. Since each state lottery could only
sell one game and not both games, it re-
quired two separate organizations, MUSL
and the Mega Millions Consortium, to man-
age and operate the two different jackpot
games. Now, all forty five U.S. lotteries of-
fer both games, but the games continue
to be managed by two separate organi-
zations. Some are arguing that this bifur-
cated organizational structure does not
facilitate the consensus-building neces-
sary for efficient decision-making, and so
does not support innovation and a smooth
fluid progress from concept to action-plan
to execution. Since all state lotteries sell
both games, is there still a purpose to hav-
ing them continue to be managed by two
separate organizations?
For the past two decades, Powerball and Mega Millions have dominated the multi-state big-jackpot scene in the U.S.
Monopoly Millionaires’ Club is the new “National Premium Game” (NPG) and it will launch on October 19. At the time of this
panel discussion, “Monopoly Millionaires’ Club” had not been announced as the “National Premium Game”, so in this discus-
sion it is referred to as the “National Premium Game,” or “NPG.”
On Governance of the Multi-State Games
