New Lottery game captures customers’ spare change
by Acting Commissioner Jim Kipp

Change Play is the Michigan Lottery’s newest game and it’s very different from any other game the Lottery currently offers.

For the first time ever, players can buy a ticket in any amount from 25 cents to 99 cents using the change they get back from any purchase at a Lottery retailer.

This exciting new game will debut at Lottery retailers on October 13, with the first drawing occurring on Monday, October 14.

About $820 million in coins changes hands every year at Michigan Lottery retail locations. Many of those coins end up in jars and cans at home because, research shows, most adults do not like handling the thousands of coins they get while shopping each year. Change Play offers the perfect opportunity for you to keep those coins in your register and for your customers to turn that loose change into big Lottery winnings.

Just ask your customers who are about to receive change back from a purchase if they would like a Change Play ticket instead of all those coins.

And when they say yes, then you just enter in that amount of their change—from 25 cents to 99 cents—and a ticket consisting of a unique combination of letters and numbers good for the next available drawing will be produced. Each Change Play wager begins with two letters and ends with four digits (i.e. AB1234), and all tickets are “easy pick” wagers, so there are no play slips.

Change Play drawings take place seven nights a week, just after 9:00 p.m. Six winning tickets are randomly selected in a computerized drawing that picks from all of the unique wagers placed that day. The letters and numbers of a Change Play wager must match in the exact order as those drawn. Tickets sold before 9:00 p.m. will be valid for that day’s drawing, while tickets sold after 9:01 p.m. are eligible for the next day’s drawing.

The six daily winners share all of the prize money from that day’s drawing, and their individual winnings are proportional to the amount they wagered on the winning tickets. For example, a player holding a 52-cent wager wins twice as much as a player with a 26-cent wager.

Individual prize amounts are based upon the total amount wagered in each drawing and may vary from day to day. One thing is certain—six lucky Michigan Lottery players will turn their change into thousands of dollars in cash every night.

Because Change Play winners are selected just after 9:00 p.m. each night, the winning combinations are not announced during the Lottery’s regularly televised drawings. Instead, winning number reports are available through the terminal shortly after each drawing.

Change Play not only offers a new game that may appeal to customers who have not played Lottery games in the past, but money that normally walks out the door will now stay in your drawer. Change Play will make your check-out lines move faster because customers will be accepting one Change Play ticket instead of all those coins. It is less work for your clerks and more profits for your store.

Each Change Play ticket you sell earns an exclusive 9-percent sales commission. That is a 50-percent boost over the sales commission of all other Lottery games. The regular cashing commissions and bonus commissions apply to Change Play as well.

I strongly encourage you to ask for the sale with this new game, as I am sure it will be very appealing to your customers. Also be sure to prominently display your Change Play point-of-sale materials in order to get the word out to your customers as soon as possible.
So the next time your customers have change coming back, ask if they’d rather play their change and buy a Change Play ticket.

Sunday Drawings
The budget for fiscal year 2003 was recently passed by the Michigan legislature. The passage of the FY 2003 budget is bringing about a significant change for the Michigan Lottery—the implementation of Sunday drawings for the first time in the Lottery’s 30-year history.

The Michigan Lottery is just one of 10 lotteries nationwide that does not currently offer Sunday drawings. In past years, the legislature has always included language in the yearly budget bill to prohibit the Sunday drawings. This year, however, that language was removed, allowing us to implement Sunday drawings—and potentially increasing Lottery sales by an estimated $83 million.

Sunday drawings will begin on Sunday, October 6, and the games that will immediately add Sunday drawings are the Daily 3 and 4 (both midday and evening) and Michigan Rolldown.

The new Change Play game will offer drawings seven days a week, and the first Sunday drawing for that game will be on Sunday, October 20.

And, finally, Keno game drawings will be expanded to seven days a week on October 16. Keno drawings currently take place on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings.

New Instants
The Lottery is excited to debut eight new instant games in October.

On October 3, Lottery players will try their hand at winning big bucks when the $5 “Super 6s” instant ticket goes on sale offering over 100 top prizes of $6,000. Also on October 3, the Lottery will introduce the $1 “Wanted: Winnings,” with a top prize of $3,000.

Monopoly game fans will be thrilled to see the debut of the $2 “Monopoly” instant game on October 10, offering a $20,000 top prize.

Also on October 10, the Lottery will introduce the $2 “Money Mine,” with a top prize of $25,000.

For the high rollers, on October 17, the $10 “Casino Wild” will go on sale offering 20 top prizes of $100,000.

On October 24, lucky Lottery players all over Michigan will be playing the new $1 “Lucky Cherries,” which offers over 350 top prizes of $700.

On October 31, bingo lovers will be excited to play the Lottery’s newest $2 instant bingo ticket, “Crazy 8s Bingo,” with a $28,000 top prize.

Lottery players will be on the path to wealth with the $5 “Lucky Lines,” which hits ticket counters on October 31 offering a top prize of $200,000.

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