Lottery promo will help state fairs, summer tourism
by Commissioner Gary Peters

Beginning August 7, Lottery retailers will notice something different on their terminal-based game tickets. That’s the day that the Lottery’s promotion of Michigan’s State Fair in Detroit and Upper Peninsula Fair in Escanaba begins. We invite our retailers to join us in this new partnership.

The idea behind this promotion is to leverage the millions of Lottery tickets that we print to help a couple of great state-sponsored activities.

The ticket promotion, which will appear on the front of Mega Millions, Classic Lotto 47, Fantasy 5, Keno, Daily 3, Daily 4 and Club Keno tickets, will be a discount coupon to the Michigan State Fair in Detroit, which runs Aug. 23 through Sept. 4, or the Upper Peninsula State Fair in Escanaba, which is Aug. 15 through Aug. 20.

The Detroit offer will provide $2 off one adult admission and the UP discount will be $1 off one adult admission. Some conditions will apply—the Lottery tickets must be surrendered at the entry gate and the Lottery discounts cannot be combined with other offers.

And beginning in the next few weeks and running through Labor Day weekend, the back of each terminal-based game purchased by Lottery players will include a web address—Michigan.org/trip—at which visitors will find a wealth of information about tourist destinations, accommodations, events and festivals.

The discount fair coupons should be a win for both Lottery players and the fairs themselves. In addition to purchasing a Lottery ticket, players will be getting the added value of a discount admission to two of the state’s premier summer activities. Both fairs are expecting increased attendance as a result.

Likewise, we hope that other tourist destinations will receive a boost when players access the travel information noted on the back of the tickets and see the wealth of vacation opportunities available to them right in their own backyards.

As retailers, you certainly know that the sheer volume of Lottery tickets printed and sold makes them an excellent venue for a statewide promotion. An estimated 20 million terminal-based tickets are printed each week, which will result in roughly 40 million discount tickets being printed for the UP Fair and approximately 80 million discount tickets being printed for the Michigan State Fair.

The Travel Michigan website information will be printed directly onto nearly 58,000 rolls of Lottery paper stock that will then be distributed to retailers to print tickets. An estimated 218 million impressions will be made with the web address.

We encourage you to join us in this partnership by pointing out these discount tickets and travel information to your players. Since the messages are not something the players are accustomed to seeing, I’m sure that they will appreciate you bringing the new information to their attention.

New Instants
July 10: $5 The Price is Right
July 17: $10 Casino Multiplier
July 24: $5 Instant Action
July 31: $2 The Three Stooges

All proceeds from the Lottery are contributed to the state School Aid Fund which supports kindergarten through 12th grade public education in Michigan. In fiscal year 2005, the contribution was $667.6 million.

For additional information, please visit the Lottery’s Web site at www.michigan.gov/lottery.