Sep 24, 2007 11:30 pm US/Eastern
Mass. Lottery To Start Selling $20 Scratch Tickets
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Starting Tuesday, the Massachusetts State Lottery will begin selling $20 scratch tickets, the first of its kind in the country.
The Billion Dollar Blockbuster promises some of the biggest prizes ever offered.
The high-stakes game includes 10 instant winners who will get $10 million each. It also offers 140 prizes of $1 million to $10 million. It's the first time $10 million has been available instantly for a player.
The Billion Dollar Blockbuster plays like any other scratch ticket. The goal is to match the winning numbers. But there are more numbers to play with, and the lottery is betting one in three players can win.
While some have said paying $20 for a lottery ticket is too much, according to the lottery's Web site, the game is expected to bring in more than $154 million in local aid for cash-strapped cities in the state.
The last time the lottery charged $20 for a ticket was for the one-time Star Spangled sweepstakes, and it fizzled, costing the lottery millions of dollars.
But the appeal of winning instantly is irresistible to some.
"We know in the age of the Internet and microwave that people like instant gratification," said Dan Rosenfeld with the Massachusetts Lottery. "They want to know if they won or lost right away."
The odds of winning the final drawing in the new game are almost three times better than the Megamillions lottery. But those odds are still high: 64 million to one.
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