Public Gaming International November/December 2021

37 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 U.S. Lottery History on Display in Maine, continued from page 28 Lessons learned over the last 18 months,continued from page 13 is a unique organization, and the success of the Tri-State games is critical to the three lotteries. I’m pleased we could gather in person and work to move our initiatives forward. The history of the Tri-State Lotto Commis- sion really tells the story of the U.S. lottery industry. The Tri-State Lotto Compact became law on April 23, 1985, allowing northern New England to offer Tri-State Megabucks. By July of that year, prior to the game going on sale, subscription sales were offered in all three states. Players could call the Lottery and purchase a subscription for 26 drawings (six months) or 52 drawings (one year). The United Parcel Service then delivered confirmation cards of those purchases anywhere in the continental United States. On September 3, 1985, Governor John S. Sununu purchased the first Tri-State Megabucks ticket at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire. For $1, players chose six numbers from 1 to 30. Drawings were held once a week. First day ticket sales amounted to $50,000. The first drawing for the game was held on September 14, 1985 with a jackpot of $993,140. That first Tri-State Megabucks jackpot was won by Richard Campbell of South Portland, Maine. The game was an immediate hit as it offered larger-than-ever jackpots. To keep up with player demand, the game quickly evolved within six months to a larger matrix of six numbers chosen from a field of one to 36. The change certainly paid off, as on June 14, 1986 a $9,628,000 jackpot was won by Bertha Arruda of Westport, Massachusetts. In May 1990, Tri-State Megabucks increased drawings to two days a week, with a new drawing added on Wednesdays. In 1992, there were two jackpots of over $10 million, which dramatically increased sales, and on January 25, 1995, the jackpot hit a record of $16,400,000. Two players, one in Vermont and one in Maine, split that prize. Over the years, the Tri-State Lotto Com- mission has added games to complement Megabucks – Pick 3 and Pick 4, Gimme 5 and Fast Play. Periodically, the group has included scratch tickets to its offerings. At the meetings in Kennebunkport, where centuries of political and maritime history is on display on every corner, the Tri-State Lotto Commissioner celebrated its storied past while working with its partners to make sure it remains relevant in the quickly-changing gaming world. Meeting host Gregg Mineo, Director of the Maine Lottery, said that while multi-juris- dictional games like Powerball and Mega Millions get the headlines, the Tri-State Lotto games play critical revenue roles in each of the three states. “The pandemic certainly provided lotteries with opportunities to review their entire portfolios and for us, that meant taking a close look at the Tri-State offerings,” said Gregg. “Our group has survived for close to 40 years because our players like our games and made them a part of of their lottery purchase options. Our responsibility as stewards of the organization is to continue to monitor play patterns and, when necessary, make strategic changes. “Tri-State is an important part of the history of the U.S. Lottery industry. But most importantly, it is a reliable revenue generator for the people of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. That is where our greatest responsibility lies.” n our regional offices closed, we found that many players did not feel comfortable mailing in their winning tickets over $600. Therefore, we accelerated the launch of Mobile Prize Cashing on our website and MyLotto Rewards app. In addition to mobile cashing, which we limited to prizes up to $5,000, we also launched an online prize claim form for high-tier prizes above $5,000. These were the prizes that players were most hesitant to mail to us, and it provided them a secure and convenient alternative which has proven very popular. Recently, we’ve enhanced our mobile app, MyLotto Rewards, to allow players to exchange their points for $5 and $10 of Lottery cash to be used in retail stores. Thus far, this initiative has been quite popular, and we are seeing approximately an 85-90% redemption rate. We utilized our social media channels throughout the pandemic to interact with and engage our lottery players. In 2021, we hosted a 30-minute live event on Facebook to promote the PAC-MAN® Scratch-Off. The event was highly suc- cessful with nearly 5,000 viewers joining and participating for the entire event. As a result of that success, we are planning for two more live events in December to promote our holiday scratch-offs. When the pandemic prohibited us from filming our weekly game show, Cash Explosion, with in-person contestants and a live audience, my staff and our studio partner had to develop a creative alterna- tive to ensure we didn’t lose our fan base. We came up with a “Play@Home” version of the show that allowed contestants to participate remotely via Zoom. The series developed its own unique charm by featuring contestants surround by their family and friends with home-made signs and proved very popular with our fans. After a little over a year with the Play@ Home series, we have recently returned to in-person play with a live audience but have incorporated some of the most popular features of the Play@Home shows into our game play. We are entering a very interesting period for the lottery industry, as well as the broader games-of-chance industry. As we leverage our strengths – brand equity, enduring popularity of the games, massive retail network, etc. – we also want to stretch to innovate, modernize, and evolve with our players and the changing tastes and preferences of the consumers. n