Odds, jackpots for lotto to rise
By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau

Lotto, Ways to Win

The state lottery is touting the changes coming next week to its signature game, Lotto Texas, as "a whole new ballgame."

Critics are betting the concept strikes out.

After tonight's drawing for a $7 million jackpot, the familiar game in which players choose six numbers from a field of 54 will cease to exist. Tickets will go on sale Sunday morning for a game of lotto that has a new look, several news ways of winning and stratospheric odds against any players hitting the jackpot that would make them millionaires.

The first drawing under the new rules takes place Wednesday night.

"You've got to keep the game fresh and new," said Reagan Greer, executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission. "Players speak with the dollars, and all of the evidence suggests that people like big jackpots."

Under the new lotto configuration, players will choose five numbers from a pool of 44, then choose another number, or bonus ball, from a separate field of 44. Under the new game, matching all five from the first field and matching the bonus ball number from the second field would win a player the jackpot, which will start at $4 million and grow in subsequent drawings each time no player wins it.

Matching just the first five would win an estimated $10,000.

The odds against winning the jackpot would go from 25.8 million-to-1 to 47.7 million-to-1.

Lottery officials say the new configuration will give players several options to win. For example, players who match all five numbers in the first draw but miss the bonus ball would win $10,000, assuming an overall jackpot of $4 million.

Matching four numbers from the first draw and matching the bonus ball will pay about $2,000 on a $4 million jackpot. Matching four numbers from the first draw or three numbers plus the bonus ball would pay $100.

The smaller prizes would pay more each time the jackpot increased.

Anyone who matches three numbers from the first draw or two from the first draw and the bonus ball would win $5 regardless of the jackpot. Matching one number from the first draw and the bonus ball would pay $3 regardless of the jackpot.

The higher odds against winning are likely to drive the jackpots into the tens of millions of dollars, Greer said. Tickets sales tend to soar when the jackpots reach about $40 million and more.

The main reason for changing the game, he said, is that players were tending to hit the jackpots at a lower level.

But Grand Prairie retiree Mark Chrzanowski, 66, who buys lotto tickets for every twice-weekly drawing, complained that changing the game confuses and fatigues regular players.

"They're killing the game for the regular gamblers," Chrzanowski said. "They ought to just leave it alone."

But Greer said that a public education campaign initiated late last month will likely spark interest in the revamped game. The campaign features slick brochures with the "new ballgame" theme, and a 30-second TV spot running statewide shows a lottery retailer preparing to open for business on the first day the tickets are to go on sale.

The spot ends with a teaser that something new is coming, but it doesn't say what.

"We're going for an element of suspense," Greer said.

Greer predicted that once the game gets rolling, jackpots will climb to the $60 million to $100 million range as often as three times a year. According to the state comptroller's office, the new game should increase the lottery's revenue to the state by about $50 million per year.

The state reaps about $1 billion a year in profits from all lottery games, and that money is directed to public school districts.

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ONLINE: www.txlottery.org
John Moritz, (512) 476-4294 jmoritz@star-telegram.com