INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana lottery officials are dipping into their own funds to cover the state’s share of costs for a new game whose sales are off to a slow start.
The Monopoly Millionaires’ Club game launched in October in Indiana and 22 other states. Tickets cost $5 each, and weekly jackpots can roll as high as $25 million.
Sales of the game generated $403,434 through Nov. 14, but the Hoosier Lottery paid the Multi-State Lottery Association $539,000 on Nov. 17 for its share, Hoosier Lottery spokeswoman Courtney Arango told the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Nationwide, sales of the Monopoly game were about $22 million short of the amount needed to cover the first $21 million jackpot, which was hit Nov. 7 in New Jersey, said Dawn Nettles, publisher of a long-running lottery newsletter, Lotto Report. That jackpot triggered 14 $1 million prizes across the country.
The slow sales could affect the performance of GTECH Indiana LLC, the company contracted to run the Hoosier Lottery.
The company fell short of its revenue goal for the fiscal year that ended June 30 and is expected to miss its second-year goal as well, The Journal Gazette reported. The operator paid a $1.6 million penalty for falling short in its first year and could face a $16 million penalty next July if estimates and sales hold.
Sarah Taylor, executive director of the Hoosier Lottery, told the State Budget Committee on Thursday that the operator will still increase the money sent to state coffers significantly. She said the company is working to increase the player base.
So far, the Monopoly game hasn’t helped much.
The draw game’s weekly jackpots can roll as high as $25 million, and when one is hit, that triggers 10 or more additional million-dollar prizes.
Because jackpots can be paid over 30 years, states don’t need to sell enough tickets to cover the advertised jackpot value. But they still needed to sell about $26 million in tickets, Nettles said, and only sold about $4 million for the Nov. 7 drawing.
Total sales since the first drawing on Oct. 24 are about $17.6 million, according to Lotto Report.
Hoosier Lottery officials said they hope Monopoly Millionaires’ Club will catch up as awareness of the game increases and more prizes are awarded. A television show featuring Friday night drawings is scheduled to launch in February and could also boost interest, Arango said.
Nettles isn’t confident that sales of the Monopoly game will improve. She said people are willing to pay $5 for scratch-off tickets but less likely to pay that much for a single line of computer-generated numbers in a draw game.
“It’s a bad concept,” she said. “It’s too complicated for the people.”
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
