Powerball tickets go on sale in Vermont

Print More

(Host) At 10:00 Tuesday morning Vermonters will be able to purchase Powerball tickets in this state for the first time. The Legislature this session passed a bill that allows Vermont to become the 26th state in the country to be part of the Powerball game.

State Lottery Director Alan Yandow says that while the top prize for Powerball is much larger than the one for the existing Vermont Megabucks game, so are the odds. An individual’s chances of winning Megabucks is 1 in 5 million; the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 120 million.

Yandow says a key to Vermont’s participation in the multistate game is a provision that allows Vermont to market Powerball using the same philosophy that’s currently used for all state lottery games:

(Yankow) “We have control over the advertising within the state. We feel strongly that as a state agency that we need to promote a ‘play responsibly’ message and let folks know that if they do have problems, there are ways to get help and let them know what the access to that help is.”

(Host) Yandow expects that revenues from the Megabucks game will decline in the coming year because of the arrival of Powerball. But even with these losses, he says the state will still come out way ahead:

(Yandow) “Over the course of the first year we expect Megabucks to decline maybe between 16% and 23%. Factoring that into our calculations, we do expect that the net increase to the Education Fund will be in the neighborhood of $3.2 million.”

(Host) Yandow says the state lottery commission will have to re-evaluate the state’s current lottery games if the decline in sales for these games is greater than projected.

Comments are closed.