Massachusetts May Join Powerball Lottery

Posted on June 15th, 2009

Faced with diminishing lottery returns the Massachusetts Senate has voted to join the multistate Powerball lottery. State Treasurer Timothy Cahill faced with sagging lottery revenues pushed for Powerball saying it could bring the state an extra $25 million to $40 million a year. Massachusetts already participates in the Mega Millions lottery.

The Powerball plan has to be approved by the House of Representatives and sent to Governor Deval Patrick for final approval. After the Governor’s approval the 30 participating states have to approve the addition of Massachusetts. At present Massachusetts is the only New England state not participating in the Powerball lottery. Cahill thinks there is room for both the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries, “I think they really compliment each other. I don’t think that they hurt each other. Because it’s rare when you have two big jackpots in the same week or the same month. But if you do, that would just give more people more of a chance to win.”

Approval from participating states is not a certainty. Recently the state of Washington was blackballed by the Powerball lottery. Washington wanted to sell Powerball tickets with joining the multistate Powerball consortium. Powerball is operated by Multi-State Lottery Association. (MUSL) Powerball drawings take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Bringing Powerball to Massachusetts is popular with local lottery players. At the present time Powerball players must purchase tickets in neighboring states and most players would welcome the convenience of purchasing Powerball tickets locally. Once Powerball clears the House and the Governor’s office it will be up to the Powerball consortium to approve Massachusetts’s participation.

Update; since the original article was written Massachusetts has joined the many states that now allow the cross selling of tickets for both Powerball and Mega Millions. Most states that have added both multi state lotteries report increased lottery ticket sales. In North Carolina the cross sales of tickets for both mega jackpot lotteries has helped to ease a budget shortfall and increase the amount of money available for education. Now Massachusetts lottery players have a chance to win one of two mega jackpots each week.

Some states are considering a move which would allow the sale of online lottery tickets. In Europe lotteries have allowed the sale of online lottery tickets for some time with great success. In the US some states are already considering implementing the technology which would allow players to make an online lottery purchase. Most lottery experts believe that online lottery ticket sales are the wave of the future.