florida lottery

History

began operation on January 12, 1988 by order of a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters by a 2-to-1 margin in the general election of November 4, 1986. The point of the Lottery was to give extra funding to state education, and it was mandated that 35% of all revenue go to the state Department of Education. The Bright Futures scholarship program is funded by the Florida Lottery.

The first game offered by Florida Lottery was MILLIONAIRE, a $1 scratch-off game with a US$1 million grand prize. Seventeen days of ticket sales allowed for the Lottery Commission to repay with interest the initial US$15.5 million bond from Florida's General Revenue Fund that got it going.

The first on-line number-drawing games offered by the Florida Lottery were Cash 3 and Lotto, which both started on April 29, 1988. Lotto, the six-number game with multi-million-dollar USD jackpots, had its initial jackpot at US$2 million dollars, and was played every Saturday initially, with the first drawing being April 30. From that point on, jackpots would start at $6 million and rollover, or increase, if no one won. Josie Moore of Port Charlotte, Florida, won the first jackpot on May 28 It was worth US$14 million, and paid in an annuity of 20 yearly payments. Cash 3 had a US$500 jackpot.

On September 3, Sheelah Ryan of Winter Springs, Florida, won the largest single lottery jackpot in world history to that point, a jackpot of US$55.16 million.

On April 28, 1989, the Florida Lottery expanded with Fantasy 5, a five-number on-line drawing game played every Tuesday and Friday initially. Its jackpots were typically in the tens of thousands of dollars, but had reached over one million dollars through rollovers.

The first US$100 million Lotto jackpot in world history came about on the September 14, 1990, drawing. Six players split a US$106.5 million jackpot, each getting $17.75 million. That day, the Florida Lottery set a record with US$30 million in revenue from Lotto alone.

In 1991, a daily four-number online game, Play 4, is introduced on July 4, with a top prize of $5,000. December 10 sees the advent of the Florida Lotto month, where minimum jackpots and rollovers were guaranteed at US$10 million for the Christmas season.

On September 27, 1993, the first $2 scratch-off game, Bingo, was introduced. Through variants, it is the longest-running scratch-off game in the Florida Lottery.

On January 24, 1994, Fantasy 5 expanded to every weeknight. On May 22, the first Lotto mail-in promotion began where losing tickets could be mailed in for a prize. Called the Great LOTTOMOBILE Giveaway, 50 tickets each won their holders a 30th Anniversary 1995 Ford Mustang.

In October 1995, the Florida Lottery launched Flamingo Fortune, a game show where people who sent in losing scratch-off tickets were selected to play for lucrative prizes.

On February 28, 1996, Barbara Arens of Clearwater, Florida, was announced as the first grand prize winner of the Win For Life $2 scratch-off game. She is guaranteed a payout of US$1,000 per week for the remainder of her life, paid out in annual installments of US$52,000, with a guaranteed total payout of US$1 million should she die before she reach that amount.

The 500th Lotto drawing occurred on November 29, 1996, with a jackpot of US$26 million. It rolled over.

The Lottery celebrated its 10-year anniversary on January 12, 1998. To that point it had grossed US$21 billion in sales and given US$8 billion to Florida education. On February 25 of that year, they began Mega Money, a four-plus-one online drawing game played every Tuesday and Friday with jackpots in the hundreds of thousands of dollars USD. Initially rolled out on an 18-week trial run, it was relaunched on a permanent basis on June 1, 1999.

On February 2, 1999, Florida Governor Jeb Bush declined an offer to allow the multi-state Powerball lottery to sell tickets in Florida.

On October 24, 1999, Lotto underwent major changes. It was increased from a 6x49 matrix to a 6x53 matrix, and increased to two nights a week, adding Wednesday. Its initial jackpot was reduced to US$3 million with lower initial rollovers. Fantasy 5 followed suit on July 16, 2001, increasing to a 5x36 matrix from a 5x26 matrix and changing to a rolldown format.

On September 8, 2003, The largest unclaimed Florida Lottery ticket in the Lottery's 15-year history expires after the 180-day deadline with no one claiming the ticket. The FLORIDA LOTTO™ ticket was worth an estimated $53.7 million. ($30.1 million Cash Amount).

On January 28, 2004, Mega Money was revamped. Instead of 32-by-4-plus-32 matrix, it moved to a 44-by-4-plus-22 matrix.

In 2005, a new online ticket package called Grouper was made available with the statewide rollout of new ticket sales terminals, manufactured by GTech. For $5, a player can get quick-picks of each of the five online games (Cash 3, Play 4, Fantasy 5, Mega Money and Lotto), each for the next available drawing, then a free ticket for a major game (Fantasy 5, Mega Money or Lotto) chosen at random.

On March 20, 2005 a new play option called "EZmatch" was added to Fantasy 5. For an extra dollar players could win up to $500 USD instantly, by matching their Fantasy 5 numbers to the random EZmatch numbers.

To date, the Florida Lottery has raised US$16 billion for Florida education. However, there is some controversy over that. In 1988, Florida lawmakers in the 1989 State Budget voted to reduce the education budget proportionally to what the Lottery would bring in. Some believe this has resulted in many of the problems suffered by Florida schools today. Most believe this is a violation of a promise, and has made Floridians wary of all tax increases as a result.

Online Games

Florida does not participate in either of the two U.S. multi-state games, Powerball and Mega Millions.

Cash 3 Cash 3 is drawn every day during a live broadcast at 7:57pm EST/EDT. Three ball machines, each with balls numbered ranging from 0 through 9 are used. One ball is drawn from each machine. Anyone who matches the three numbers (in any order, or only in order, depending on how exactly the numbers are played; Cash 3 and Play 4 offer several different options when playing) they are drawn wins a guaranteed US$500 jackpot.

Play 4 Play 4 is drawn every day during a live broadcast immediately following the Cash 3 drawing. It is played the same way as Cash 3, except four ball machines are used. Anyone who matches the four numbers (in any order, or only in order, depending on how exactly the numbers are played; Cash 3 and Play 4 offer several different options when playing) wins a guaranteed US$5,000 jackpot. Recently more ways to play involving multiple-number tickets have been introduced. See the lottery website for further details.

Fantasy 5 Fantasy 5 is drawn every day, and is the only game whose drawing is taped. A single ball machine is used with balls numbered ranging from 1 through 36 (Before July 16, 2001, it was 1 through 26, and before 1993, it was 1 through 39). Five balls are drawn from the machine. Anyone who matches all five numbers in any order wins or shares a jackpot of around US $200,000. If no one matches all five, the jackpot rolls down to the 4 out of 5 winners. See the Rollover and Rolldown section below.

Mega Money Mega Money is drawn each Tuesday and Friday during a live broadcast at 11:00pm EST/EDT. Two ball machines are used, one with white balls numbered ranging from 1 through 44 and another with pink balls numbered ranging from 1 through 22 (Before January 28, 2004, it was 1 through 32 for both). Four balls are drawn from the white machine, and one number (called the mega ball) is drawn from the pink machine. Anyone who matches all four white numbers in any order plus the mega ball wins or shares the jackpot. The minimum jackpot is estimated at US$500,000 annuity value. Jackpots can rollover up to $2 million, but freezes at $2 million. Any excess funds rolldown to the lower prize levels.

Lotto Lotto is drawn each Wednesday and Saturday during a live broadcast at 11:00pm EST/EDT. A single ball machine is used with balls numbered ranging from 1 through 53 (before October 24, 1999, it was 1 through 49). Anyone who matches all six numbers in any order wins or shares the jackpot. The minimum jackpot is currently estimated at US$3 million, and can rollover indefinitely if no one wins the game.

In all games, 50% of the total revenue makes up the game's prize pool, 35% is transferred to the Education Enhancement Trust Fund, and the remaining 15% covers operational costs.

All Cash 3, Play 4 and Fantasy 5 Jackpot winners receive their jackpots in lump sum payouts. Any winnings less than US$599 can be redeemed at a Lottery retailer; higher winnings must be redeemed at a District Lottery Office, and Mega Money and Lotto Jackpots over US$125,000 must be redeemed at Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee on Thursdays. Mega Money jackpot winners can choose between an annuity of 20 payments that roughly equals the estimated jackpot, or a lump-sum cash payment, which is about 2/3 of the estimated jackpot less federal income taxes. Lotto jackpot winners can choose between an annuity of 30 payments that roughly equals the estimated jackpot, or a lump-sum cash payment, which is about 1/2 of the estimated jackpot less federal income taxes. Florida does not have a state income tax, and does not tax Lottery winnings.

The computers used to manage online games can figure out where all winning tickets were purchased. Any jackpot from any online game that is not claimed within 180 days of its drawing must be put into a pool for redistribution in a special promotion.

Rollover and Rolldown

Rollover A rollover occurs when a jackpot is not won, and it is carried over to that game's next drawing. Mega Money and Lotto both use rollovers to increase their jackpots when no one wins a drawing. Mega Money has a US$2 million jackpot cap, after which any money in excess must rolldown. Lotto does not have a jackpot cap and can rollover as long as no one picks the winning numbers.

Rolldown A rolldown occurs when a jackpot is not won, and the jackpot is redistributed to be shared with those that drew the next level of winning down. In Mega Money, when a US$2 million jackpot is not won, any funds in excess of US$2 million is rolled down and added to the pool for all the other winners, except players who only matched the mega ball (they still get a free ticket). In Fantasy 5, whenever all 5 winning numbers are not picked, the top prize pool is added to the pool for those that got four numbers right.

Quick-Pick Normally, a player fills out a bubble sheet with the numbers for the game they want. If a person is in a hurry, they can walk up to the terminal and ask for a "quick-pick", allowing the computer to select numbers for them. In either case, up to ten plays for Lotto, Fantasy 5, or Mega Money (Cash 3 and Play 4 always play on single tickets) for the same game can be printed on the same individual ticket paper. At the beginning of the lottery however, quick-picks were not available, and each play was printed on its own piece of paper, each of which had one of several pictures of Florida scenery on the upper half.

External links

• Florida Lottery Official Site

Unofficial Sites

• Florida Lottery results, Buy Florida Lotto Tickets lottohitter.com Site