Limited Number of Tickets Go on Sale Today for Jan. 2, 2010 Drawing
MIDDLETOWN, Pa., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tickets for the Pennsylvania Lottery's ninth Millionaire Raffle go on sale today. The raffle-style game will offer 6,000 cash prizes worth more than $5 million when winners are drawn at 6:59 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2010.
"The raffle game again features the best odds offered by the Pennsylvania Lottery for winning a million dollars," said Lottery Executive Director Ed Trees.
Tickets will be available until 5 p.m. on Jan. 2, or until sold out, whichever comes first. Only 500,000 tickets will be sold. When the last raffle ticket is issued, the game will close, and no additional tickets will be available. Tickets for the eight previous Millionaire Raffles sold out before the drawing. The most recent Millionaire Raffle drawing was conducted on July 4.
Because Millionaire Raffle tickets are scheduled to be sold over 44 days, Trees urged players to promptly sign the backs of their tickets and keep them in a safe place until the drawing.
Each of the game's $20 tickets offers a 1-in-125,000 chance of winning $1 million. The Millionaire Raffle drawing will award four top prizes of $1 million cash; four $100,000 cash prizes; 100 prizes of $1,000 cash; and 5,892 prizes of $100 cash. A total of 6,000 prizes worth $5,089,200 will be awarded.
Each raffle ticket will contain a unique, eight-digit number issued sequentially across the state from the Lottery's central computer, starting with number 00000001. The final raffle ticket issued for the game will contain the raffle ticket number 00500000. To be considered a winning ticket, the number printed on it must match the raffle number combination selected in the drawing - in the exact sequence in which it was selected.
Winning raffle ticket numbers will be randomly selected at 6:59 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2010 when the Lottery's live drawing show will televise the selection of the four, $1 million, top-prize raffle ticket numbers and the four, $100,000, second-prize raffle ticket numbers. The remaining 5,992 winning ticket numbers also will be selected, but will not be televised live due to time constraints.
Odds of winning a $1,000 prize are 1-in-5,000, and the odds of winning $100 are 1-in-85. The overall odds of winning any prize are 1-in-83.
About the Pennsylvania Lottery: The Pennsylvania Lottery remains the only state lottery that designates all its proceeds to fund programs that benefit older residents. Since its inception 37 years ago, the Pennsylvania Lottery has contributed more than $19.2 billion to programs that include property tax and rent rebates; free and reduced-fare transit; the low-cost prescription drug programs PACE and PACENET; long-term care services; and the 52 Area Agencies on Aging, including more than 600 full- and part-time senior centers throughout the state. The Pennsylvania Lottery reminds its players to play responsibly. Players must be 18 or older.
For more information on the Pennsylvania Lottery, visit www.palottery.com.
Media contact: Veronica Sinclair-Anderson, 717-702-8008
SOURCE Pennsylvania Lottery
