TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Lottery has launched its newest limited-time promotional game, Summer Cash. The game provides players with the chance to win $250,000, gasoline for a lifetime, gasoline for a year and instant-win cash prizes.
Summer Cash is a $5 limited-time game scheduled for sale June 30 through August 26. During the eight-week game period, players will have the opportunity to win a total of eight $250,000 cash prizes, 40 gasoline for a lifetime prizes and 400 gasoline for a year prizes. Weekly drawings will be held each Wednesday, starting on July 9. In addition, there [image-nocss] will be hundreds of thousands of $25 instant cash winners.
In a recent online poll, more than 1,100 visitors to the Florida Lottery's website chose gasoline as the prize they would most like to win. Additionally, results from the Lottery's April and May monthly surveys indicated that nearly 90% of players who participated found "gasoline for a year" to be an appealing prize option. As a result, the Florida Lottery is offering more than $2 million in cash prizes and free gasoline cards in the eight weekly drawings offered in the Summer Cash promotion.
The Florida Lottery announced separately that it will join the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) and add Powerball to its portfolio of games starting in January 2009. Florida will become the 30th state to join the multi-state lottery game, which is currently offered in 29 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Though the Florida Lottery offers one of the strongest lotto games in the nation, it is the only state lottery that does not currently participate in a multi-state lottery game.
Meanwhile, Kathy Wallick is the first grand-prize winner in Rutter's Farm Stores' gas giveaway. The North York waitress will receive free gasoline for the next three years. Rutter's formally presented the "Fuel Up Free!" prize to Wallick with an event this morning at its store in Manchester Township, Pa. The gas giveaway began May 26 and runs through August 24. Four customers will win free gasoline for three years, with the remaining grand-prize drawings scheduled for July 14, August 4 and September 15. York, Pa.-based Rutter's operates 52 convenience stores in York, Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and Lancaster counties.In other lottery news, the "Beginner's Luck" game in Virginia has come under fire. According to a CNN report, when Scott Hoover bought a $5 scratch-off ticket last summer, he carefully studied the odds. Even though he figured his chances of winning were a long shot, he felt the odds were reasonable.
Hoover, a business professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, wasn't surprised when his tickets didn't bring him the $75,000 grand prize, but he was shocked to learn the top prize had been awarded before he bought the ticket. "I felt duped into buying these things," he told CNN.
He discovered the Virginia State Lottery was continuing to sell tickets for games in which the top prizes were no longer available. Public records showed that someone had already won the top prize one month before Hoover played. He is now suing the state of Virginia for breach of contract, said the report.
"It's one thing to say it's a long shot to win the $75,000, but it's another thing to say you have no shot to win it," said John Fishwick, Hoover's attorney.
Through a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, Fishwick's firm was able to obtain records that showed the Virginia State Lottery sold $85 million in tickets for which no top prize was available. Fishwick says the state should pay $85 million in damages.
Paula Otto, executive director of the Virginia State Lottery, told CNN that the state's games are fair and the top prize money is actually a small percentage of the money given out to lottery players. Most of the players win through the second, third or fourth-place prizes, she said. She also said it is no longer possible in the state of Virginia to purchase tickets with no top prizes available.
"We absolutely have always been very open and honest with our players about the way our scratch tickets are distributed," Otto said. "Yes, there were times when there was a scratch game out there that might've said "zero" in terms of the number of top prizes, but our players knew that."
Otto would not comment on the lawsuit, but said she stands by the integrity of the games in Virginia and looks forward to vigorously defending them.
Virginia isn't the only state to sell tickets that have no top prizes available, said the report. USA Today estimated that about half of the 42 states that have lotteries were, as of early July, continuing to sell tickets after the top prizes are claimed. Lottery officials from some states say the practice is fair because lesser prizes are still available, and they say tickets and lottery websites make that clear.
In New Jersey, tickets for the "$1,000,000 Explosion" scratch-off game were still on sale last week, even though the million-dollar grand prize was already awarded. Lottery ticket buyers outside a New Jersey convenience store were stunned to hear the news. "Oh really? I didn't know that," one shopper told CNN. Another added, "That's just not right."Dominick DeMarco, a spokesperson with the New Jersey Lottery, told the news outlet that information about winning tickets and prizes is readily available on the lottery website and at retail outlets; however, officials are still looking for ways to improve on their procedures.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.