Hoosier Lottery

The state of Indiana runs the Hoosier Lottery, which is the nickname for the state. It is the only lottery amongst all U.S. states that uses a nickname instead of its state name. The Hoosier Lottery is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). The Lottery's games include Lucky 5, Powerball, Hoosier Lotto and several scratch-off games.

History

The Hoosier Lottery was created by a lottery referendum that passed by a 62% majority by Indiana voters on November 8, 1988. The Indiana General Assembly ratified the Lottery Act on May 3, 1989 which was then turned into law 1 week later.

The Lottery was in operation within 3 months of the creation of the Lottery Commission. The first scratch-off tickets were sold on October 13, 1989 at 12:10 p.m. and 8.19 million tickets were purchased on the very first day. The second week of operation revealed over .8 million in sales.

On October 28, 1989, the Hoosier Millionaire Show began to air on WTTV-4 in Indianapolis, along with 10 stations on the network. The initial draw-game began on April 30, 1990 with Lotto Cash. The first actual drawing took place on May 5, 1990. Additional lottery games were added because of the success of Lotto Cash. These games included Daily 3 (July 1990), Daily 4 (July 1990), Lotto America (October 1990), and Lucky 5 (November 1993).

Powerball would be the new name for Lotto America in April 1992. Powerball sales were strongest in the state of Indiana in only 2 weeks after the name change. The very first Powerball jackpot winner in Indiana was Bert Morlan one month after Indiana began selling tickets. Indiana's bar-coded scratch-off tickets Draw Poker, Cash Crop, and 3 Times Lucky also began in April 1993.

Lotto Cash was subsequently replaced by Hoosier Lotto in September 1994. The newly designed Hoosier Lotto was created to have larger jackpots and more winners. It offered a "match two of six" concept that was only available in Indiana as compared to all of North America. In that same month, the Hoosier Lottery would host the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) convention in the great city of Indianapolis.

Instant Euchre was introduced in June 1995 by the Hoosier Lottery. It is the only lottery game in the world to utilize suit and trump. Within 2 years, the first scratch-off games to offer a prize of million called Tax Free Million was introduced.

Luckiest Powerball Town

The largest U.S. lottery jackpot of the time was on July 29, 1998 by 13 machine-shop workers from Ohio. They purchased a Powerball ticket in Richmond, Indiana for the 5.7 million jackpot. This group of winners were known as the "baker's dozen." They opted for the cash payment. The city of Richmond would again be home to a Powerball winner on August 25, 2007 when a Powerball prize of 4 million was awarded.

Record In-State Jackpot

On November 7, 2007, the Hoosier Lottery had a jackpot of .5 million which was the biggest jackpot to date. A retired steel worker from East Chicago, Indiana selected a cash option that totaled .4 million instead of 30 annual payments. The winner's name was Peter Gilbert and his win broke the previous record that was set on June 5, 1999 for million. There have been no jackpot winners since October 21, 2006.

NEWS

The NASPL Standards Initiative (NSL) has recognized the Hoosier Lottery with a 'Verified' status pursuant to the requirements definition of the Best Practice Quality Assurance of Product Development in the Lottery Industry. This Quality Assurance standard provides vendors and lotteries with simplified, approved and documented practices for incorporating quality into testing and development processes. They reduce risk and cost over a long-term period. The verification recognizes a set of quality assurance practices and methods that allow the Indiana Hoosier Lottery and gaming vendors to follow approved and repeatable procedures when developing, defining and accepting software products that are installed at the Lottery.