Fantasy 5 Lotto costs $1 for each gamey, and you can play for up to 12
draws in advance by marking the advance play box. California Fantasy 5
prizes are always paid in cash, in full. Lottery Systems suitable for
California's Fantasy 5 lottery can be found at
http://www.power-ball-pro.com. For Fantasy 5, the jackpot starts at
$50,000 and increases if not won, up to a maximum of $500,000. It also
pays out for four numbers, three numbers, and gives you a free ticket
for matching two numbers.
California also offers the multistate lottery game, Mega-Millions.
Mega-Millions is the largest lottery game in America, played in 12
different states. It has a starting prize of $12 million and has had a
record payout of $390 Million. The odds of winning Mega-Millions are
enormous at 1-in-175,711,536, but there are nine different ways to win.
To win Mega-Millions, you need to mark one set of numbers, choosing
five numbers from 1 to 56 and a second set of numbers where you choose
one number between 1 and 46. You have a choice of being paid by 26
annual instalments or receiving a reduced cash value prize. You have
180 days to claim your first prize.
California's own SuperLotto Plus is drawn twice a week, on Wednesday
and Saturday. You need to correctly choose from five numbers between 1
and 47, plus one number from a separate set of numbers between 1 and
27. SuperLotto Plus starts with a jackpot of $7 million, and its record
payout is $193 million. Players have the option of being paid in 26
annual payments or receiving a reduced cash lump sum immediately. There
are nine different ways to win, but the odds of winning first prize are
very high at 41,416,353-in-1.
Income from all California lotteries is distributed as follows. Around
54% goes back to players in the form of prizes; around 34% supplements
the public education budget; around 7% goes to lottery retailers, and
the remainder covers the expenses of running the California lottery.
The one billion contributed to the education budget accounts for around
1.5% of California's funding for education and most of this is spent on
teacher's salaries or classroom instructional materials.
Currently (Nov 2007), there are discussions in progress regarding
privatising the California lottery and broadening the benefits to
California's citizens beyond the education field. Predictably, those in
education are not impressed by the fact that their funding may be
compromised by political promises in the health area. Rather than an
outright sale, California would probably lease its lottery.
California lotto started in 1984, with sales at 1.8 billion, and sales
increased up to more than $3.5 billion for the financial year 2005/6.
However, even at $3.5 billion, California lottery underperforms most
American lotteries in terms of sales per capita - one of the reasons
privatisation has become a talking point.
