California SuperLotto, Mega Millions, and Fantasy 5 Lotto are
California's three main lotteries; the official website is at
http://www.calottery.com. Perhaps the easiest game to win is
California's Fantasy 5 lottery. This picks five balls from 39, and the
odds of a single ticket winning are 1-in-575,757.
The Fantasy 5 jackpot starts at $50,000 and increases up to a maximum
of $500,000. It also pays out on three and four numbers, and gives you
a free ticket for matching two numbers. It costs $1 for each play.
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
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 SuperLotto Plus starts with a jackpot of $7 million, and
its record payout is $193 million. It is drawn twice a week, on
Wednesday and Saturday. For SuperLotto Plus, 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. Players have the option of
being paid in 26 annual payments or receiving a reduced cash lump sum
immediately. You have 180 days to claim your first prize. There are
nine different ways to win, but the odds of winning first prize are
very high at 41,416,353-in-1.
About 54% of California lotto income 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. Around one billion is contributed to
the education budget, accounting for around 1.5% of California's
funding for education.
At the time of writing this (November 2007), California lottery may be
about to become a political hot potato. 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.
The California lottery was born in 1984, after a majority of
Californian voters approved Proposition 37. Sales in 1984 began at 1.8
billion. Although they grew during the 1980s there was a period of
decline from 1989 to 1992, after which sales increased, up to more than
$3.5 billion for the financial year 2005/6.
