LANSING, October 2, 2002 – When you visit your favorite party store to pick up chips or a candy bar, what do you do with the change you receive back from your purchase? If you are anything like 77 percent of the adult population in the United States, you probably store your loose change in jars at home, in a change holder in your car or even a shoebox. Believe it or not, all of this change that is sitting around in people’s homes has taken more than $8 billion out of circulation!
Beginning this month, that loose change could bring lucky Lottery players thousands of dollars in return. On October 13, 2002, tickets for the Lottery’s newest game – Change Play – go on sale at Lottery retailers statewide. Change Play, a revolutionary new idea in the lottery industry, will allow players to use loose change from any purchase to buy a chance to win thousands of dollars, with six guaranteed winners each day! For any amount between 25 cents and 99 cents, players can buy Change Play tickets, which are computer-generated, “easy pick” tickets so there are no bet slips to fill out.
“Change Play is an exciting new game that we believe our players will really enjoy,” said Acting Michigan Lottery Commissioner James Kipp. “Everyone involved in this new game will benefit. Lottery players will have the opportunity to win thousands of dollars by spending less than a buck. Lottery retailers will see increased sales at their stores with the extra change purchases — boosting Michigan’s economy. And, most importantly, Michigan’s schoolchildren will benefit from the extra $11 million that this new game is expected to generate for the state School Aid Fund!”
The first Change Play drawing will take place on October 14, 2002. Change Play drawings take place seven nights a week, just after 9:00 p.m. Six winning tickets are randomly selected in a computerized drawing that picks from all of the unique wagers placed that day.
The six daily winners share all of the prize money from that day’s drawing, and their individual winnings are proportional to the amount they wagered on the winning ticket. For example, a player holding a winning 52-cent wager will win twice as much money as a player with a winning 26-cent wager. Individual prize amounts are based upon the total amount wagered in each drawing and may vary from day to day. Likewise, the odds of winning a Change Play cash prize depend upon the total number of wagers placed for each drawing and may be different each day.
Because Change Play drawings are conducted just after 9:00 p.m. each day, the winning combinations are not announced during the Lottery’s regular televised drawings. Instead, the winning combinations can be found on your local television and radio newscasts, in your local newspaper, via the Lottery’s toll-free Lottery Link hotline (1-800-822-8888) or on the Lottery Web site at www.michigan.gov/lottery.
The Michigan Lottery is only the second Lottery in the United States to offer a product structured like the Change Play game – the Georgia Lottery introduced a similar game called The Change Game a couple of months ago.
Since it was created in 1972, the Michigan Lottery has returned over $10.5 billion to the state School Aid Fund which supports K-12 public education in the state of Michigan.
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