Iowa will be part of a new premium lotto game debuting across the country this fall. The $5 lottery game, called MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB, will begin sales Oct. 19, offering players three chances on each ticket to win a prize of at least $1 million. The game will have a weekly lotto drawing; a separate drawing triggered only when the game’s Top Prize is won; and a nationally televised game show.
The Iowa Lottery Board met in Des Moines today, where the Board discussed the latest details about Iowa’s plans for the new game.
The playing feature in the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game that may seem most familiar will be its weekly lotto drawing. You’ll choose five numbers from a pool of 52 on your ticket. After you’ve selected those five numbers, the lottery terminal will automatically pick an additional number from 1 to 28 that also will represent a Property on the MONOPOLY game board. You won’t be able to choose that last number on your own; it will always be generated by the terminal.
The Top Prize in the weekly lotto drawing will start at $15 million and can roll without being won only three times to a maximum of $25 million. After that, the Top Prize will remain capped at $25 million until it’s won and the rest of the money that would have helped it grow will instead be used to create more and more winners of $1 million each. There will be at least 10 winners of a $1 million prize each time the Top Prize is won and it’s anticipated there could be dozens. We expect that the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game could generate more millionaires than any other game in lottery history!
The game’s lotto drawings will be held at 10:15 p.m. (central time) on Fridays. If you match all six winning numbers in one of the drawings, you’ll win the Top Prize. There will be nine other ways to win in the drawings as well, with smaller prizes ranging from $5 (for matching just two of the first five numbers) up to $100,000 (for matching the first five numbers).
When someone hits the game’s Top Prize, that’s when the shower of millionaires will be triggered. A separate drawing will be held to determine winners across the country of $1 million each. Here’s how you’ll get in on that: In addition to the six lotto-drawing numbers, each ticket in the game will automatically have a unique “Millionaires’ Club number” printed on it. That number will be your entry into the drawing that’s triggered when the Top Prize is won. Matching one of the winning numbers in that drawing will earn you a $1 million prize.
And here’s the third way you could win a prize of at least $1 million on your ticket: A webcode will be printed at the bottom of each MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES' CLUB lottery ticket. You’ll go to playmmc.com to see how to register your ticket and enter your webcode to collect the game-board Property on your ticket. The goal will be to enter tickets to complete a Property Set. When you do that, you’ll get drawing entries for a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas where you could be a contestant on the national TV game show. Each player selected to attend the show’s tapings will win a five-day, four-night trip to Vegas for two to join the show's studio audience.
Here’s another fun connection: Comedian and actor Billy Gardell (“Mike & Molly,” “You, Me and Dupree”) will host the TV show. Tapings will start in January, and the one-hour, primetime game show will make its TV debut in February 2015. The Iowa stations that will carry the show will be announced at a later date.
Some studio audience members at the tapings will be selected at random to compete on the show, where contestants will play a series of games with a MONOPOLY theme. Each game will offer cash and other prizes valued at up to $100,000. A final round on each episode will offer one player a shot at $1 million.
It’s possible that one person could win the Top Prize in the weekly lotto drawing, a $1 million prize in the Millionaires’ Club drawing and a $1 million prize on the TV game show. There are some pretty long odds of that happening, but hey, you never know!
Look for the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game starting Sunday, Oct. 19 here in Iowa. You’ll buy tickets in the game at the lottery terminal, just like you do in Powerball® and Mega Millions®.
The MONOPOLY name and logos are trademarks of Hasbro. The distinctive design of the gameboard, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces, are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. for its property trading game and game equipment. ©1935, 2014 Hasbro, Pawtucket, RI 02862. All Rights Reserved.
This a great idea.......More have chance to win one MILLION bucks is really a good idea...............Keep Looking UP !!!!
Posted by: Michael J. Clark | September 27, 2014 at 01:38 PM
Thanks for your feedback, Dale! We're excited about this new game. I think your feelings about the big jackpots are a situation where we can't please all of the people all of the time. Lots of folks really like those big jackpots and buy tickets as the jackpots rise, but others share the feelings that you do. We're trying to give folks more options with this new game, while leaving the big-jackpot games in place, too.
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | September 25, 2014 at 08:36 AM
This is a great idea! I like the way it has more $1M winners and not focus all the money on ONE big prize. I wish the Powerball, etc could do something like this. Seriously, what are you going to do with $50M?
Posted by: Dale | September 25, 2014 at 08:21 AM