Here’s a great question from a man on Facebook. Bryce asked us: “How come other states offer much larger prizes on their scratch tickets?”
It’s a two-part answer. A portion of it is what we do in the planning of our games. But a big part also is simply determined by population.
The planning part comes as we do our best to keep a variety of games in the marketplace to meet player tastes. We do our best to have out there different game designs, colors, price points, themes and prize structures, understanding that what works for one person may not interest another at all. Variety is the spice of life!
That means that games at the same price point may offer drastically different top prizes because different players look for different things in the tickets they choose to play. Take our current $20 scratch games as an example. “The BIG Ticket” and “Little Black Game Book” both offer a top prize of $100,000 while the “$250,000 Riches” game has a top prize of $250,000. The first two offer extended playing time, with several different spots to play on one ticket. Those games also have more smaller prizes in them, so the top prize involved is not quite as high. The $250,000 Riches game, on the other hand, puts more concentration on the top prize.
That’s because some people want to play for bigger prizes while others prefer a better chance to win a prize at any level. We hope that by having a variety of games out there, you’ll find something that you like.
Population is the other big factor when it comes to determining the prizes that can be offered in a particular game. A lottery in a state with a larger population is going to be able to design a game with bigger prizes – and more of them – simply because that state will have so many more people playing it. A greater population base means larger sales overall, which in turn supports higher prizes.
With a population of 3.1 million, Iowa’s is fairly small compared to states like California (38.8 million) or Florida (19.9 million). But when it comes to being inventive and coming up with new game ideas, we think we’re small but mighty!
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