Scientific Games to supply multi-state lottery in US

The initial 23 participating states comprise Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Washington DC.

Pending regulatory approval, the new game is also expected to launch in California, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin after October 19.

Created under licence by Hasbro, Scientific Games said the new draw game is expected to generate more simultaneous millionaires than any other lottery game in history, with the prize pool beginning with a $15 million top prize and 10 $1 million club prizes.

If the top prize is not won in a given week, it will continue to increase in value for the next three weeks until it reaches $25 million.

If nobody wins the top prize, the money will be allocated to fund the additional $1 million club prizes until somebody wins the top prize.

The multi-state game is also the first of its kind in the US to offer a $5 price point.

Steve Saferin, president of Properties Group and chief creative officer for Scientific Games, said: “Monopoly is one of the most successful brands in gaming with lottery, slots and sweepstakes. “With Monopoly Millionaires Club, more millionaires will be made than ever before.

“Our player research consistently indicates that participants would prefer to see the millions of dollars in lottery prizing distributed to lots of winners, rather than one or two players winning hundreds of millions of dollars each.”