In 1966, New Yorkers approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a government-run lottery with proceeds applied directly toward education. One of the first in America and still raising billions annually to help finance state schools; its games include raffle and draw games, scratch-off tickets, and video terminals.
New York Lotto is the state’s premier lottery game. Participants select six numbers between 1 and 59 to participate in twice weekly draws, where prize money is distributed on a pari-mutuel basis so winners share in a pool of awards. Furthermore, New York Lottery provides bonus numbers that increase your chances of claiming big jackpot prizes.
In February 1985, Lotto was expanded with a sixth number and increased to offer a maximum jackpot of fifty million dollars. This change was intended to attract larger audiences who watched it on television; an additional prize offering ten thousand dollars for matching five of the main numbers plus the bonus number was also introduced as an incentive.
Once Lotto had been introduced, the New York State Lottery continued introducing new games. Their initial instant-win lottery, known as Quick Draw, had similar mechanics to Keno: players had to match both six winning numbers drawn on TV with three cash numbers from a set of 48 that they selected from within this set. WNEW-TV first aired this game.
By the late 1990s, Lotto was still immensely popular but sales had experienced a slight decrease since Mega Millions’ introduction. Johnnie Ely of Bronx Kitchen Cook fame won an incredible first-ever hundred million-dollar jackpot from Lotto; opting for annuity payments instead of lump sum payment and receiving thirty-four million before taxes were taken out of his winnings.
The Lottery also started selling various scratch-off tickets and games similar to Lotto, such as New York Cash 5 which could be found at hotels, motels, banks, Western Union offices for one dollar per ticket with jackpots reaching over 10 Million Dollars!
In January 1999, The Lottery also unveiled Take 5, which replaced Cash 40 and offered similar rules but at reduced cost and with greater chances of winning $200,000. While DDB used Barenaked Ladies’ upbeat song “If I Had a Million Dollars,” Grey Worldwide decided on more modest goals for Lottery winners; its ads featured people talking about how they’d use their windfall money such as buying furniture for their house or creating a tree fort in the backyard with windfall money from winning lottery tickets; this approach sought to avoid making campaigns seem paean-worthy while encouraging former Lottery players back into playing; an approach designed to avoid paeans to greed while encouraging former participants back into playing.