New York among states forming new mega-lottery

Katherine Roth

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 9:13 a.m.

NEW YORK -- The Big Game lottery is going to get bigger.

New York is joining the seven states that currently comprise the Big Game to create a new multistate mega-jackpot game, New York Lottery director Margaret DeFrancisco announced Wednesday.

In addition to New York, the states of Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia are all taking part, she said. Tickets for the new game, which has yet to be named, are expected to go on sale in the spring of 2002.

The richest lottery prize in U.S. history was $363 million in the Big Game jackpot won last year by two players in Illinois and Michigan.

"Our players and retailers have been looking forward to this day for quite some time," DeFrancisco said. "We are pleased that all New Yorkers will have the opportunity to share in the kind of excitement that only a mega-jackpot game can create."

The new lottery will involve picking six numbers, just like the current Big Game, with five numbers chosen from a field of 50 numbers and the sixth selected from a separate field of 36 numbers.

New York Lottery games, which previously had jackpots starting at $3 million, will have jackpots starting at $5 million now that New York is a part of the Big Game Group, DeFrancisco said.

The Big Game group was formed in 1996.

Lori Montana, director of the Illinois Lottery, said New York was a good addition to the group.

"We are already working on defining the parameters for a new game," Montana said. "We look forward to drawing on New York's game development expertise to add an extra element of excitement and surprise to the new product."