The Mississippi State Lottery is a lottery authorized by the Alyce G. Clarke Mississippi Lottery Law in 2018. It is administered by the Mississippi Lottery Corporation. The corporation expected to begin scratch off sales by December 1, 2019, with sales of draw game tickets in 2020. However, this was bought forward to November 25th as announced by Mississippi Lottery Corporation. On August 2, 2019, the Mississippi Lottery Corporation announced its acceptance into the

Multi-State Lottery Association The Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) is an American non-profit, government-benefit association owned and operated by agreement of its 34 member lottery, lotteries. MUSL was created to facilitate the operation of multi-jurisdictional lottery ...

, with sales of

Mega Millions Mega Millions (originally known as ''The Big Game'' in 1996 and renamed, temporarily, to ''The Big Game Mega Millions'' six years later) is an American multi-jurisdictional lottery game; as of January 30, 2020, it is offered in 45 states, the Di ...

and

Powerball Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). From its inaugural drawing on April 19, 1992, unti ...

beginning on January 30, 2020. Unlike most U.S. lotteries, the minimum age to buy tickets is 21, the same as neighboring

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

Lottery Act

The Alyce G. Clarke Mississippi Lottery Act was passed by the

Mississippi House of Representatives The Mississippi House of Representatives is the lower house of the Mississippi Legislature, the lawmaking body of the U.S. state of Mississippi. According to the state constitution of 1890, it is to comprise no more than 122 members elected fo ...

on August 28, 2018 in a 58-54 vote, following a 60-54 vote against the bill the previous day. The bill states that net proceeds up to $80 million will be paid into the State Highway Fund each fiscal year until June 30, 2028. Proceeds above the $80 million threshold will be paid into Mississippi's Education Enhancement Fund. From July 1, 2028 net proceeds up to $80 million will be transferred into the Lottery Proceeds Fund and from there into the State General Fund. Proceeds above $80 million will continue to be transferred into the Education Enhancement Fund. Mississippi Governor

Phil Bryant Dewey Phillip Bryant (born December 9, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 31st lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2008 to 2012 and 4 ...

signed the bill on August 31, 2018.

History

While Mississippi was an early adopter of casino gambling (primarily in the town of Tunica and along the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

), like many other

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's a ...

states it was reluctant to start a state lottery due to opposition from religious leaders. In addition, casino operators were against a lottery as it could potentially sway gamblers away from casinos. The formation of a state lottery in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

was made possible in November 1992, when fifty-three percent of the state's electorate voted to repeal Section 98 of Article 4 of the

Mississippi Constitution The Constitution of Mississippi is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Mississippi delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Mississippi's original constitution was adopted at a constituti ...

, which read: “No lottery shall ever be allowed, or be advertised by newspapers, or otherwise, or its tickets be sold in this state; and the Legislature shall provide by law for the enforcement of this provision; nor shall any lottery heretofore authorized be permitted to be drawn or its tickets sold.” In 2004,

Alyce Clarke Alyce Griffin Clarke (born July 3, 1939) is an American politician. A Democrat, she is a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from the 69th district, being first elected in 1984. Early life Clarke was born on July 3, 1939, in Y ...

introduced a bill to create a state lottery in

but met with strong opposition from

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Governor

Haley Barbour Haley Reeves Barbour (born October 22, 1947) is an American attorney, politician, and lobbyist who served as the 63rd governor of Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as chairman of the Republican ...

and the leaders of both houses of legislature, so much so that the

Mississippi Baptist Convention The Mississippi Baptist Convention (MBC or MBSC) is an autonomous association of Baptist churches in the state of Mississippi. It is one of the state conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Formed in 1836, it was one of the ...

did not feel the need to mobilize its own opposition.

Current games

Scratch-offs

The Mississippi State Lottery launched its first four scratch-off games - $100,000 Jackpot, 3 Times Lucky, Happy Holidays Y'All, and Triple 7 - at 05:00 on November 25, 2019. Over $2.5 million of sales were recorded in the first day and $8.9 million in the first week.

Cash 3

The lottery's first statewide draw game, Cash 3 was introduced on September 1, 2020. Drawings occur twice daily(at 2:30 PM & 9:30 PM)(originally was once daily before July 31, 2022) and the top prize is $500 for an exact straight match. Like most other states that run a "daily number"-style game, Mississippi offers exotic wagers such as boxes and any-order, plus a "one-off" option.

Cash 4

The lottery's third statewide draw game, Cash 4 was introduced on January 10, 2022. Plays similar like Cash 3, except it plays with a 4-digit number, and the top prize is $5,000 for an exact straight match.

Fireball

From July 31, 2022, the Lottery added a Fireball feature, which gives players an additional opportunity to create winning combinations. With Fireball, players can replace one of the Lottery drawn Cash 3 or Cash 4 winning numbers with the Fireball number drawn for more ways to win. Adding Fireball doubles the cost of the play and can be added to any Cash 3 or Cash 4 play type.

Cash Pop

The lottery's fourth statewide draw game, Cash Pop was introduced on November 1, 2022. Cash Pop is a drawing game based on the drawing of a single number from 1 to 15. Players can choose to wager on as many of the numbers as they wish for a given drawing, paying for each number covered. Each ticket has a base odds of 15-to-1, but the prize is different for each ticket, even for the same number; the higher the prize, the less likely it is to appear, with the top prize appearing on only 1 in 1000 tickets for a given number(for an overall winning odds of 15,000-to-1). Wagers for a given ticket can be $1, $2, $5, or $10, with the prizes scaling proportionally to the wager and a maximum prize of $2,500(on a $10 wager). Tickets played apply to the next drawing(s), which occur two times a day(at 2:30 PM and 9:30 PM, like Cash 3 & Cash 4 does). Cash Pop commenced the ticket sales and the first Midday & Evening drawings on November 20, 2022.

Match 5 with Multiplier

The lottery's first in-state progressive jackpot game, introduced in March 15, 2021. The starting jackpot prize is $50,000*, and if there's no winner in a drawing, it keeps rolling. The players pick 5 numbers from 1 to 35, and each play costs $2. For an additional $1, the player can multiply the non-jackpot prizes with the Multiplier feature, by 2, 3, 4, or even up to 5 times. Unlike multiplier features from the 2 multi-state games', if the player purchase the game with the multiplier, the terminal will generate a random multiplier number for each set(s) of numbers. The player also wins by matching at least 2, 3, or 4 numbers. Drawings are take places three times in a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at around 9:30 p.m. CST, where the drawing results available at 10:00 p.m. CST. Match 5 commenced the ticket sales on April 28, 2021, and the first drawing was held one day later. The overall odds of winning a prize are approximately 1 in 7.2. (*)The jackpot prize is pari-mutuel if there are multiple winners. The starting jackpot may change time-to-time based on sales.

Multi-jurisdictional games

Mississippi started selling Mega Millions and Powerball tickets on January 30, 2020.

References

{{Mississippi-stub 2018 establishments in Mississippi State lotteries of the United States