COLUMBIA - Powerball and Mega Millions have agreed in principle to cross-sell tickets to their big-jackpot lottery games. If the South Carolina lottery commission approves, South Carolinians would be able to buy Mega Millions tickets early next year.
Powerball is now played in 30 states, including South Carolina, plus Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Mega Millions is played in 12 states, including Georgia. South Carolina Education Lottery executive director Paula Harper Bethea says even though Powerball has more states, they're mostly smaller states, so the number of players for both games is about equal.
Cross-selling means tickets for both games would be available in all the states that now sell just one or the other.
"Right now, we know that we have a lot of players who are crossing the line along the Georgia border to buy Mega Millions in Georgia," Bethea says. "We'll just keep those players in South Carolina and be able to transfer more money to education."
She doesn't know yet how much more it will mean in revenue for South Carolina, but says it should be several million dollars a year.
"What we think will happen is that Mega Millions will continue to be played like it is, with a draw on Tuesdays and Fridays. Powerball will continue to be played as it is, with a draw on Wednesdays and Saturdays. What we don't know is whether there will be one umbrella organization, which will kind of oversee the cross-sale. Those are the kind of details that we're trying to work out right now," Bethea says.
More changes could be coming. Bethea says, "What this does, it prepares us for the next step, which in the next few years, I think, will be a national game that we'll see come on line."
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