Lottery Players Have New Chance to Strike It Rich
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Lottery players have a new chance to try and strike it rich. Tonight is the first drawing for Mega Millions. It's the newest multistate lottery. Tickets will be sold in nine states, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Virginia. Washington State will join Mega Millions in September. Joining us to talk about the new game, New York lottery director Margaret DiFrancisco. She's in Albany. And Ohio director Dennis Kennedy. He's in Columbus. Welcome. Thanks for joining you us. Margaret, let's start with you. Why do you need yet another lottery game?</s>MARGARET DIFRANCISCO, NEW YORK LOTTERY DIRECTOR: Well, you know, our players and our retailers have been waiting to join a mega jackpot game for years. And we are very excited to be part of this.</s>KAGAN: Dennis, this is Big Game gone bigger, right? What we just saw was what, a $200 million jackpot just a couple weeks ago?</s>DENNIS KENNEDY, OHIO LOTTERY DIRECTOR: Yes. This is -- has the prospects of being a much bigger game. The Big Game had previously reached -- you know, they had success a few weeks ago. We hope to be part of that success if the future.</s>KAGAN: Let's talk some of the numbers that we are talking here. This is going to be a double the initiating jackpot, so it's going to start at $10 million.</s>KENNEDY: That's right.</s>DIFRANCISCO: That's right.</s>KAGAN: And then where can it go from there? Sky's the limit, I guess?</s>KENNEDY: It's all depending on sales, and with Margaret's help and our help, we are looking for big things.</s>DIFRANCISCO: And we expect the jackpots to average $80 million, and this could grow to $500 million and more.</s>KAGAN: Five-hundred million. So you are looking at setting some records here.</s>DIFRANCISCO: We are indeed.</s>KAGAN: What about the criticism? One, people who say you don't need more lottery, and then the standard criticism of these lottery games, that you're taxing the poor to pay for programs that benefit the rich.</s>DIFRANCISCO: We know in New York that 75 percent of our adult population, which is about 14.2 million people, play the lottery. So it is everyone who plays the lottery. And this is not...</s>KAGAN: Not everyone. I mean, right there, your numbers say it is not everyone. But you're saying a lot of people are interested?</s>DIFRANCISCO: Right, a lot of people are interested, and it is really a cross section of all New Yorkers who play, and it's an opportunity to lay down a dollar and have some fun and excitement and to maybe dream about some bigger options in your life.</s>KAGAN: Isn't there some concern that the dollars that could be staying in your own state coffers might have been walking across state lines?</s>DIFRANCISCO: Absolutely. We know that that was true, that when the jackpots would get large in either Powerball or The Big Game, the people who live near the border from New York would cross over to buy tickets, and that was revenue then that was also leaving the state, and now we hope to keep that revenue right here in New York.</s>KAGAN: Dennis, how are you going to encourage folks in Ohio to play responsibly.</s>KENNEDY: Well, we have a number of internal programs that we encourage people with problems, gambling issues, to contact our hotline. Similar to Margaret's comments, people in Ohio are already playing these games anyways. So we're looking to keep the money and the proceeds from this in Ohio, to benefit primary and secondary education here. We encourage anybody with a problem to get some help, and we want people to play with their heads, and not over them.</s>KAGAN: And as we said, tonight's drawing starts at what, $10 million is that right?</s>KENNEDY: Tonight's drawing is $27 million.</s>KAGAN: Coming over from the last drawing. Well, good luck with the new game, and once you get close to that half billion jackpot you guys are predicting, come back, and we will talk about how you spend that much money.</s>KENNEDY: We would love to.</s>DIFRANCISCO: We would love that.</s>KAGAN: Thank you for joining us. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com