LANSING, January 9, 2003 – Saturday, January 18, 2003 marks the date of the very last drawing for the Michigan Lottery’s Michigan Millions game. Lottery players have been asking for an exciting, easy-to-play game that pays out sizeable prizes and pays them often. The Lottery listened to those player comments and created a new game called WINFALL.

"Many players have been looking for a fresh, new game that offers great prizes to more players, and we think WINFALL is just the game for them!" said Acting Michigan Lottery Commissioner James Kipp. "Based upon market research and feedback from both players and retailers, we believe WINFALL will appeal to people all across the state."

Sales of WINFALL tickets will begin on Sunday, January 19, 2003, with the first drawing scheduled for Wednesday, January 22. WINFALL drawings will be held twice a week – Wednesday and Saturday – at 7:29 p.m., and the cost to play is $1 per wager. Tickets will be available at the more than 7,000 Lottery retailers that currently sell tickets for Michigan’s other online games (Mega Millions, Michigan Rolldown, Keno, Change Play and the Daily 3 and Daily 4 games).

WINFALL is a lot like the old player favorite – Michigan Lotto. Like Michigan Lotto, to play WINFALL, players will select six numbers from a field of 49. Also like Lotto, the match five prize in WINFALL is $2,500 and the match four prize is $100, and both of these prizes are guaranteed amounts. But, WINFALL offers even more. There is a $5 cash prize for matching just three numbers, and when the jackpot reaches $5 million it stops growing – and that is when the game gets really exciting!

WINFALL jackpots start at $2 million, and when the announced jackpot reaches $5 million and no one matches all six winning numbers for that drawing, players will see a WINFALL. All of the prize money, including the cash accumulated in the jackpot, is paid out to the match five, match four and match three winners in that drawing and each of those lower-level prizes increases by approximately 10 times! Instead of one winner taking home millions, WINFALL creates thousands of big-money winners all over the state. The next drawing will then start with a new $2 million jackpot.

If no one wins the jackpot by the time the final Michigan Millions drawing occurs, that jackpot prize money will be rolled into the WINFALL game. If the Michigan Millions jackpot exceeds $5 million by the time the first WINFALL drawing occurs, that jackpot money will be divided up into $5 million increments and awarded one drawing at a time until all of it has been paid out. Once the carry over prize money from Michigan Millions is paid out, the jackpot will go to $2 million.

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