Promoting Powerball to Close Budget Gaps

The Arizona Lottery has spent the last four years ramping up efforts to get players to part with a dollar. It raised its average jackpot by 8 percent and introduced pricier scratch-off games that cost from $5 to $20 and yield bigger winnings, up to $1 million. The tickets now come in brighter colors on thicker paper, and more of them get displayed in bigger cases to catch the eyes of would-be winners lining up at grocery and convenience stores. The lottery also increased its advertising budget by roughly 50 percent, rolling out marketing campaigns specifically geared toward Latinos.

“What we saw was people were pulling back on their expenditures unless they had some value-added propositions,” says Jeff Hatch-Miller, a former state legislator and the lottery’s executive director. The bet paid off: Ticket sales increased 20 percent from 2009, reaching a record $584 million this year.