Tennessee Lottery

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The Tennessee Lottery is run by the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation (TELC) which was created on June 11, 2003, by the Tennessee General Assembly through the Tennessee Education Lottery Implementation Law.

TELC is responsible for the operation of a state lottery and is deemed to be acting in all respects for the benefit of the people of the State of Tennessee. It is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL). It participates in the Powerball lottery and is eligible to offer other MUSL games, such as Hot Lotto.

The Tennessee Lottery opened for business on January 20, 2004, the first day tickets were sold.^[1] On July 28, 2007, Tennessee switched from ball drawings to numbers drawn by computer. However, Powerball continues to be ball-drawn.

Tennessee will, on March 9, 2008, introduce a "classic-style" six-number game, Tennessee Lotto Plus, with a starting jackpot of $1 million (players will choose from 44 numbers. It will be drawn Tuesday and Friday nights, beginning March 11, 2008, and will also have a multiplier somewhat like the PowerPlay option in Powerball); it was to debut in the previous month. Because of the new game, the small-jackpot Lotto 5 will have its name changed to Cash 5.

[edit] Player and beneficiary statistics

Nationwide, and presumably in Tennessee, the heaviest lottery players (top 20 percent) are nearly twice as likely to lack a high school diploma and have a household income below $10,000 as the population as whole^[2]. Yet, 47% of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarships TELS went to recipients from families with more than $72,000 of annual income.^[3]

[edit] References

^ Chronology, Tennessee Lottery website
^ Clotfelter, Charles, et al. State Lotteries at the Turn of the Century: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. Duke University, Sanford Institute for Public Policy, June 1, 1999: Table 12.
^ Winchester, Katie, et al. Tennessee Higher Education Commission: Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship Program Annual Report. January 2007: Table 7.