Traditional online and offline lottery games can be reshaped, as Texas lottery wants to set up statewide raffle. Such games offer better odds. The odds of winning $1 million are 1 in 125000 and the odds of winning $100000 are 1 in 100000, Houston Chronicle reports. When Florida offered its Holiday Millionaire Raffle last year, tickets cost $20 and, with a limited number available, the odds of winning $1 million were 1 in 250,000 compared to the 1 in nearly 23 million for its Lotto jackpot. Read on to learn more...

Texas lottery to launch big-money online raffle with better odds than those in Lotto Texas

The Texas Lottery Commission has asked the state attorney general to study if it would be legal to add a raffle to its array of games. Commission Chairman James Cox asked state Attorney General Greg Abbott in a letter released Monday for his legal opinion on whether the panel has the authority to offer raffle-style games, which can give players much better odds at the top prize than games like Lotto Texas.

Raffles offer better odds of winning than other kinds of games because a limited number of tickets are sold and there can be no duplicate winners. Twenty-seven states already offer raffles with mixed success. About 27 states offer raffle-style games.

The good news is also that raffles would benefit churches and schools, if the Texas Lottery Commission gets the legal approval for the plan of  might be  a big-money, state-sponsored raffle-style game.

The commission is reviewing the possibility of not only offering a state raffle-style game but the possibility of Texas participating in a multi-state game, Cox said in the July 16 letter.

There has been some discussion of offering a raffle in conjunction with the multi-state Mega Millions lottery game, in which Texas already participates, Heith said.

Raffle-style games differ from traditional online lottery games currently offered by the commission in that there are a limited number of tickets available and there can be no duplicate tickets. A random number generator prints all the tickets, rather than allowing players the option of choosing their own numbers.

"The odds are better," Heith said, noting that the odds of winning the Lotto Texas jackpot are 1 in 26 million.

Illinois, for example, is raffling 500,000 tickets for $20 each. That game offers four prizes worth $1 million and five prizes worth $100,000. The odds of winning $1 million are 1 in 125,000 and the odds of winning $100,000 are 1 in 100,000.

In California, a maximum of 5 million tickets were sold for $5 each. The sales stopped after 30 days, when nine tickets were pulled for the big prize of $1 million each. In Illinois, the state is raffling 500,000 tickets for $20. The Illinois game is offering four prizes of $1 million, meaning the odds of winning are 1 in 125,000, and five $100,000 prizes, with the odds 1 in 100,000.

When Florida offered its Holiday Millionaire Raffle last year, tickets cost $20 and, with a limited number available, the odds of winning $1 million were 1 in 250,000 compared to the 1 in nearly 23 million for its Lotto jackpot, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Different states have had different experiences with lottery raffles. Heith noted that a Michigan raffle-style game offering tickets at $50 apiece sold out in two to three days, but a Massachusetts raffle-style game with $20 tickets didn't do so well, with the state not selling enough to cover the prize payouts.

"I think it's a pretty neat concept. ... The best part about it is that your odds are considerably better," said Dawn Nettles publisher of LottoReport.com, which keeps a close and often critical eye on the Lottery Commission.

"I think it could be a good thing for the state and I think it could be a good thing for the people provided the Texas lottery is reasonable in their rule — which is highly unlikely."

But Nettles strongly opposes a multi-state raffle-type game, which she said would impair the odds of winning. "I would fight that tooth and nail," she said.

Suzii Paynter of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, which opposes gambling expansion, said she would want to review any rules or regulations offered by the commission when and if the game is proposed by the commission, but she views the potential move with caution and concern over how it might work.