Hoosier Lottery
On November 8, 1988 Indiana voters approved a lottery referendum by a 62% majority. On May 3, 1989, the Indiana General Assembly ratified the Lottery Act and a week later it was signed into law.
Three months after the creation of the first Commission, the Hoosier Lottery was in full operation. On October 13, 1989, scratch-off ticket sales began at 12:10 p.m. On the first day alone, 8.19 million tickets were sold. By the following week, sales had exceeded $21.8 million.
The Hoosier Millionaire show debuted October 28, 1989 on WTTV-4 in Indianapolis and on its 10 station network. The Hoosier Lottery began its first draw game, Lotto Cash on April 30, 1990 with the first drawing taking place May 5. Due to the success of Lotto Cash, subsequent additions to the Lottery's draw game lineup were: Daily 3 and Daily 4 (July 1990); Lotto America (October 1990), which later became Powerball; and Lucky 5 (November 1993).
Lotto America changed to the Powerball game in April 1992. Indiana led the nation in Powerball sales after only two weeks and Brazil, Indiana native, Bert Morlan, became Powerball's first jackpot winner later that month. The first bar-coded scratch-off tickets, "Cash Crop", "Draw Poker" and "3 Times Lucky", began in April as well.
In September 1994, Hoosier Lotto replaced Lotto Cash. Hoosier Lotto was designed to have more winners and bigger jackpots and offered the only "match two of six" prize in a pick-six game in North America. Later in September, the Hoosier Lottery hosted the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) convention in Indianapolis.
Hoosier Lottery Winners
Indiana leads the nation in Powerball winners. The largest Hoosier Lotto jackpot ever won was $42 million. If you were to lay $42 million in one dollar bills end to end, it would stretch from Indiana all the way to London, England. In 2006, seven Hoosier Lotto jackpot winners won a combined total of $65.5 million.
Click here for a comprehensive list of Hoosier Lottery winners.
Hoosier Lottery Games
- Scratch-Offs
- Pull-Tabs
- Hoosier Lotto
- Powerball
- Lucky 5
- Daily 4
- Daily 3
- Mix & Match