Don’t You (Forget About Megabucks)

Snow fell as commissioners, executive directors, marketing staff, finance personnel, agency partners, vendors, and I arrived at a beautiful resort in Vermont. It was the fall Tri-State Commission meeting, where the Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine lotteries spent two days planning their future collaborations. This meeting was a little more special than most. It coincided with the 40th anniversary of Tri-State Megabucks, the nation’s first multistate jackpot game. In the end, the gathering was equal parts celebration, planning session, and a blueprint for a more unified industry.

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary

The Tri-State Lotto Commission was established in April 1985 by lottery directors in the three northern New England states, George “Bud” Dacey of Vermont, George “Skip” Jones of New Hampshire, and Richard “Spike” Carey of Maine. The idea was practical for small states. Pool demand. Share risk. Offer a headline prize that no single jurisdiction could sustain on its own. Four decades later, the product remains familiar, although a few things have changed. Megabucks is now $2 per play. The starting jackpot has doubled to $1,000,000. There’s a double matrix compared to a single one. But for the anniversary, the Tri-State Marketing team wanted to lean into the similarities.

The TV ad leaned heavily on nostalgia. Packed with throwbacks, from perms and Walkmans, the ad fast-forwards through the decades to 2025, showing the game still delivers. The retro look carried across channels. Social posts looked like Polaroids. Retailers received point-of-sale materials that extended the 40-year treatment. The game logo even changed to a commemorative 40 Years Megabucks.

The lotteries also had a retail promotion. On the anniversary day, players who purchased a single Megabucks ticket of $6 or more had a chance to win an instant $40 prize. The award was randomly triggered at the terminal. (In New Hampshire, a trumpet fanfare even played when the prize was awarded.)

Finally, a little luck helped generate some earned media. On Oct. 7, 2025, a New Hampshire player won a Megabucks jackpot worth about $3.58 million, and regional news repeatedly pushed the talking point of four decades of locals winning big.

“Tri-State Megabucks was the game back in the day. It was later overshadowed by the jackpot games Powerball and Mega Millions, yet it still maintains a sense of identity within the product array across all three states, as we lean heavily into the local aspect. A local will win,” says Maura McCann, Director of Marketing, New Hampshire Lottery.

“We can’t wait for 40 more”

The consistency across three states for the 40th anniversary is, in part, thanks to these meetings. Compared to many industry events, it’s a small group, around 50 people, but this is how they plan to keep Megabucks relevant for both 2026 and the next 40.

“It’s like a family…We have great respect for each other. We can do more together than separately,” says Erle Pierce, Chairman, Tri-State Lotto Commission and New Hampshire Lottery Commission (and self-described recovering lobbyist). “Everyone gets along because a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Even more remarkable is the palpable bonhomie. Jokes are interlaced into every conversation and presentation. The conference opened with a compilation video featuring Noah Kahan, the Grammy-nominated Vermont native, who joked about trying to find the Tri-State Lotto meeting, with little to no cell service in northern Vermont, while ribbing a few familiar faces in the crowd. All the scenes came from his “Stick Season” music video, which captures New England after the leaves drop and only the sticks remain.

But what’s better than one personalized music video? Two. Greta Larson, Marketing & Sales Manager, Scientific Games, concluded the meeting with a music video collage splicing together attendees singing along to Simple Minds’ hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” which she filmed over the two days.

This lighthearted tone reinforces the cooperative and relaxed nature of the event. Vendor presentations can quickly become discussions of the pros and cons of a new ticket concept or promotion. The lottery presentations include everything from Tri-State’s portfolio overview—which featured topics such as the nuanced Fed Dot Plot, credit card delinquency rates, and holding performance—to committee reports on marketing and product developments. The Commission concluded its meeting by addressing other business, including rule changes, which sparked a healthy discussion.

The Commission must vote on any changes, and decisions must be unanimous. However, they always have the opportunity not to run a game in their own state. In practice, a state that opts out typically does not veto the others; instead, it weighs in on operational and accounting implications but only pushes back if there is a real risk. The result is a collaborative guardrail. “We can disagree without being disagreeable,” laughs Pierce.

It’s fun. It’s productive. It’s a model for the rest of the industry when it comes to collective initiatives. The mix of lottery personnel, both vertically and horizontally across the org chart, engenders buy-in to the cause.

“I’ve been involved with other state organizations on commissions and boards and so on, and the leadership of those organizations generally is very devoted to what they do. However, in a larger staff group, you may not always have that same level of dedication. But the vast majority of the people at the Lottery really have that entrepreneurial spirit,” Pierce says.

It is clear that smaller groups work faster and can bring a region-wide campaign to market without losing the local voice that players recognize and appreciate. “Offering any of the Tri-State games, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont become ‘borderless,’” McCann says. “It’s all about the Power of 3 and what it can bring to our players.”

With competition intensifying, the next 40 years will challenge Tri-State and the broader lottery industry in ways no one can fully predict. What’s clear from these meetings, though, is how much stronger lotteries become when they pool ideas, resources, and talent. The very gestalt behind the ‘Power of 3.’

That kind of collaboration naturally raises a question: how much further could it go? “We’ve joked and talked for years about bringing in other lotteries. The Tri-State Lotto Compact does allow such,” McCann says.

Quad-State? Quint-State? Mega-State? Who knows what the next 40 years will bring? But one thing is for certain. The more states they add, the harder it will be to forget about Megabucks.