The Michigan Lottery launched its online $100K Raffle on March 1, 2021. Michigan Lottery launched $100K Raffle as a $10 product but it can be configured in other ways. The lottery plans to launch a new raffle every month.
“The raffle product is one of the most traditional of lottery products and makes a great addition to our online games,” said Shannon DeHaven, Deputy Commissioner, Digital Operations, Michigan Lottery. “Not only can Michigan Lottery offer multiple raffles at any single time, but there’s flexibility both for the quantity and time-based products as well as the top prize values so the product variations can reach a broad audience.”
The functionality was built to allow for either Quota-Based or Time-Based raffles. “We are planning for the first couple raffles to be Quantity-Based,” said DeHaven. “Each ticket purchased has a unique raffle number, which is issued sequentially, starting with raffle number 1. When the last raffle number is issued, the game will close and no additional tickets will be available for purchase.
DeHaven said after the online raffle game has closed, there are two possible conditions that determine when the drawing begins: Quota or Time. “In a Quota-Based raffle, after the last raffle number is issued, the drawing process will begin immediately. In a Time-Based raffle, the last raffle number may be issued, but the drawing process will not happen until a specified draw date. If the last available raffle number is not issued by the specified draw date, winning tickets will be drawn from the pool of tickets sold. Of the tickets sold, winning tickets will be randomly drawn; first for the highest prize level, then the second, and so on, until all winning tickets have been drawn. After every winning ticket has been drawn, the raffle is over.”
The lottery has the ability to set raffles to automatically renew or not. “If a raffle is set to auto-renew, after the first drawing is complete, a new, identical raffle will begin with the same limited number of tickets available for purchase and the same drawing conditions,” said DeHaven.