The Monopoly Millionaires’ Club is a new lottery game that offers more chances for you to become a millionaire, but also – apparently – more opportunities for confusion.
Here’s how it’ll work: A ticket is $5, and you pick five numbers between 1 and 52. You’re randomly assigned a sixth number between 1 and 28. The winners will be drawn every Friday night.
It’ll be a multi-state game, with 23 states participating to start. Philly.com reports that some states taking part in this lotto are: “Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Texas, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky and Arkansas. Expected to join in early 2015 are Virginia, Ohio and Delaware. Illinois, Florida and California were still considering as of mid-August. Since Powerball and Mega Millions are already played in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands the new game has far to go to deserve the title “national lottery” as much as those drawings.”
The game’s creators are billing the game as a lottery designed to yield more than one millionaire per game. As its name suggests, the Monopoly Millionaires’ Club is based on the board game.
Jackpots are capped at $25 million because after the first jackpot drawing, the Maryland Lottery explains, “A second drawing is instantly triggered. This drawing is for the $1 million Millionaires’ Club prizes.”
Because the jackpots are capped at $25 million, any excess goes to fund more million-dollar prizes, which is how the game guarantees there’s more than one millionaire.
But there’s yet another layer: A third chance to win something. Players can enter themselves for a chance to win a trip to Vegas to appear on an accompanying TV game show that begins airing early next year.
And considering all the ways to win (or not to win), a Philly.com writer is predicting confusion:
“The game might also set records for people who fail to realize they won [as well as] people who mistakenly think they did.”
It’s been 12 years since a new multi-state lottery game has been created. The lotto tickets for millionaire-hopefuls can be purchased starting Sunday. Want to play or learn more? Check out the site here.
