Whatever Happened To The Monopoly Millionaires' Club Lottery? The Problem With Scratch-Off Games

How it started: The Monopoly Millionaires' Club lottery game debuts in Times Square, New York in 2014. Photo: NY Daily News

After only 10 drawings and 2 months, the first new USA multistate scratch-off lottery game in a dozen years has shut down.

The Monopoly Millionaires' Club game covered 23 lotteries, but low ticket sales prompted states to suspend the game as it became clear they would fall short of their projections.

After a grand launch in Times Square on Oct 20, 2014, it closed 26 December, 2014.

Lotto officials plan to scrutinize why the game failed and whether to revive it in another form.

Rebecca HargroveRebecca Hargrove, chairwoman of Monopoly Millionaires' Club and president and CEO of the Tennessee Lottery, said officials want to learn from the game.

It was aimed at players who have asked for prize money to be split between more people.

"The players vote with their pocketbook," said Terry Rich, president of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries and the Iowa Lottery.

"It boils down to what consumers want. When it began, officials pitched the game as a winner."

Rich did not elaborate on how much money the $5-ticket game has been bringing in since its October launch in 23 states, including Texas.

He also did not release information about initial expectations for ticket sales.

Cait LambertonGame designers likely tested each element of the game and found favorable results, said Cait Lamberton, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pittsburgh.

"But in reality," Lamberton said, "seasoned lottery players stick to their habits."

"Too many novel elements can dilute the game's appeal," she said.

The game centered around players' requests for multiple, mid-sized awards, “instead of just one or two players winning an enormous jackpot,” said Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Sil Lutkewitte in a news release.

But the $5 price for a drawing game was significantly more than the cost of playing Mega Millions and Powerball, which are $1 and $2, respectively.

Monopoly Millionaires' Club was advertised as a move away from the large jackpots that players have come to expect through Powerball and Mega Millions, two other multi-state games.

The Monopoly Millionaires' Club game capped its top prize at $25 million, and it was designed for players to win more $1 million prizes.

It's all over.

Scratch-Off or Lottery?

So, despite the collapse of the Monopoly Millionaires' Club, should you play the lottery or scratch-offs? Which is better?

Here's the problem with scratchies...

In a state like Colorado, over 75% of lottery players are scratch game players. And so when a scratch game gets hot, big USA retailers like King Soopers, Safeway and others can run out of tickets.

The Bazaar Bucks scratch game from Colorado Lottery.

That's because individual players will walk in and buy entire rolls of the popular game.

"Oftentimes they will go in and they will buy hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tickets within that game," said lottery communication director Brooke Christopher.

And often because of that pressure, all the top prizes will disappear early in a game.

"Sometimes it just happens. We put a game out in the market and for some reason, within the first month or month and a half, the top prizes are gone," Christopher told 9News.

That's why the lottery is a better bet.

The top prizes are always available until they're won, and you know within minutes when that happens immediately after the draw.

Just be aware that the time between finding out the available games and buying a roll of tickets, someone else could have bought the prize-winning ticket. Or the game could close without warning.

Our advice - stick to the lottery, because that way you'll get certainty along with larger prizes.