The North Dakota Lottery is ten years old.
And it’s getting a little bit of a facelift.
Since it began, North Dakota lotto players have spent over $215 million on Powerball, Mega-Millions, Hot Lotto and Wild Card Two. They’ve won more than $79 million in prizes – but haven’t hit “the big one.” The North Dakota Attorney General’s office administers the lottery – and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says the kinds of people who are winning the money are the kinds you want.
"I always ask them, 'What are you going to do with the money,'" said Stenehjem. "They typically say things like, 'I'm going to put my grandchildren through college' or 'I'm going to save it.' They do the kinds of things you would expect North Dakotans would be doing."
The Lottery is upgrading equipment – to allow a person to scan tickets to see if they’re winners. And if the tickets are winners, they can then take the ticket to a person to get the cash. And the Lottery is changing its marketing.
"Four of the main attributes we wanted to add in our messaging are 'dreaming, believing, thrill and fun," said lottery sales and marketing manager Ryan Koppy. "We came up with the message, 'When you win, what you do is up to you.'"
Lottery director Randy Miller says he’s looking at adding more games. He says that’ll come after the new systems are in place and up and running.
