But the coronavirus is taking a toll on ticket sales. If sales remain in a slump, the lottery might not be able to pay advertised
jackpots, its deputy director of finance told the State Lottery
Commission during a special meeting Monday.
“The ... unprecedented impact the COVID-19 health crisis is having on sales means each game is in imminent danger of having sales be
insufficient to support the advertised jackpot,” said Nicholas Buchen,
the deputy finance director, according to a transcript of the call.
The Lottery Commission voted at the meeting to scrap lottery regulations that required Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots to be at
least $40 million. The change will give the lottery more flexibility to
keep jackpots in line with sales, executives said.
Lottery executives described the change as a formality, saying lottery rules already allow it to pay less than the advertised amount if
sales don’t support the jackpot.
“If sales were to take a substantial dive, regardless of the amount that was advertised, at that point the winner would just get what sales
support,” Buchen told the commission.
The California Lottery Act, passed in 1984, doesn’t require the dollar amounts to be in the regulations, Sharon Allen, the lottery’s
deputy director of sales and marketing, told the commission.
Additionally, official rules for both games already specify the $40 million is not guaranteed, Allen said.
The group that manages the Powerball game lowered its minimum jackpot to $20 million on March 25, Buchen told the commission. The
California State Lottery is not part of the decision-making body for
that game.
The Mega Millions Consortium, of which the California State Lottery is a member, opted at its last meeting to keep the minimum at $40
million for now, but could adjust it down depending on ticket sales.
