ONE MORE QUESTION: U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx has introduced a bill that would requires U.S. Census takers to try to find out how many illegal immigrants are in the U.S. We're guessing some answers to that question might just not be truthful.

BILLIONS AND BILLIONS: The state lottery director wants to add another national super jackpot game to complement Powerball. The move would be the first step toward creating a near-nationwide big jackpot game that would appeal to those who think the Powerball odds are too fair.

BIG SPENDER: State Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., a Columbus County Democrat, spent the second most of any competitive candidate — more than $830,000 — to win his Senate seat last year. That was BEFORE he shot someone. No telling what the figure might be next time.

IN OTHER NEWS: Margaret Harper, who ran twice for lieutenant governor and was a pioneer among female political figures in North Carolina, died at 92. The Triangle region buys 40 percent of all lottery tickets sold in the state. The Attorney General won't appeal Superintendent June Atkinson's right to run the state school system.

Powerball and Mega Millions are similar lottery games that include several states. Here's a comparison.

THE GAME: In Powerball, players try to match six digits. Five white balls are drawn from a pool of balls, numbered one through 59. The sixth number, the Powerball is drawn from a pool of red balls numbered 1 through 39.

In Mega Millions, players choose five numbers from 1 through 56 and the sixth number from a separate pot of yellow "Mega" balls numbered 1 through 46.

THE PRIZES: In both games, jackpots are determined by ticket sales. Powerball has a minimum jackpot of $20 million, the value of a 30-year annuity purchased by the cash in the jackpot pool. Powerball awards much smaller cash prizes for matching various combinations of numbers. The lowest win is $3 for hitting the Powerball only.

The Mega Millions jackpot is also based on ticket sales and the value of a 26-year annuity. The lowest win in Mega Millions is $2 for hitting the yellow ball.

THE ODDS: The odds if hitting the Powerball jackpot are one in 195,249,054. The odds of hitting the Mega Millions jackpot are one in 175,711,53. To put that in perspective, of all the millions of Powerball tickets sold in the nation in a year, only about 13 hit the jackpot.

Adding a second, big jackpot lottery game to North Carolina would mean more players and more tickets sold, said lottery executive director Tom Shaheen.

Powerball sales spike when jackpots hit the hundreds of millions. Adding a second multi-state game, the Mega Millions, would likely mean that there's always one game with a big jackpot, Shaheen said. The current Mega Millions jackpot is $200 million and the Powerball jackpot is $30 million.

"The research is pretty clear that players have an interest in playing both games," Shaheen told Dome. "Whatever jackpot is bigger is the one they're going to run to."

The downside is that with more players playing each game, jackpots will hit more often, reducing the mega-huge jackpots that get so all the news media attention and spur sales.

Making Powerball and Mega Millions available in multiple states would also be a first step toward a national lottery game that is available in all 44 states with a lottery. That game would likely feature a $5 ticket and frequent huge jackpots.

   Comments (0)

The Triangle area buys the most lottery tickets.

According to figures the lottery compiled for its fiscal 2009 annual report, the Raleigh area bought 40 percent of all lottery tickets sold. Stores in the Charlotte region sold 24.5 percent of the tickets. The Greensboro and Greenville areas accounted for roughly 15 percent of tickets and the western part of the state consumed 6 percent.

The proportions are similar to 2008.

Instant, scratch off tickets, were the big seller with sales of $798.7 million or 62 percent of sales in 2009. Powerball and Pick 3 each had just under $210 million in sales. Pick 4 sold $15.8 million in tickets and Cash 5 had $60 million worth of tickets sold.

The state lottery has received an award for growing its contribution to education.

The award was presented by the Public Gaming Research Institute and recognizes a 18.9 percent increase in money given to education from fiscal 2008 to 2009, the highest among the nation's lotteries.

Since the first ticket was sold in March 2006, the lottery has transferred more than $1.1 billion to education programs and priorities. The law that created the lottery specified four programs that would receive the money. THey are pre-kindergarten for at-risk four year olds, class size reduction in grades K-3, school construction and college scholarships for needy students.

The North Carolina lottery has come up with a new scratch-off ticket game offering the chance to win some very big bucks.

But you have to be ready to shell out some big bucks to play.

The lottery is starting its first $20 scratch-off ticket, the $200 Million Extravaganza. The $200 million refers to the total prize money available, not the amount a single player can win. 

Lottery Executive Director Tom Shaheen said the total prize money in play should help attract buyers for the ticket.

"You're getting a lot larger prizes and more prizes for $20," Shaheen said. 

Previously, the most expensive scratch-off game in North Carolina cost $10. Officials expect the ticket to draw new players, although frequent scratch-off ticket buyers may splurge on a $20 game.

The game features five tickets with a top prize of $3 million, and ten tickets with a $1 million prize. Those prizes would be paid in installments over 20 years.

Lottery officials say the game offers the best overall odds of winning something, even if it's only $30.

And about those odds: the chances of winning any prize on the game are 1 in 2.6. The odds of winning $3 million are 1 in 2.7 million.

Update: Post now includes comments from lottery director. 

Ric Flair appears in a television commercial promoting a new lottery ticket that bears his image.

Nature Boy Ric Flair, Mr. Wooooooo! himself, will be featured on a new $5 scratch off lottery ticket.

Flair, who lives in Charlotte, intends to do a number of promotional appearances to help sell more of the tickets, appropriately entitled "WOOOOOOO!"

The ticket, which has eight top prizes of $100,000, goes on sales Sept. 22.

Lottery executive director Tom Shaheen said the ticket could help attract new players.

"We are always looking for ways to appeal to new players so we can maximize sales and generate as much money as possible for education.”
 
Players have 16 numbers to play on each ticket, which corresponds with Flair’s 16 championship belts.

The odds of winning any prize from the ticket are 1 in 3.63. The odds of wining one of the top prices are 1 in 390,000.

Gov. Beverly Perdue paid back one of the state funds she used to keep the state's checking account flush during the last fiscal year.

The state was facing a $3.2 billion shortfall last year. From month to month, the cash situation was dicey, to put a fine point on it. To ensure the state could pay its bills, Perdue transferred hundreds of millions from four state funds in February as well as ordering agencies to curb spending.

"When the national recession created a shortfall of billions of dollars, I had to turn over every stone to pay North Carolina’s bills — to pay teachers, to keep schools and other core services running," Perdue said in a statement.

Perdue authorized transferring up to $100 million from the Public School Building Capital Fund, the pool of money used to distribute school construction money raised by the state lottery. Perdue took only $37.6 million from that fund because she wanted to spare education, a spokesman said.  

Perdue said Friday that she was using money left over from the last fiscal year to replace what was taken from that fund.

Perdue also took $50 million from the Public School Textbook Fund. That money was repaid by the current state budget.

Transfers from two other funds, the Education Lottery Reserve Fund ($50 million) and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund ($100 million) have not been paid back.