For Immediate Release:                                      Contact: (518) 388-3415

December 16, 2014                                              Contact us on Facebook and Twitter.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Sales in the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game in its current format will end Dec. 26 across the country, lottery officials said today.  

“Like all good businesses, lotteries have to try new ideas,” said Acting Director of the Division of the Lottery Gardner Gurney. “We incorporated concepts into this game that have been popular elsewhere, but they just didn’t do as well here. We will continue to discuss the possible future of this game and certainly believe in the concept of spreading the winnings around to players.”   

The multi-tiered drawing-style game, MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB debuted Oct. 19 in 23 states, but sales came in below expectations. Lotteries participating in the game then made the decision to suspend sales in its current format after the Friday, Dec. 26 drawing.

Lotteries also plan to continue to research the concepts behind the current game.

“We’ve repeatedly heard from players who say they want to see more people have a share of the winnings rather than just one gigantic top prize,” said Acting Director of the Division of the Lottery Gardner Gurney. “That was the inspiration for the current game, but players didn’t respond to it as well as we’d hoped. We’ll continue to review this concept, much like other ideas are evaluated and evolve over time.”

Tickets in the game will be sold until the sales cutoff for the final weekly drawing, which will occur at 11:15 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 26.

Players can visit playmmc.com or their lottery’s website for further details about the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game.

“We’ve discussed the fact that lotteries are trying following the same successful business model on the draw-game side that we’ve used for years with scratch-off games: offer different games at different price points to provide the variety and choices that today’s consumers want,” Acting Director of the Division of the Lottery Gardner Gurney said. “We remain committed to developing games that will offer value to our players and mirror the success we’ve seen in other lottery games nationwide.”

About the New York Lottery

The New York Lottery continues to be North America’s largest and most profitable Lottery, contributing $3.17 billion in fiscal year 2013-2014 to help support education in New York State.  The Lottery’s contribution represents 15 percent of total state education aid to local school districts.

      New York Lottery revenue is distributed to local school districts by the same statutory formula used to distribute other state aid to education.  It takes into account both a school district’s size and its income level; larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionately larger shares of Lottery school funding.

About the New York State Gaming Commission

The New York State Gaming Commission regulates all aspects of gaming and gambling activity in the state, including horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering, class III Indian gaming, video lottery terminal facilities at race tracks, the state lottery and charitable gaming.

The MONOPOLY name and logos are trademarks of Hasbro. The distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name and character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces, are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. for its property trading game and game equipment. ©1935, 2014 Hasbro, Pawtucket, RI 02862. All Rights Reserved.