Blossoming in Mississippi

America’s newest lottery has had a strong start in the Magnolia State, although it faces challenges to build on that momentum.

By Patricia McQueen

Published May 20, 2025

Last November, the Mississippi Lottery celebrated its fifth anniversary with a bang. The country’s youngest lottery launched with instant games on November 25, 2019, and quickly surpassed all expectations of both sales and revenues to the state. Through April, the Lottery has sent $672.8 million to the good causes it supports – up to $80 million each year to the State Highway Fund to repair, renovate and maintain highways and bridges (through FY28 as the law is currently written; after that this portion is scheduled to go to the General Fund). Any excess revenues over that $80 million go to the Education Enhancement Fund; that money supports several critical initiatives including early learning, the Teacher Supply Fund, upgrades to the Mississippi Student Information System and career and technical education grants. In all but the first partial year, both funds have received lottery revenues.

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Lottery President Jeff Hewitt, who took the reins in July 2021 after initially serving as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, credits the organization’s first President Tom Shaheen for setting the foundation. “He did a fantastic job getting the Lottery up and running in under six months, doubling the state’s sales projections and returning more revenue than they ever imagined,” says Hewitt. “I think everybody in Mississippi is proud of their lottery, which is really a great feeling.”

His challenge, and the challenge of the entire team, is to keep the momentum going. So far, so good, with the gradual introduction since inception of new draw games and higher price points on instant games. And for the employees who give their all, the work environment is exceptional. “We have a great cohesive group that really enjoys being here and the friendships that have developed.” They learn something new – and have fun – every day. “That’s why this industry is so exciting.”

Game Progress

Mississippians were introduced to their new lottery with four instant games available at startup. Those were soon followed by the addition of Powerball and Mega Millions at the end of January 2020.  Mega Millions quickly produced Mississippi’s first big lottery winner, when a $2 million prize was won in June that year. That remained the state’s largest lottery win until this past February, when a lucky Mississippi player won a $10 million Powerball Double Play top prize.

Other draw games have been added on a fairly regular basis since then: Cash 3 in September 2020, Mississippi Match 5 in April 2021, Cash 4 in January 2022, Cash Pop in November 2022, and Lotto America in May 2024.

Starting out with a small selection of instant tickets helped familiarize both the public and the retailers to lottery games, although some Mississippi players were already familiar with lottery games from neighbors Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. The retailer education was especially critical. “Those tickets really helped retailers learn the process of selling lottery games,” noted Hewitt.

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Initially $1 and $2 games were offered, with $5 and $10 games added to the mix later. The Lottery’s price points currently top out at $20, a level first introduced in March 2021. “We really didn’t know how a $20 game would be received, even though other jurisdictions around us were successful with them.” Additional $20 games were introduced cautiously, but any early fears about possible cannibalization were unfounded. “Our players seem to like any $20 game we put out there,” said Hewitt. Not surprisingly, the introduction of the first $30 game isn’t too far away. Overall, instant games accounted for about 64% of sales in FY24.

With a strong casino industry in Mississippi that dates back to 1992, the Lottery has thus far avoided casino themes for its instant games – preferring to differentiate its products. To help with that, there have been a few licensed properties which have done well. Most notably, a $5 Elvis ticket has been a standout.

On the draw side, the introduction of Cash Pop in late 2022 has been an eye-opener. Offered at the same twice-daily schedule as Cash 3 and Cash 4, Cash Pop is Mississippi’s top-selling draw game in a typical month (without the influence of a big Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot). “It’s astounding to me how people love it. Maybe we just did a great marketing job,” Hewitt quipped.

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Realistically, the Mississippi team did a lot of research on how other lotteries implemented Cash Pop. “That’s the great thing about this industry. If something works, why try to reinvent the wheel?” In particular, they thought the South Carolina Education Lottery had a great experience with Cash Pop, so Mississippi borrowed some of their ideas, including the schedule of two draws per day.

Fortunately, Cash 3 and Cash 4 didn’t see any negative impact from Cash Pop, so Hewitt hopes his team can find Cash Pop’s mysterious “magic sauce” to get the same kind of engagement for those daily games. “We think there’s a lot of growth left in Cash 3 and Cash 4.”

Mississippi brought in its newest draw game, Lotto America, to offer a jackpot game at the $1 price point. “For a buck, it’s a pretty darn good value.”

Powerball and Mega Millions are obviously the big games that can drive sales to new heights – dependent on jackpots, of course. When those jackpots get extremely large, there’s typically a spillover effect as players will purchase other lottery products as well. However, there are external factors impacting players’ discretionary income these days, and that is causing challenges for all lotteries.

That said, Hewitt was happy to see Mega Millions dive into the $5 price point, given the success of higher price points on instant games. “I think people are ready for a $5 draw game, and we as an industry need to give the players that option. We need an assortment of draw games, just like with our instant product line.” He knows that it is too early to evaluate that game change, and the real excitement will come with bigger draw-to-draw jumps at the higher jackpot levels.

A member of the MUSL development committee, Hewitt is looking forward to the pending merger of the Lucky for Life and Cash4Life game groups. It could provide the next exciting draw game for Mississippi.

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Driving Player Engagement

All this game activity means that the Lottery’s marketing team has been busy! A key element of the marketing strategy is an in-house studio that provides great ways of getting messages out to players, the media and other stakeholders.

The communications team stars in a weekly Facebook Live broadcast, talking about games, winners, upcoming promotions, and anything else relevant at the time. Live in-studio interviews with TV stations are also part of the mix, and regular use of social media in general further helps with engagement. “We enjoy doing a lot of different things. We’ll look at anything that provides a logical way to expand our presence to reach more people.”

Ongoing game promotions provide additional opportunities for players. All non-winning instant games may be entered into second-chance drawings; the last top prize in each game is awarded in this manner. And about once each quarter, there’s usually a promotion tied to a specific instant game. One current example is the $5 Pink Panther Diamond Tripler bonus promotion, which has drawings every two weeks through May 29. Prizes range from $100 gift cards up to a $25,000 cash prize. Any ticket entered in these game-specific promotions is also automatically entered into the broader second-chance drawings available for all instant games.

There are two big annual regional events that the Mississippi Lottery sponsors and maintains a presence through selling tickets and conducting on-site promotions, although its small staff makes it a challenge to fully cover these big events. Coming up in June is the Tupelo Elvis Festival, celebrating the birthplace of the music legend.  In October is Cruisin’ The Coast, billed as “America’s Largest Block Party.” Owners of some 10,000 classic cars have participated in recent years, taking over a 45-mile stretch of the coastal Mississippi highway. “It’s a phenomenal event,” said Hewitt, noting that the Lottery does remotes from different locations along the coast.

Two current projects in different stages of development will provide additional ways to enhance customer engagement. One is adding a full-fledged loyalty club, beyond the second-chance opportunities currently available to registered players. The team is currently looking at other lotteries’ implementations of these programs, in order to learn (and borrow) best practices.

The other, which will come first as it is desperately needed in this day and age, is a mobile convenience app. Key among the app’s features will be a ticket checker and easy entry into all the second-chance drawings. With the Lottery still relatively new, other priorities such as game launches came first, but Hewitt now has a mobile app on the schedule for release in early 2026.

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Retailer Development

On the retail front, there is a 15-person sales force (account reps) that services about 1,900 retail locations. The businesses most interested in lottery sales were early adopters, and retailer growth has mostly come from larger chains adding new locations, plus the addition of Walmart about three years ago.

There’s an ongoing effort to attract more “mom and pop” businesses. Those types of locations may be less aware of lottery as a potential money-maker, or have simply been busy setting up their business. The Lottery’s recruitment program looks for locations that have good foot traffic, and where lottery sales wouldn’t become a burden. “There are so many things to evaluate” when selecting potential retailers, and Hewitt doesn’t think there’s potential for a significant increase over the current number of retailers.

Mississippi does have lottery vending machines, but only about 300 in the field. The addition of Walmart stores, of course, brought in the specialized vending units used for the giant retailer by other lotteries around the country. Elsewhere, though, players typically prefer interaction with store clerks. “Players will use vending, but our top retailers, even if they have a vending machine, will see more sales from the counter than from their vending machines.”

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Hewitt thinks that the age verification requirement is a stumbling block for players, who may not want to have their driver’s license read by a machine. “We get a lot of pushback on that.” The minimum age for lottery play (and all gaming) in Mississippi is 21.

Beyond Walmart, the first focus for vending placement was grocery stores, and then truck stops. More recently, they have been placed in selected convenience chain locations, but there’s a minimum weekly sales amount to qualify. “In general, I don’t necessarily like putting them in convenience stores. But if you have a very active convenience store chain, we want to accommodate them. In a big location like some of these stores have, we want to give them some relief at the counter for instant game purchases.”

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Challenges and Opportunities

The Mississippi Lottery has come a long way since 2019, greatly surpassing initial expectations. Yet some of the limitations of the lottery law will ultimately start taking a toll as the Lottery will be challenged to keep up with broader industry developments. “We’re a great 1990s lottery, with limited ability to do some of the latest things,” observed Hewitt.

Not an option are monitor games like keno and online sales (or any sales direct to consumer other than vending at selected events). And while lotteries generally don’t want to introduce or push for legislation, the Mississippi Lottery might have to force its hand at some point. On the horizon is Alabama, whose proposed lottery and gaming legislation is far-reaching and doesn’t include any of Mississippi’s restrictions. They could be positioned to attract Mississippi players, not the other way around. “Right now, we do pretty well from our friends and neighbors in Alabama and really appreciate them.”

Online gaming of any sort is prohibited in Mississippi, and the large casino industry has long lobbied for online gaming and sports betting, to no avail. Yet things can change, and Hewitt hopes that if casinos can break the dam, lottery can ride on its coattails and also offer the tools deemed essential for growth in modern commerce. “For us to play in the big leagues, we would have to change some legislation to be able to do things that other jurisdictions are already able to do.”

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While paths for the Lottery’s future growth are challenging as they exist now, they aren’t impossible. “We really focus on our instant products and trying to keep that mix fresh. We have room for more price points to help make things interesting.” And he’s hopeful that the new national “for life” game will fit into Mississippi’s portfolio quite nicely.

Most importantly, he is counting on the release of an app next year to bring in the digital world as a customer convenience. That will also provide more engagement with lottery players, who will be able to get lottery information on the device they use for practically everything else.

“While we hope for change, we have to be excited about all of these things that we are currently able to do,” Hewitt emphasized. They will keep driving the Mississippi Lottery forward.