Winning With Second Chances - Massachusetts to Wyoming
- 2 days ago
- 26 min read
Updated: 19 hours ago
For many lotteries, second-chance opportunities for players are an effective part of their marketing strategies.
By Insights Online
Published April 28, 2026
Massachusetts Lottery
At the Mass Lottery, we approach second-chance promotions as a way to keep the excitement going after a ticket’s initial play. We keep a consistent amount of second-chance games in the market, especially with higher price point tickets and some licensed games. Players have come to expect that added value, and more recently we’ve started including second chance into some of our higher price point extended play games as well. Our second-chance prize offerings vary from cash to experiential prizes, like trips, sports VIP exclusive access and merchandise.
All second-chance promotion entries are submitted through our MA Lottery Player Account, which makes it easy for players to participate while also helping us better understand our player base and build toward more personalized engagement in the future. A successful strategy we’ve implemented for second-chance promotions is tying drawings to reaching a percentage of sales instead of fixed dates, helping drive steady participation throughout the life of a game.
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Our goals are to boost engagement, retain players, and grow our digital audience. For marketing, we prioritize simple, clear messaging along with unique prizes that players can’t get anywhere else, and promotions tied to local pride or popular culture.
Two recent standouts were our Jaws Second Chance Promotion and our Celtics Banner 18 Second Chance Promotion.
As the first JAWS instant ticket in the U.S., this second-chance promotion included five drawings, one at every 20% of sales, with the first drawing taking place at three weeks of sales followed by the second at six weeks and third at only 11 weeks. Each drawing included 500 $100 winners, 170 $500 winners and six winners of the $1,000,000 Martha’s Vineyard Jaws Event Trip that featured a trip for two to Martha’s Vineyard during the 50th anniversary year of the film Jaws. As part of the trip package, winners also received $1,000 spending cash, black car service to and from the ferry, lodging at the Harbor View Hotel, a Taste of the Vineyard dinner, and other brand-specific activities such as a film locations bus tour and private movie screening. The Martha’s Vineyard Jaws Event Trip also guaranteed one lucky player the promotion’s top prize of $1,000,000 prize in a Jaws themed gameshow on the island.
To promote this first-of-its-kind ticket, the Mass Lottery focused on direct engagement with players and non-players alike, handing out Jaws-themed promotional items, including towels for beachgoers and promotional tickets with a guaranteed win up to $5. Staff traveled around the state in wrapped vehicles with Lottery and Jaws imagery handing out these items, interacting with patrons of local beaches and at the iconic bridge from the film. Our player activations ranged from local wheel spins and regional raffles to a live Cash Wheel event at headquarters. There were also various online and agent-based promotions including the Bonus Bite Promotion, and a Jaws Trivia Contest to win branded merchandise.
Our Celtics Banner 18 Second Chance promotion also ran five drawings at every 20% of sales, with the first four drawings occurring in quick succession at three weeks, six weeks, 14 weeks and 17 weeks. Each drawing included 101 Celtics Prize Pack winners, 24 Game Tickets and Custom Jersey winners, one Game Seat winner who received two tickets in the first five rows of a home game, one Celtics Suite Experience winner, one Celtics Experience event winner and one Banner 18 Challenge winner, who would be welcomed onto the home court parquet floor to win a cash prize of either one of four $10,000 prizes or the solo top of $1 million prize. The event was hosted by former Celtics player Brian Scalabrine, creating an engaging and memorable experience. Read more about this promotion.
Missouri Lottery
Traditionally, the Missouri Lottery holds at least two second-chance promotions per year. We have the annual holiday promotion, which accepts holiday Scratchers games and all draw game tickets purchased during the promotional period. Similarly, we have a summer second-chance promotion that runs from mid-May to August; all active Scratchers games are eligible for entry, in addition to draw games purchased within the designated timeframe. Over the years, we’ve given away both cash prizes and experiential prizes through the holiday and summer promotions. Both require $10 worth of eligible tickets submitted to earn an entry.
For the past few years, we’ve also had an ongoing Scratch Big, Win Big second-chance promotion to support the $30 and $50 Scratchers tickets. Each $50 ticket entered receives five drawing entries, and each $30 ticket entered receives three entries. Each month, 10 winners are drawn to win $500 cash prizes.
From time to time, we also run second-chance promotions tied to licensed property Scratchers games, but those have a less predictable cadence.
The goals of these promotions are to drive ticket sales and increase participation in and relevance of our loyalty program. For our annual holiday and summer promos, players have two options for where their earned entries can be placed – typically there’s either an experiential or $30,000 prize bucket and a $1,000 prize bucket. Players may choose either drawing for each entry submitted. We have found that players overwhelmingly choose to enter the $1,000 drawings during activations that feature an experiential prize as the alternative option.
In addition to the drawing options tied to a $10 qualifying submission, players during the holiday and summer promos also automatically earn one entry into a weekly drawing for every dollar’s worth of tickets entered. These drawings award prizes of $250-$300.
Our recent Dashing Through the Dough second-chance promotion was very well received by players. In fact, the promotion broke our record for entries received for a holiday promotion. We saw an increase in entries, as well as an increase in the percentage of eligible tickets entered. That suggests the increase in entries wasn’t 100% tied to the increase in sales (we did see a sales increase over previous years). Over the course of the promotion, 21.2% of all eligible tickets sold were entered back into the players club. That is an increase of over 2% based off the next highest year. This all suggests an increased awareness by players of the promotion, as well as increased desire to participate.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why this promotion was more successful than others. Much of our approach was similar to previous years, though there were some differences that likely played a role. One of the main differences was our offering of all cash prizes. This was the first time since 2014 that we didn’t award an experiential trip. The simple fact that it was something different might have helped it stand out. Another difference from previous years was an increase in our overall advertising budget. While we did not have promotion-specific advertising, player awareness in general was likely affected.
Montana Lottery
Our second-chance strategy is centered around keeping players consistently engaged through a mix of always-on promotions and seasonal or game-specific campaigns. Within our Player’s Club loyalty program, we offer ongoing monthly drawings that take place on the first weekday of each month. These drawings award one $500 cash prize, one $200 cash prize, and two $100 cash prizes. Players can enter by submitting any lotto, scratch, Treasure Play (Fast Play), or Sports Bet Montana tickets, earning one point per dollar spent. Because these drawings run year-round, players always have additional opportunities to win.
Beyond our ongoing program, we also run special second-chance promotions tied to specific products, seasons, or holidays. For example, our recent holiday promotion, Just for the Holiday of It, accepted entries starting Dec. 1, 2025, and concluded with a final drawing on Jan. 6, 2026. Some promotions include all ticket types, while others focus on a particular game or product line. The Bonus X Second Chance Drawing, for instance, was designed exclusively for the Bonus X Scratch ticket family launched over the summer, giving players three additional chances to win.
We select games or product lines for second-chance offerings based on a variety of factors, including seasonal themes, new product launches, and player engagement opportunities. Each summer, we highlight a featured scratch game with added cash or merchandise prizes. We also typically host an annual holiday promotion and have brought back our Lucky Every Day campaign, which runs across all products and usually coincides with St. Patrick’s Day.
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With our new Player’s Club platform supported by Splashdot, we now have expanded capabilities and are excited about the broader range of second-chance and engagement opportunities we can introduce moving forward.
Our goals for second-chance promotions include increasing Player’s Club members, boosting participation by re-engaging lapsed or low activity members, increasing sales for a specific game or product line by incentivizing purchase and entry, and strengthening player loyalty by giving members the feeling of “special access” or “extra chances” they can’t get elsewhere. To reach these goals, we most often use strategies that directly motivate both sign-ups and ongoing participation. For example, we have focused promotions around single game or ticket purchases to encourage players to buy more of a targeted product, which reliably boosts sales for that specific game. We also incorporated a five point sign-up bonus in our most recent promotion, Lucky Every Day, which successfully incentivized new Player’s Club registrations while rewarding early engagement. We advertise through emails, social media and mobile app push notifications to reach lapsed members and encourage them to return to the Player’s Club. We also leverage terminal signage to promote the Player’s Club and any active promotions to the general public.
One of our most successful recent second chance promotions was Just for the Holiday of It. Working with a fixed prize budget of $35,000, we structured the offer around four high value prizes (three at $5,000 and one at $20,000), creating a strong seasonal draw. Over its 36-day run, the promotion engaged more than 14,200 unique players and generated over 400,000 scanned tickets. Its standout success came from a clear prize structure, strong holiday creative, and consistent engagement throughout the season, which kept scan activity high.
Another strong performer was the aforementioned Lucky Every Day. Designed as a quick cycle, daily win promotion, it offered $1,000 each day over a 14-day window for Player’s Club members who entered non-winning tickets. With a total prize budget of $23,000, it attracted over 8,000 players and generated more than 176,000 ticket scans. The daily reward cadence kept players returning consistently, sustaining excellent activation at a cost per player of $2.85. This format stood out for its ability to drive repeat engagement and broaden participation across the promotion period.
Nebraska Lottery
In general, we offer second-chance promotions on selected scratch and lotto games to increase sales. Based on our research, players prefer cash prizes, so most of our contests offer cash prizes or a combination of cash and lottery products. We use experiential and merchandise prizes less frequently unless we think a certain prize will broadly appeal to our player base. For example, our Yuletide Ride holiday second-chance promotions in 2024 and 2025 each featured a Ford Bronco as the top prize, and players enjoyed entering for a chance to win a new SUV.
In 2025 we had an always-on promotion for $3 scratch games with monthly drawings to give away packs of $3 scratch tickets. However, it wasn’t that successful at driving sales of $3 games, and some players were upset that a few winners entered and won in multiple months. We don’t plan to do any extended promotions like that in the future.
Our goals for second-chance promotions are to support game sales and increase registrations for our online MVP Club. Lotto voucher promotions have been the most successful in achieving these goals. Players receive a printed voucher with an eligible purchase. Giving players the voucher with the basic contest information at the time of purchase leads to increased contest entries.
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The 2by2 Cash Blast is a regular promotion that we run every spring. Between Feb. 4 and March 24, 2026, every $1 of 2by2 purchased produced a voucher number for the contest. Voucher numbers could be entered in weekly drawings for a chance to win $5,000 or $500. And if a winner purchased their 2by2 ticket with a multiple of seven drawings, their prize was doubled to $10,000 or $1,000. A total of 53.5% of all Cash Blast voucher numbers produced were entered in the contest, and average weekly MVP Club account activations increased 111% compared to the five weeks prior to the promotion. Average weekly 2by2 sales were 8.8% higher during the promotion – a good result as 2by2 has consistent sales due to the fixed top prize.
Another successful voucher promotion was the Pick 5 Winning Drive promotion that ran June 30 – Aug. 6, 2025. Players received a voucher number with every Nebraska Pick 5 purchase of $5 or more on a single ticket. Prizes for the promotion were season skybox tickets to the 2025 Nebraska football season, a weekend experience package with a hotel stay and tickets to a Husker football game and Husker volleyball game, regular Nebraska football season tickets, and tickets to the AVCA First Serve volleyball showcase. A total of 94,441 voucher numbers were entered in the contest, which was 47.4% of all voucher numbers produced. There was also a spike in MVP Club account activations during the week of July 19, with 390 accounts activated – the highest weekly activation count during the current fiscal year.
New Hampshire Lottery
We offer two types of second-chance events; both are exclusive to our NH Lottery mobile app. We use traditional second-chance scratch tickets (yet have sprinkled in our Fast Play product too) and our always-on My603Rewards loyalty program. Like others, we use second chance as a way to encourage loyalty, add value, and keep people excited after they finish playing a lottery game.
Our scratch ticket second-chance drawings follow the model most lotteries use, with the tickets tied to prizes that offer valuable experiences to our players, something they can’t buy or would otherwise never do. When it comes to My603Rewards, we focus on different games we know our players love, from favorite eInstants to popular Fast Play games. The Spin to Win wheel offers players prizes for both iLottery and retail, which encourages our players to try games they may not have played before. The goal is to help players discover their next favorite game and to experience all the lottery has to offer.
The relaunch of My603Rewards last fall is one of our most recent successes. The previous rewards program focused on dropping items into a shop and our players trying to purchase them before they were gone. Our players voiced their thoughts and let us know the program wasn’t working. In listening to their feedback, we worked with our iLottery vendor, Aristocrat Interactive, to rebuild the program from the ground up. The relaunch of My603Rewards introduced a Spin To Win wheel. The wheel allows players to use their points to win prizes for both online play and retail tickets. The wheel also offers entries into a weekly drawing for $500 and cash prizes. The relaunch was a great success.
New Mexico Lottery
The New Mexico Lottery selects key games to offer second-chance promotions. Sometimes these games are licensed properties, and sometimes they are games we select to maintain player interest over a longer sales window. Additionally, we run a second-chance promotion each year to boost sales of our holiday Scratchers. We want to provide added value for players, motivate sales, grow our email list, and maintain player interest through the life of a game.
We offer second-chance promotions through our own custom program and with our licensed game partners. All promotions are linked from the Promotions page on our website. Our platform is incredibly flexible and allows us to launch a promotion at any time, within minutes. We offer three types of promotions: traditional second-chance Scratcher promotions, coupon serial-number promotions for draw games, and codeword promotions used across all types of events and promotions. One recent week we used it in our promotion at a minor league baseball game.
Our Zozobra Scratchers Second-Chance Promotion was the most successful second-chance Collect ’N Win promotion we have done in terms of overall participation (number of players) as well as a very high number of new players registered (almost 54%). Additionally, an astounding 23% of ALL non-winning tickets for this game were entered!
Our second most successful promotions were neck and neck – with JAWS CA$H ATTACK! and Guy Fieri Flavortown Fortune. JAWS CA$H ATTACK! had more entries but averaged one less ticket entered than Guy Fieri Flavortown Fortune.
Ohio Lottery
Our second-chance promotion strategy is developed annually during fiscal year planning, using sales performance, product needs, and strategic priorities to determine where added support is needed. This fiscal year, we focused on promoting the $5 scratch-off price point, in-state jackpot and draw games, and the Cashword scratch-off category. By the end of the fiscal year, we will have launched a total of eight second-chance promotions to support these priorities. This includes initiatives for Pick 3/4/5 and scratch-off games, along with changes to the Cashword Replay entry mechanic designed to encourage participation at higher price points.
We also remain flexible throughout the year so we can quickly activate support for new launches, like the introduction of Jackpot USA in our jurisdiction. In addition, we adjust entry mechanics and promote opt-in promotions to help measure player receptivity to prize offers, whether they choose points or entries. We incorporate bundle offers to encourage cross-play and multiple purchases, allowing players to earn bonus entries or qualify for bonus drawings by completing additional actions. Across all promotions, we balance cash prizes with exclusive experiential packages designed to appeal to core player segments. Lower-tier prizes often include Lottery Cash to drive players back to retail.
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Our primary goals with second-chance promotions are to increase awareness of the featured product or family and to generate a measurable sales lift. We evaluate performance by comparing results to similar games during the same time period in the prior year. Another key goal is to create more winning experiences. Second-chance promotions help add value to non-winning tickets by increasing the number of winners. Players regularly tell us that when they’re choosing a game, having a second-chance promotion attached makes them more likely to play because it feels like they’re getting more value than they would from a ticket without one. We have also begun allowing players to opt-in on promotions so we can measure their receptivity to the prizes offered. Opt-in rates have ranged from 60% to 90%, giving us strong insight into whether players find the prize packages compelling or if they would prefer to receive points instead. While some promotions generate significant lifts and others show minimal impact, all promotions are monitored weekly, and once complete, we conduct a full analytical recap to evaluate effectiveness and determine recommendations or next steps.
During the Cashword Replay Second Chance Promotion, Cashword sales were up nearly 7% year over year. While the promotion wasn’t the only factor driving that increase, it’s a strong sign that it helped support growth in a category we’ve prioritized this fiscal year. Another successful example is the Big Game Second Chance Promotion, which featured a unique football-themed experiential prize package that sent the grand prize winner to the biggest football game of the year. We wanted to test player receptivity to a sports-focused prize, and the results were encouraging. We had an 80% opt-in rate, the highest we had seen at the time. Although sales for the $5 Win Big ticket did not exceed the comparable $5 launch from the previous year, the high opt-in rate demonstrated strong player interest in the prize concept. This insight will help guide future planning around sports-themed promotions, especially those tied to multiple games rather than a single scratch-off or football-themed ticket, could perform even better. We also captured a story featuring Justin, our Big Game Grand Prize Winner. His testimonial highlights the impact of the prize and reinforces the value second chance promotions bring to our loyalty program. His experience is a great reminder that these promotions create meaningful engagement that goes well beyond sales performance.
Oklahoma Lottery
Our second-chance strategy is built around creating sustained engagement beyond the initial purchase, while reinforcing the value of our Players Club ecosystem. We utilize a mix of opportunities to keep players interacting with our products on a regular basis.
At the core, we focus on:
Scan-to-enter mechanics tied to specific Scratchers or game families, which helps extend the lifecycle of new launches and top-performing games.
Points-based entries, allowing players to engage with promotions even after they’ve scanned their tickets, creating a layered experience.
Strategic game selection, typically prioritizing new releases, games with strong visual identity, or products that benefit from extended awareness in market.
From a prizing standpoint, we aim to balance aspirational and attainable rewards. This includes high-impact experiential prizes (travel, VIP experiences), cash prizes that feel meaningful but accessible, and prize structures that allow for multiple winners to increase perceived odds and excitement.
Ultimately, our strategy is to make second-chance participation feel less like a consolation and more like an extension of the entertainment value of the game.
Our primary goals with second-chance programs are to increase engagement within the Players Club; drive repeat purchases and extended play; support new product launches and maintain momentum on existing games; and capture player data to inform future marketing and product decisions.
The strategies that consistently exceed expectations are those that combine clear and simple entry mechanics (scan + enter, minimal friction), strong thematic alignment between the game and the prize, and high perceived value, even when the actual prize cost is controlled. Additionally, integrating second-chance messaging across digital, social, and retail environments ensures players are reminded at multiple touchpoints, which significantly increases participation rates.
One of our most successful recent promotions is our Travel Like a Millionaire campaign, which offers a luxury trip experience aligned with the aspirational nature of the associated game, Millionaire for Life. What made this promotion stand out was the strong thematic connection – the prize didn’t feel random; it reinforced the lifestyle fantasy the game was selling. Combined with high-end visuals and a cohesive campaign across social, digital, and retail, it drove strong engagement and above-average entry rates.
Another standout example is our cash-based Payday-style promotions, where players can enter for multiple chances to win $10,000 or similar prize tiers. These perform exceptionally well because they pair simple entry mechanics, highly relatable prizing and multiple winners, which increases excitement and perceived attainability.
Across all successful promotions, the common thread is clear: when the experience, prize, and product all align, and participation is easy, players respond at a much higher level.
Ontario Lottery & Gaming
Winning remains a key barrier to play for lottery customers. When major lottery games in Canada, Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49, have jackpots at low values, the excitement of playing wanes. In order to keep customers engaged, we look to optimize our second-chance strategy opportunities. However, each of our major games have unique challenges.
For example, Lotto Max does not have a built-in promo to combat sales volatility when high jackpots don’t come to fruition, so OLG created its own lever for our biggest lottery game with an evolution of a lottery terminal promotion called Dream Draws. Over a month period, players who bought a $5 Lotto Max ticket in-store at a lottery terminal automatically received a Dream Draws selection on a separate promotional ticket for a chance to win one of over 3,000 guaranteed prizes from $50 up to $10,000. There were 750 guaranteed prizes offered each week.
This second-chance promotion had strong prompted awareness of 24%, and half of those aware participated in the promo. There was increased positive sentiment around chances to win. We saw +3% player participation and +5% consideration, and $1.38 million in incremental revenue (+$244K after expenses). We have done three versions of the Dream Draws.
For Lotto 6/49, Canada’s oldest game, another tactic in removing the barrier to winning is to offer special bonus draws. Unlike Lotto Max, Lotto 6/49 has a built-in promo lever that allows for special draws to incentivize play especially around low jackpots. Lotto 6/49 uses the “Super Draw,” which take place at least once each quarter and can be offered over two or three draw dates. Super Draws offer guaranteed additional prizes anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. We have seen the Super Draws provide short-term topline sales lifts and also a boost to player engagement. We have seen a 10% incremental sales lift in the last fiscal year due the Super Draws.
Oregon Lottery
Second Chance allows us to keep Scratch-it games in market longer and supports stronger sell-through. Unlike some lotteries, we don’t have to pull a game because its top prizes have been claimed. It also helps keep players engaged and makes things easier for retailers by reducing last-minute game pulls.
We regularly include Second Chance messaging in our newsletter, social media channels, and in-app communications to keep players engaged. We promote Second Chance winners’ stories alongside other winner content to further build excitement about the program.
Players start by signing up for a Second Chance account. They enter non-winning Scratch-it tickets and wait for the drawing. One lucky ticket will be drawn from all of the entries we receive and will win the top prize for that ticket. We typically have one set of Second Chance drawings per month consisting of 2-4 games.
Our website Second Chance page provides information on all our current offers.
Pennsylvania Lottery
The Pennsylvania Lottery has an ongoing second-chance drawing (SCD) strategy with a heavy focus on scratch-offs and Fast Play products, as well as licensed properties. In the most recent fiscal year, the Lottery ran 14 SCDs, with 10 featuring scratch-off or Fast Play tickets, eight featuring licensed properties, and three offering experiential prizes.
Based on recent studies, the younger adult audiences enjoy winning an experience. In order to grow our brand, we want to align with those interests and therefore have increased our SCD prizing over the past few years to focus on unique experiences as much as possible. Other top considerations when developing a SCD include prizes, season, and ticket entry mix.
Our goal is to encourage increased purchase frequency of featured products by offering players additional chances of winning a SCD prize. While it is difficult to directly attribute sales increases solely to SCDs due to multiple influencing factors, we closely track entry volume and participation trends to evaluate performance. SCD support includes posters and digital screens at point of purchase as well as marketing on the website, email and text messaging. These efforts help maximize awareness and engagement across multiple player touchpoints.
Two of the most successful SCDs in the past year were our holiday-themed Oh, What Fir-tune promotion and The Big Game. Both generated the highest number of unique participant entry counts among all promotions. Seasonal campaigns, particularly holiday-themed games, consistently perform well due to increased player engagement during that time of year. Oh, What Fir-tune stood out by offering multiple ways to win and a higher top prize compared to the previous year, resulting in six million draw game entries.
The Big Game SCD, which features a pro-football-themed trip experience, continues to be a top performer by combining a licensed property with a high-value experiential prize. This promotion generated 5.3 million entries, reinforcing the strong appeal of experience-based rewards.
In addition to the strong participation metrics, The Big Game SCD also produced compelling winner stories that helped drive awareness and engagement. For example, one Pennsylvania winner’s journey to attending The Big Game highlighted the excitement and accessibility of the promotion, while another winner nearly missed their notification email before realizing they had won. These stories add a relatable, human-interest element that resonates with players. They not only celebrate winners but also serve as effective promotional tools that reinforce the value and excitement of SCD opportunities.
South Carolina Education Lottery
SCEL utilizes familiar brands, fun play styles, and exciting prizes in $5 second-chance games for new player acquisition. Prizes typically include VIP trips, celebrity meet-and-greet experiences, and game show opportunities to win additional cash. Second-chance opportunities on $10 scratch-off tickets are primarily used to diversify the product portfolio for a higher top prize. We launch two $10 scratch-off tickets each year, each with a top prize of $1,000,000 and a second-chance prize of $1,000,000, so there is almost always a $1,000,000 second-chance game in market.
Our primary goal is new player acquisition utilizing approachable price points, familiar brands, fun play styles and exciting prizes. Second-chance games consistently rank at the top of the list for First Ticket Entered, which is our KPI for this goal.
Among most successful second-chance opportunities, we launched The Big $pin family of games in 2024, which incorporated two different second-chance elements and four price points. Select scratch-off tickets were eligible for an additional opportunity where we streamed players spinning a wheel in our draw studio for extra cash. At the end of the promotion, a winner was selected to spin the wheel for up to $2,500,000, which at the time was our largest prize ever available on a scratch-off ticket or second-chance promotion. The Big $pin was heavily supported by owned media channels and POP advertising at retail.
Jurassic Park launched in July 2025 as a $5 ticket. The nostalgic brand was a great opportunity to incorporate familiar elements into the artwork to draw in new players. The linked game element from Scientific Games provided excellent second-chance prizes that will be fulfilled soon; we’re very excited to send three winners to Hawaii for a chance to win up to $1,000,000. The newest Jurassic World movie launched the same week as our scratch-off ticket, so the brand was already present on many channels. NBC/Universal provided marketing materials, including mass media, radio, owned media, and POP for retail that were in place to support the promotion for the first six weeks of sales.
Tennessee Education Lottery
Part of TEL’s program strategy is to offer standing opportunities as well as spontaneous promotions that blend with a season and/or new game to keep the program fresh and fun. We proudly offer players more ways to have fun and win through our VIP Rewards Program. In addition to a way of thanking players and attracting newcomers, the loyalty program also opens another door of communication for valuable Lottery messaging about responsible gaming, beneficiaries, promotions and games. More specifically, the Lottery offers two direct messaging options for VIP Rewards Members – push notifications and email. Push notifications are a nimble messaging approach, and email messaging continues to see above industry average open rates. The VIP Rewards Program offers three ways to win prizes by entering tickets, earning points and entering drawings. Members may choose to scan their tickets via the TN Lottery mobile app or by manually entering them at tnviprewards.com. The TN Lottery app currently has a 4.6 average iOS user rating.
Our VIP Rewards Drawings are “always on” and occur each month. Players earn VIP Points by entering any eligible ticket (draw and instant) and use these points to enter drawings for cash. Prizes and points requirements vary to appeal to a variety of players. For example, one month may feature a smaller number of winners for larger prize amounts, while other months may offer a drawing for a larger number of winners for smaller prize amounts.
Our Second Chance Drawings are game-specific drawings that typically focus on renewed awareness for certain games, to spotlight new games or highlight game features. Working together, the CEO, sales and marketing teams determine which games would be important to feature. An example of a Second Chance Drawing is a recent focus on Mega Millions. Members entered their Mega Millions tickets for a chance to be one of three winners of $5,000 each. Players who entered their tickets on Mega Millions drawing days earned 10X the entries.
For Play It Again!, players enter eligible non-winning instant tickets for a chance to win the final remaining top prize of the game entered. These popular drawings are typically held three times per year and have awarded a total of over $161 million since the program began. It’s important to note that a player need only enter a ticket once – each entry earns VIP Points, and if the ticket is an eligible non-winning instant ticket, it will automatically be entered into Play It Again!
The Tennessee Lottery’s VIP Rewards program has grown by more than 50% over the past three years, now boasting more than 815,000 registered members. As mentioned, the program’s goal is to attract new players and reward and optimize engagement with current ones, all while reinforcing the Lottery’s brand as a form of entertainment that gives back to Tennessee by providing funding for education. The Lottery’s commitment to responsible play can also be seen in the VIP Rewards program, as there are limits to how many points a player can earn each month and use each year.
Regular analysis of VIP Rewards measures growth and retention, and from that data comes the strategy for attracting and retaining players. Two especially popular promotions are the NASCAR Powerball second-chance promotion, which gave the chance for a Tennessee Lottery semi-finalist to move forward in a series of national drawings for the chance to win a VIP trip to the NASCAR Championship and $1 million; and the annual Holiday Shopping Spree Days VIP Rewards Drawing, which features 15 days of a daily drawing for $500 – during a time when additional cash is especially welcomed.
Texas Lottery
During our annual fiscal year game planning process, we meet with our scratch ticket print vendors to curate our upcoming game plan. These vendors will present unique second-chances prize opportunities, either through their own offerings or by partnering with specialized experiential vendors. The planning occurs over the winter preceding the next fiscal year. During this window, we are presented with a wide array of pitches ranging from merchandise to high-end experiences. Once the pitches are in, our team transitions to internal discussions. We evaluate which ideas resonate most with our brand and narrow down the list to fit into the puzzle that is our scratch ticket launch schedule. Generally, we look for second-chance prizes that players could not purchase on their own and that include a marketing package to help offset our declining advertising budget and maximize game visibility.
The Texas Lottery’s second-chance program is designed to appeal to our core players, re-engage lapsed players and attract new players. Additionally, we look to keep players engaged after they’ve scratched. Finally, the second-chance prizes should be easy to advertise so connecting with players is seamless.
In May 2025 we partnered with Pollard Banknote and Atlas to launch a colorful multiplier-themed family of scratch ticket games. Players could enter their non-winning tickets into a series of drawings for a chance to win a trip to Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. On the trip, one player will win a guaranteed $1,000,000. This guaranteed win was an outstanding component of the advertising campaign for this family.
Virginia Lottery
Second chance usually refers to programs that focus on non-winning tickets, while our Virginia Lottery Rewards program is open to all tickets purchased. Rather than continue to manage two programs and have potentially duplicate player engagement, we retired the eXTRA Chances program after the launch of Rewards. From our perspective, Rewards covers all of the benefits of eXTRA Chances and more.
We did essentially fold in some second-chance opportunities into Rewards to try and bolster awareness of the Rewards program with our retail players. As a current example, we are running a promotion where players can scan their winning or non-winning Scratcher ticket (Shamrock 7s) into Rewards. If they do, they will be automatically entered into a drawing to receive $777. By folding this second-chance type of program into Rewards, we have made it easier for the player and provided a better experience. They can earn points simultaneously while entering a retail promotional drawing. Also, they only have to access one point of entry for participation.
West Virginia Lottery
Our general second-chance strategy is to highlight a particular draw or scratch game, or sometimes an entire family. There is not always a second chance running because we also have loyalty drawings (points-based entries) going on every month. Typically, we try to have four or five second-chance opportunities per year, and they can span anywhere from one to three months. We always make sure to have an opportunity during the holiday season.
For draw games, we usually try to highlight a game that may have been enhanced, such as the $5 change with Mega Millions, or a game that is not one of our top performers to boost sales of that game. Prizes are usually monetary, but we have done experiential in the past. In our experience, players prefer cash prizes over any other type of offering.
The main goals of our second-chance drawings are to grow sales, increase player engagement, and build brand awareness as a whole. The great thing about having a loyalty program that works with both traditional and digital platforms is we can use both of these to our advantage. For example, we can put a points multiplier on the games affiliated with the second chance, so that these entries also multiply their loyalty points. These points can be used to enter other drawings for cash or promotional scratch tickets, or event tickets like concerts and athletic events. This is a strategy we frequently employ, and we incentivize by offering 5,000 loyalty points just for signing up for the program, advertising new second-chance and loyalty drawings throughout. We advertise these second-chance opportunities on our social media platforms, on our website and mobile app, through email campaigns, and signage in store as well as on our GTs in the retail locations.
One of our most successful second-chance campaigns was the Jumbo Family. This was a scratch-off family with multiple price points ($1, $2, $5, $10 and $20) featuring large, or “jumbo” sized animals, such as an elephant, gorilla and humpback whale. This campaign ran from February through March 2025, and was supported by radio and television ads, email blasts and social media, in addition to the standard website and app promotion. We activated our loyalty strategy, placing a points multiplier on these tickets. Anyone with the app was able to scan and earn multiplied points with tickets purchased at retailers, gaining boosts for loyalty drawings. Along with being able to enter these tickets directly on the website, the traction and downloads for our app and website increased significantly, helping to build stronger brand awareness and player engagement, as well as creating strides in player education. This second-chance campaign was our most popular ever, with 817,169 entries, tallying over 127,590 tickets. The second-chance drawing itself housed winners on a variety of prize tiers, from $5,000 to $100,000, with a total of 16 second-chance winners for a total of $350,000.
Another successful second-chance campaign was tied to the Mega Millions relaunch, designed to help raise awareness of the game change. We drew two winners of $50,000. This campaign was supported by the usual suspects (in-store and online marketing materials), but also had the added benefit of interactivity. For anyone who has a West Virginia Lottery account, players could participate in surveys, quizzes, and view educational URLs about the change and its benefits, all to earn loyalty points. Tickets purchased online were automatically entered, and retail tickets could be scanned through the app or manual entry through the website. This ran during February 2026 with 288,690 entries, with 28,190 tickets entered.
Wyoming Lottery
Because Wyoming is a draw-only state, WyoLotto has strategized around cash or a unique prize to drive as much engagement as possible. In doing this, we run second chance as a limited-time-only promotion for a few weeks at a time. Our strategy is to focus on when sales have dipped, or to increase awareness of a product. To reach these goals, we focus on engaging creative that has a very strong and easy-to-follow call-to-action. We also offer a very compelling prize! We have found our players love cash prizes. So when we look at a second-chance promotion, we strategize around a cash prize or an experience that someone couldn’t purchase.
The first second-chance promotion we did provided a $1,000 prize to four different winners who submitted their non-winning tickets. Part of the promotion was to increase usage of our newly launched app by doubling the number of entries individuals received for submitting through the app rather than mailing in. There were nearly 104,000 entries, well over what we expected. Not only did we see a high level of engagement, we saw a spike in sales. However, we don’t do this type of promotion often because the process to select winners is cumbersome and we have a small staff. Social media giveaways are easier, so we do a lot of those promotions versus second chance, until we can automate the process.
The other second-chance promotion we have done was for the Living Lucky with Luke Combs giveaway, an awesome promotion from Atlas Experiences. In our case, players could enter all their non-winning Keno tickets. The number of entries per person was not limited, and one lucky winner received $10,000 and a trip to Nashville to watch Luke Combs. Because this promotion was mail-in only and for a single game, we did not expect a high number of entries; overall, our goal was to increase the play of Keno as our newest game. The promotion successfully created awareness of Keno as the featured product; events across the state helped players learn how to play Keno. Players loved the “once in a lifetime” prize!
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