The Arkansas Lottery said today that the Monopoly Millionaires Club game will end Dec. 26 because of disappointing sales nationally.
This runs counter to the suggestion of Camelot Global, a gambling consultant hired by the lottery to review the state operation. But Arkansas has no choice on the multistate game. The lottery said it would also drop a 50/50 draw game in early 2015 as Camelot had recommended.
What follows is the lottery’s announcement on the decisions:
Sales in the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB lottery game in its current format will end Dec. 26 across the country, lottery officials said today.
“This is disappointing, especially in light of the recent [Camelot Global Services] consultant report, which suggested that ASL find ways to optimize the launch of this game,” said Bishop Woosley, Director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. “That being said, Arkansas is but one vote among 23 participating states, and we are bound to follow the wishes of the majority of those states. The withdrawal of one of the largest of those states forced the group to consider a suspension.”
Originally conceived as a multi-tiered drawing-style game, MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB debuted Oct. 19 in 23 states, but sales came in below industry projections, leading the Texas Lottery Commission to suspend sales of the game in that state following the Dec. 12 drawing. A majority of lotteries participating in the game then made the decision Monday to suspend all sales in its current format later this month.
Rebecca Paul Hargrove, President and CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. and Co-Chair of the MONOPOLY MILLIONAIRES’ CLUB Steering Committee, said that lotteries can learn from the project.
“We look to provide our players with the new and innovative forms of entertainment so as to maximize our proceeds for the good causes we fund. Approached from the right perspective, you can learn something from each product out there,” she said. “That’s what comes with innovation: Every project gives you the chance to experience and grow. As with any other consumer goods, our goal is always to provide a game that players want.”
Tickets in the game will be sold until the sales cutoff for the final weekly drawing, which will occur at 9:00 p.m. Central on Friday, Dec. 26.
Lotteries also plan to continue to research the concepts behind the current game.
“We hear all the time from players who say they just want to see more people have a share of the winnings rather than just one gigantic top prize,” said Woosley. “I believe 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, but we also have a selection of other games that remain popular.”
ASL will honor its commitment to those players who have entered their tickets to win a chance to appear on the game show. 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 games: We offer different games at different price points to provide the variety and choices that today’s consumers want,” Woosley 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.”
The ASL also announces today that it will ask for its Commission to end the Arkansas 50/50 draw game in early 2015. This proposal follows recent recommendations, made by lottery industry consultants Camelot Global Services, that ASL reduce the number of draw games in its portfolio in order bolster the jackpot for its popular Natural State Jackpot.