Hawaii-2011-SB3-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Powerball is an American lottery game sold in lotteries in member states across the country as a shared jackpot pool game. Powerball's predecessor began in 1988 when it was known as Lotto America. The game and name were officially changed to Powerball on April 19, 1992. Its first drawing was held three days later on April 22, 1992.

Powerball is now coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association, a non-profit organization entirely owned and operated by member lotteries and based in Des Moines, Iowa. The association operates at the direction of its board of directors, which is composed of the executive directors of each member lottery. Powerball currently is available in the District of Columbia, the United States Virgin Islands, and forty-two states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Powerball costs $1 for a single play for one drawing. For each ticket, a player selects five numbers from a set of fifty-nine white balls and one number from a set of thirty-nine red balls (the Powerball). Tickets that match at least three white balls and/or the red Powerball are winners. A player may pay an additional $1 to play Power Play, which adds a random multiplier to all prizes except the jackpot.

The minimum Powerball jackpot is $20,000,000. The estimated jackpot is usually 32.5 per cent of the non-Power Play revenue of every ticket sold by Multi-State Lottery Association members to accumulate into a prize pool to fund the jackpot prize for each drawing. If no ticket wins the jackpot in a particular drawing, the prize pool carries over to the next drawing and continues to accumulate until someone wins.

Powerball tickets can legally be purchased only at a state lottery sales terminal in the lottery member states that sell the Powerball game. Powerball lottery tickets cannot be sold by mail, over the Internet, or across state lines or the United States border. Federal and state laws prohibit out-of-state lottery plays across state lines.

Powerball drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. eastern time in Orlando, Florida. The numbers are drawn in the presence of Multi-State Lottery Association draw officials, an independent auditor, and a security official. The draw equipment is kept in a double-locked alarmed vault and the balls sets are sealed by the auditor. All events are audio- and video-recorded when the vault is opened. The equipment is tested regularly using x-ray and statistical tests for non-random behavior.

The legislature further finds that Mega Millions is also a multistate $1 lottery game played in the District of Columbia and forty-one participating states: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Mega Millions began on August 31, 1996, as The Big Game. In May 2002, the multistate game was given the new name of Mega Millions. A player picks, or allows the Mega Millions computer to pick, five different numbers from one to fifty-six using white balls and one number from one to forty-six using gold balls (the Mega Ball). Mega Millions also offers a two-, three‑, or four-times multiplier play for $2 for a chance to win a prize of up to $1,000,000. Jackpots start at $12,000,000.

Drawings are usually held at the WSB-TV station in Atlanta, Georgia at 11:00 p.m. eastern time on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Unlike other multistate or multi-country lotteries that have central offices, all Mega Millions duties are shared by member states as part of their membership in the game. While most accounting is handled by each member state individually, key duties such as projecting jackpots, budgeting and expenditures, settlements of draw and wagering data, financial settlements (prize expense shares and banking/cash settlements), monitoring of draw data and statistics, public relations, draw show production and broadcasting, technical duties such as software development, and legal work are all shared.

In October 2009, an agreement was reached between the Multi-State Lottery Association and Mega Millions to allow all state lotteries in the United States to offer both games.

The purpose of this Act is to require the department of business, economic development, and tourism to investigate the possibility for Hawaii to participate in the multi-state Powerball lottery operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association or the Mega Millions lottery operated by the Mega Millions consortium, or both.

SECTION 2. The department of business, economic development, and tourism shall investigate the possibility for Hawaii to participate in the multi-state Powerball lottery operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association or the Mega Millions lottery operated by the Mega Millions consortium, or both.

The department of business, economic development, and tourism shall report findings and recommendations to the legislature, including any necessary proposed legislation, no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2012.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	3
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII