1973
A Constitutional Amendment is passed by a margin of 3 to 1 on November 6th – in favour of the formation of a Rhode Island Lottery.
1974
March sees the passing of law in Rhode Island which creates the Rhode Island Lottery which is to be governed by the Rhode Island Lottery Commission.
The first Rhode Island Lottery tickets go on sale on May 21st. THE LOT – the first RI Lottery game has a top prize of US$ 50,000 and costs 50 cents a play.
May 30th sees the first drawing of THE LOT – which is held at the State House.
1975
January sees the Rhode Island Lottery become the first US Lottery company to broadcast a lottery drawing live and at not cost to the RI Lottery.
This year also sees the Rhode Island Lottery become the first State Lottery company to have a weekly lottery TV show – GRAND LOT.
1976
On February 13th – the Rhode Island State Lottery introduces its daily
NUMBERS GAME which is still going strong today. Draws for the NUMBERS GAME are shown on TV live from Monday through Saturday at 7.00pm and on Sundays at 6.30pm.
The RI State Lottery introduces its first Instant ticket game on May 11th –
PLAY BALL.
1978
In February the RI Lottery introduce online games and as a result RILOT sees the sales of its lottery games double.
1981
Spring this year sees the Rhode Island Lottery introduce the 4/40 game. This game has undergone various incarnations over the years.
1984
A HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY Instant ticket is brought out by the RI Lottery to mark the occasion. The game offers a top prize of US$ 100,000.
1986
The Rhode Island lottery introduce another Instant ticket called RI 350 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Rhode Island itself. The top prize on offer is US$ 35,000.
1987
On September 16th – the Multi State Lottery Association – MUSL – is formed by six USA Lottery companies. As well as the Rhode Island Lottery – other founding members of the MUSL are the Washington DC Lottery, Iowa Lottery, West Virginia Lottery, Kansas Lottery and the Oregon Lottery.
1988
On February 3rd – the newly formed Multi State Lottery Association – MUSL – launch their first Multi State Lottery game. LOTTO AMERICA has a matrix of 7/40, costs US$ 1 per game and offers jackpot odds of 1 in 18,643,560.
The first LOTTO AMERICA draw is conducted by the MUSL on February 13th. RI Lotto players take part from the beginning.
1989
The Multi State Lottery Association changes the matrix of LOTTO AMERICA on February 5th to 6/54 and the jackpot odds change to 1 in 54,979,155. RILOT players now also get 2 games for US$ 1.
February 8th sees the first draw of LOTTO AMERICA with the new game configuration.
1992
On April 18th – the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) conduct the very
last draw of the LOTTO AMERICA game.
The following day sees the launch of a bigger and better game from the MUSL – POWERBALL – which replaces LOTTO AMERICA. The Rhode Island Lottery begins selling POWERBALL tickets on April 19th.
The first Rhode Island POWERBALL draw takes place on April 22nd. POWERBALL has a double matrix of 5/45 + 1/45, costs US$ 1 per play and offers jackpot odds of 1 in 54,979,155.
On September 13th – the RI Lottery become only the second USA Lottery company to introduce KENO – the Oregon Lottery being the first.
Also this year – the Rhode Island Lottery Commission approve the use of
VIDEO LOTTERY – player interactive gaming machines. VLTs – Video Lottery Terminals are introduced at the two pari-mutuel facilities in Rhode Island.
1994
The very first Rhode Island POWERBALL Lottery jackpot is on August 10th at US$ 7.6 Million.
1995
LOT-O-BUCKS – the first Rhode Island Lottery terminal based lottery game is retired.
The Rhode Island State Lottery bring out a new game – RHODY CASH – replacing the retired LOT-O-BUCKS.
August 26th sees the second jackpot to be won on the POWERBALL Rhode Island when a ticket purchased in Cranston wins the US$ 31 Million top prize.
1996
On April 20th – Donald Pierce from Rhode Island becomes the third winner of an RI Lottery POWERBALL top prize when he shares a US$ 34 Million jackpot with Ronnie Solomon Ware Sr. from Washington DC. Each of the 2 winning tickets receives US$ 17 Million.
A new lottery game is introduced by the Rhode Island Lottery and eight other US State Lotteries on September 16th – the Multi State Lottery Association (MUSL) DAILY MILLIONS. RI Lotto players can win a top prize of US$ 1 Million by picking 2 numbers from each of three sets of 21. The game is drawn at 7.29pm EST.
1997
The MUSL changes the draw time of the DAILY MILLIONS game on June 15th. RI LOT players now see the DAILY MILLIONS drawn at 9.46pm EST.
November 1st sees some changes made to the MUSL POWERBALL game with the intention of offering bigger jackpots. The starting jackpot figure for POWERBALL is increased to US$ 10 Million and Rhode Island Lottery players can now choose between a cash lump sum payment or an annuity of 25 annual instalments if they win the jackpot. The POWERBALL matrix also changes to
5/49 + 1/42.
The RHODY CASH game is retired by the Rhode Island Lottery.
1998
On February 21st – the Rhode Island Lottery replaces the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) DAILY MILLIONS Game with the introduction of its own lotto game – ROLL DOWN.
A POWERBALL record is set on July 29th when a massive US$ 295 Million jackpot is won by 13 work colleagues from Ohio who had purchased their Powerball Tickets in Indiana.
October 31st sees the fourth Rhode Island POWERBALL jackpot won – a top prize of US$ 46 Million which is split with winners in Wisconsin.
RHODE ISLAND SCENES – a multi vignette game is introduced by the Rhode Island Lottery costing US$ 2 and with a US$ 15,000 top prize.
1999
The 25th anniversary of the Rhode Island Lottery is marked by the introduction of a 25th ANNIVERSARY Instant Scratch ticket costing US$ 5 and with a top prize of US$ 25,000.
2000
March sees the Rhode Island Lottery retire its ROLL DOWN game and replace it with a new RI Lotto game – EASY WIN.
The EASY WIN game is retired by the Rhode Island Lottery in November and replaced with another new RI Lotto game – MONEY ROLL.
2001
On February 21st – Michael Goulden from Pawtucket, RI. becomes the fifth winner of a Rhode Island POWERBALL jackpot prize when he scooped a huge US$ 93.5 Million. At the time – this is the largest RI POWERBALL win to date.
The MUSL add a significant feature to its POWERBALL game on March 7th. RILOT players can now play with the POWERPLAY add-on which multiplies non-jackpot winnings by up to 5 times.
In April – the Rhode Island Lottery introduce KENO PLUS – a KENO add-on that gives RI LOT players the chance to multiply their KENO winnings by up to 10 times and the possibility of a US$ 1 Million top prize.
2002
In January – the Rhode Island Lottery retires its MONEY ROLL game and replaces it with WILD MONEY – which is still going strong today. WILD MONEY has a starting jackpot of US$ 20,000 which will rollover until won – and matrix of 5/35. Draws take place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7.20pm.
The first Rhode Island Lottery WILD MONEY jackpot of US$ 315,869 is won on April 13th.
September sees the Rhode Island Lottery introduce an INSTANT MATCH feature to its daily NUMBERS GAME. For an additional US$ 1 – RILOT players can win up to US$ 500 instantly on a NUMBERS GAME ticket.
POWERBALL sees some game changes on October 6th when 4 numbers are added to the main (white) balls giving a matrix of 5/53 + 1/42 and the POWERPLAY option has the number 1 removed. Jackpot odds are now 1 in 120 million and even larger POWERBALL jackpots will be created and more frequently. A new feature called Match 5 BONUS is also added.
October 9th sees the first POWERBALL draw with the new features in place.
2003
A request to increase the number of VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS (VLT’s) – to 4,303 from 2,478 – is approved by the Rhode Island Lottery Commission in January.
2004
The Rhode Island State Lottery introduces HotTrax – an auto racing game – on May 28th.
A $5 Instant ticket game – 30th ANNIVERSARY – is brought out in June to celebrate the milestone in the history of the Rhode Island Lottery.
2005
POWERBALL sees some further game changes on August 25th when 2 main (white) balls are added, nos. 54 and 55. Jackpots will now start at a more exciting US$ 15 Million and second prizes at US$ 200,000.
The POWERBALL matrix is given another change by the Multi-State Lottery Association on August 28th – this time to 5/55 + 1/42.
On October 19th sees a record POWERBALL jackpot occur when an incredible US$ 340 Million was won by a family from Oregon.
2006
A world record POWERBALL jackpot of an incredible US$ 365 Million is won by a group of Nebraska factory workers following the drawing on February 18th. This still stands as the largest lottery jackpot won to date in the world on a single lottery ticket.
The Multi State Lottery Association introduce a new game – CA$HOLA – on July 23rd – which is sold by the Rhode Island Lottery, West Virginia Lottery and Delaware Lottery. CA$HOLA is the first multi-state progressive, video lottery game to be brought out by the MUSL.
2007
November 28th sees the biggest win to date on the RI POWERBALL when Sheila Botelho from Swansea, MA. scoops a massive US$ 151.9 Million jackpot. Sheila had bought her ticket at the Warren Mart, 428 Child Street in Warren, RI. This is still the record Rhode Island POWERBALL jackpot ever won and is the 6th RI POWERBALL jackpot won so far.
2008
On February 28th – Michael Goudreau from Lincoln wins the largest Rhode Island Lottery CA$HOLA jackpot to date – US$ 1,936,695.28. This is the third biggest jackpot to be on the CA$HOLA game since it began in July 2006.
2009
January 4th sees some significant changes to the POWERBALL game – the intention being to create larger jackpot prizes and produce even more winners. Rhode Island Lottery players will now see jackpots starting off at an increased US$ 20 Million. Also a new prize level is created – where players can win US$ 1 Million with the Match 5 BONUS feature using POWERPLAY. The Powerball matrix changes to 5/59 + 1/39 and draws for the Powerball move to Orlando’s Universal Studios in Florida – with the Florida Lottery joining the MUSL in selling Powerball Tickets.
On October 9th an agreement was made between the Mega Millions Consortium and the MUSL – Multi-State Lottery Association – to allow the cross-sales of Mega Millions tickets within states that offered the Powerball game and the sale of Powerball tickets within states that offered the Mega Millions game. The Rhode Island Lottery will be selling Mega Millions tickets come January.
2010
On January 31st – the Rhode Island Lottery begins the sales of MEGA MILLIONS tickets as a result of the cross-selling agreement made between the Mega Millions Consortium and the MUSL – Multi-State Lottery Association the previous October.
Just over a week after launching – the RI MEGAMILLIONS produced a winner of US$ 40,000 on February 9th – when an Rhode Island Lottery player from Cranston struck lucky playing with the MEGAPLIER option. The lucky winner matched 4 of the main balls plus the MEGAball and multiplied his winnings by 4 times from US$ 10,000. This still ranks as the largest RI MEGAMILLIONS win to date.
Rhode Island Lottery – Where the Money Goes…