PoolingPLUS™ is a new Lottery transaction that results in a new combination ticket. It gives the Lottery the ability to incentivize players to purchase more on-line tickets without the use of discounts or giveaways. The Lottery transaction combines a suggested required purchase of a traditional ticket(s) with a pool of tickets to give the players more chances of winning. (See sample ticket on right).

Recent independent focus testing clearly confirms that this pooling option gives players a valuable incentive to play more often and spend more when they do. Some player segments reported they would almost DOUBLE their regular play (“…more than half stated that their spending would likely double.”)

In a worsening economy, players are looking for additional value for their money. Thus, lotteries should be looking for products that give players an AFFORDABLE way to get MORE chances to win.

It is important to understand the following:

1. Each pool is made up of 10 plays shared by 10 players. Therefore, although each of the 10 players receives their own ticket showing the 10 plays, there are only 10 plays in total, and the lottery will be receiving full price of $10 for the 10 plays.
2. The PoolingPLUS™ option also requires a minimum purchase of 2 or more 100% owned tickets. The combination ticket will show both the 100% owned plays and pool of plays. (SEE ILLUSTRATION).
3. The pooling process is designed so that even if there are hundreds of thousands of pools, ALL the pools will be full, with the possible exception of the very last pool. If required, RMS will reimburse the lottery for any unfilled positions if this occurs.
4. Because this option will motivate players to begin playing earlier in the jackpot/win cycle, the jackpots will grow faster.
5. Regular PoolingPLUS™ players will win 10 times more frequently than they do now. For the lower end prizes that are shared, there are at least 3 methods to handle small payouts. One method is to give the player a new pool of plays (RollOver Pools™) by rounding up all small wins to either a free 5-play or 10-play pool. As always, players would own 10% of any winnings. The winning ticket would be scanned and a new pool of plays would be automatically printed making the process for the retailer seamless and simple. Importantly, this would put players back at the point of purchase where they could also purchase other store merchandise and lottery products.
   
   Both the players and the lottery will benefit significantly by issuing pools instead of cash payments for the small prizes. In Powerball, for example, the lottery will save 16% to 37% on payouts for $3, $4, and $7 prizes shared by pools because the cost to the Lottery of a pooling ticket is only 50% of the ticket value. At the same time, the players will receive an increased payout of 25% to 67% when comparing the value of the pool to the cash value of the prizes.
   
   Lastly, the players will perceive the value of a 5-play or 10-play pool to be greater than the cash equivalent. A player relates 5 plays to $5 and 10 plays to $10. This method of paying small change winners in the form of a new pool of plays will turn small wins into exciting wins for the players.
6. 
   Because of the qualifying purchase, Retailers will benefit from significantly higher profits per lottery transaction, as shown in the illustration to the right.

All lottery players understand and are interested in pooling, not just because they’ve seen pool after pool winning major jackpots, but also because they are aware of the extremely high odds against winning. Adding pooling to their play mix just makes good common sense. Many players have asked "Why give away only 1 - $100 Million dollar prize making only one person rich? Why not give away 10 - $10 Million dollar prizes, making 10 people rich? In effect, that is what pooling does.

In the large games like Powerball and Mega Millions, PoolingPLUS™ offers the players 10 chances to become a multi-millionaire - all for only an extra $1 – a proven powerful and attractive option. Players will win ten times more often, and when they win a share of the smaller prizes, they will receive a RollOver Pool™.

Compared to a single ticket play, where only one prize can be won, for the same price the pooling option can deliver multiple prizes.

It is becoming more and more evident within the industry that there is a very significant segment of players who are not necessarily motivated ONLY by huge jackpots - the success of raffles proves this point. These players, who are keenly motivated by better odds of winning, are the primary target for PoolingPLUS™. But, it cannot be overstated that this product's potential to bring back lapsed players, and to bring in new players will also have a very significant impact on the Lottery's bottom line. And, while most players have a high interest in pooling, unless there is an office pool where they work they don’t have any access to pooling.

Pooling through PoolingPLUS™ is also easy and very convenient. It eliminates all of the traditional hassles of putting the pools together, collecting the funds and managing the pool, plus it’s backed by the security and reliability of the State Lottery.

And there’s dozens of possible promotions.

For example, one promotion might be: “Any time you buy two or more regular plays (or 1 Power Play) and say “ Pool It,” you can buy a pool of 10 more regular plays for only an extra $1. That’s 12 chances to win for the price of only three!” (See promo illustration on left).

Players want more chances to win. So, it’s a ‘no-brainer’ for them to see the value in any offer that gives them 10 more chances to win for only a dollar. For example, in the above offer players are spending $3, but are getting 12 chances to win. This example highlights one of the positive characteristics of pooling, which is that the players are always getting “ more.” Yet the Lottery receives full value for the pooling plays as it collects a full $10 for each pool of 10 plays -- $1 from each pooling participant.

Additionally, for the player, they now receive the best of both worlds. They still have their 100 percent owned tickets for their chances to ‘win it all,’ and now, for just an extra dollar, they have 10 more chances to win as part of a pool.

PoolingPLUS™ gives the Lottery complete flexibility through all of the parameter-driven controls to offer dozens of different promotions.

The Lottery controls and sets the terms of the promotion and all of the following parameters:

• Jackpot level triggers for varying the promotional terms
• Required minimum purchase of traditional on-line tickets
• Quantity of plays to be shared

PoolingPLUS™ also adds entertainment value because now players have a lot more numbers in the game, so drawings will once again become ‘events’ in their lives. Imagine a family sitting around the TV set after a drawing and sorting through dozens, even hundreds of number sets to see if they have won. That’s power that on-line games have not wielded in more than a decade.

Pooling fulfills a key marketing objective to produce more winners, and stories of those winners could be used to help promote the pooling incentive, which in turn will drive more sales of on-line tickets.

PoolingPLUS™ can also be used to incentivize purchases of ANY existing Lottery product. For example, it can also be used as an incentive to join the Lottery’s VIP Player’s Club - “Join the Lottery’s VIP Player’s Club and get into a FREE PoolingPLUS™ pool of 10 tickets!” It can also be used to incentivize players to purchase new or existing instant tickets by offering a pooling combination.

The incentive and promotional tie-in opportunities are endless.