November 2015
Volume 26
Issue 10
Holiday games make great gifts
The Lottery’s popular holiday scratch games arrive in stores
Nov. 10. This year’s lineup includes:
n The Perfect Gift – $1 scratch game with $1,000 top prize
n
Freezin’ Greetings – $3 scratch game with $30,000 top prize
n Holly Jolly Cash – $5 scratch game with $75,000 top prize
Display the seasonal point-of-purchase materials that
were included in the holiday scratch games kit to remind
customers that lottery tickets make great gifts.
Minnesota Millionaire Raffle tickets are another popular
gift-giving item! Let your players know that Raffle tickets are
only available for a limited time. With 700,000 tickets for sale
they are likely to sell out before the holidays, so encourage
your players to get in on the fun while they still can.
Remember, Raffle continues to offer the best chance to win
$1 million, which is a great selling feature to highlight to
players. In addition to the two $1 million prizes, the game
also includes other cash prizes: (5) $100,000, (5) $25,000,
(10) $10,000, (100) $500 and (4,000) $100 plus
42 bonus prizes!
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The gift envelopes are also back by popular demand.
These festive envelopes make wrapping easy!
New training program available 24/7
Installations for the new state-of-the-art
lottery equipment are taking place now
through December.
Once the new equipment is installed
at your business, you will have access
to the online training program—Lottery
Learning Link. The training program is
available for you and your staff and may
be taken at your convenience using your
smart phone or personal computer.
It only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to
complete and includes step-by-step
instructions on how to use your new
equipment. “The great thing about this
training is that you don’t have to wait
for anyone to come to you,” explained
state sales manager Amy Jaeger. “You
can access it at any time from anywhere
you want, which makes training your
staff really easy.”
If you have any questions about Lottery
Learning Link, please contact your
lottery sales representative.
From the director
Lottery dollars help conserve American bison
A 2015 Minnesota Environment & Natural Resources
Trust Fund grant will help conserve American bison by
reintroducing bison to Minneopa State Park.
The new Minneopa herd will be made up of bison from the
genetically-rare Blue Mounds State Park herd and Minnesota
Zoo herd.
Unlike most bison herds, the Blue Mounds herd has not
been crossbred with cattle; their genetic purity makes them
extremely important to bison conservation efforts.
The appropriation will also provide opportunities at Blue
Mounds and Minneopa State Parks for visitors to see and
learn about American bison and Minnesota’s important
prairie ecosystems.
Left: Bison from the
Minnesota Zoo herd.
The Lottery’s Top Sellers recognizes retailers for exceptional sales performance.
Each of the businesses that made this month’s Top Sellers will receive $50 in free scratch tickets.
by Executive Director Ed Van Petten
It has been a lovely fall here in Minnesota,
with the leaves extraordinarily beautiful.
Even though they eventually create a lot
of cleanup work, it is nice to see them
each year. Sometimes I dread what is
coming afterwards, but I’m sure we’ll be
fine throughout the winter months. Our
sales pick up this time of year, and there
is always the anticipated excitement of
our annual Minnesota Millionaire Raffle
game. I hope that your customers are
as excited as we are to see it come each
year, and that this excitement leads to
increased foot traffic and sales for you.
A few of us recently attended the North
American Association of State and
Provincial Lotteries conference and
trade show. It is amazing how the lottery
world continues to evolve. We heard
from speakers and had the chance to
First quarter sales results for fiscal year 2016 compared
to fiscal year 2015 (among retailers selling in both quarters):
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Scratch dollar increase:
Lotto dollar increase:
Cub Foods (Lake St.), Minneapolis
Micky’s Liquor Store, Minneapolis
M & H Gas, Moorhead
Cub Foods (Lake St.), Minneapolis
Bill’s Superette #7, Andover
Clark on Rice, St. Paul
MSP Airport Foundation, St. Paul
Cub Foods, Maple Grove
Casey’s General Store #2202, Moorhead
SuperAmerica #4021, Minneapolis
Cub Foods, Roseville
Cub Foods (Phalen), St. Paul
Rainbow Foods, Richfield
Cub Foods, Roseville
Jeff’s Little Store, Rochester
Holiday Stationstores Inc., Bloomington
Holiday Stationstores Inc., Moorhead
Kaposia Convenience Center, South St. Paul
Cub Foods #1693, Minneapolis
Poppers Bar, Virginia
Scratch percentage increase:
Lotto percentage increase:
Little Burma, St. Paul
American Legion Post #259, Shorewood
Kwik Trip #854, Norwood Young America
Kwik Trip #250, Austin
Eagan Liquor Mart, Eagan
Sharif Hot Market, Columbia Heights
Hamline Liquors, Roseville
Joseph’s Liquor, Mankato
Tower Tap, Kettle River
Striker’s Corner, Stewartville
Cub Foods, Chaska
Big Discount Liquor, Maplewood
Melrose 1 Stop Inc., Melrose
Hartland University, Hartland
El Buen Vino, Rochester
Neisen’s Sports Bar Inc., Savage
Rainbow, Plymouth
Lake George Pantry, St. Cloud
Clocktower Liquor, New Brighton
Upcoming Top Sellers (schedule is tentative):
December – High Stakes Lakes sales leaders
January – Bearded Bucks & Hunt for Big Cash (combined) sales leaders
Retailer t
Spotligh
visit with lottery vendors about all of the
innovations that are already in the market
or coming soon. It is a very worthwhile
experience and the one opportunity every
year to see up close what is happening in
the world of lotteries.
As technology continues to improve,
our equipment becomes outdated more
quickly. We are in the process of installing
new monitors and communications
equipment in your stores in anticipation
of our new system going live in April 2016.
I hope this is a stress-free experience for
all. As you can imagine, with more than
3,000 installations to take place there
have been a few glitches, but our vendors
and employees are doing their best to
keep all of this to a minimum and to make
your experience selling lottery products
even better.
Sales of our scratch games continue
to improve and we know we have you
to thank for that. We are hopeful that
lotto game sales will grow this year
after disappointing sales last year. The
changes made to the Powerball game
matrix should result in more winners and
hopefully generate some enthusiasm
for the more frequent wins and bigger
jackpots. It seems to be necessary to
change our games every few years to
generate additional excitement, just as
manufacturers change products and
packaging from time to time.
®
I hope that the rest of your time in the
autumn months is safe and successful.
Thank you for all that you do for the
Minnesota Lottery.
North Country Convenience in Warroad
Before heading to Lake of the
Woods, a “must stop” location
for any hunter or angler is
North Country Convenience
and the adjacent Streiff
Sporting Goods in Warroad.
Lottery sales representative Chuck Olson
says the extensive display of wildlife
mounts are “worth the trip alone” but
the “expert advice and the latest fishing
reports from their excellent staff” make
the trip even more worthwhile!
With a sporting goods store, convenience
store and the most recent addition—a
booking agency where they sell hunting
and fishing trips all over the world—it’s
more of a complete destination for any
sports enthusiast, explained Conway
Marvin, who co-owns the businesses
with his wife, Mary.
personnel. We’re open 18 hours a day
7 days a week 362 days out of the year,
so that’s the un-fun part of being in
the convenience business. It’s doable
because we have good people that work
for us. It’s the traffic, it’s the people.”
North Country Convenience has been a
lottery retailer since opening. “It was a
natural for us to reach out to the lottery
and fortunately that all worked out.
It continues to be an important part of
what we do,” said Marvin.
Olson gives credit for the store’s success
as a lottery retailer to Marvin and his
staff. “He included a 24-game on-counter
scratch ticket dispenser and a lottery
play area in the recent remodel.
“Players enjoy their lottery play area,
which features the ticket checker,
winner posters and the latest lottery
information.”
Marvin says the new play area not only
works well for their players but for their staff
as well. “It’s been a plus for us,” he said.
“The staff enjoy lottery sales contests
and have fun selling lottery during “sell,
sign and win” staff incentives,” Olson
explained. “Store staff making a targeted
sale receive an entry for a chance to win
great prizes. This incentive worked well and
resulted in strong sales during the launch of
Lucky for Life and All or Nothing .”
™
™
“It’s kind of neat with our two locations,
we’re in a unique position and try to
take full advantage of that. When people
stop in here, they’re going fishing,
they’re going hunting, they’re going to
do something in the outdoors, typically,”
Marvin said. “Really, we’re selling fun.”
Located between Warroad and Roseau
on Highway 11, “We tried to position
ourselves as a destination stopping
point for those people traveling across
northern Minnesota,” said Marvin.
“I really enjoy the people and I enjoy
the activity and obviously enjoy the
customers,” he continued. “We’re lucky,
we’ve got some really good staff and
Merchandising the scratch tickets on
the counter has increased impulse sales
and attracted new players to the games.
Scratch sales continue to grow and
reached a record last year,” Olson said.
Above: North Country Convenience
store manager Janice Bruyere.
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Top prize winning ticket bonus
SuperAmerica #5002
in Minnetonka, $1,000
Lang’s One Stop Market
in Edina, $1,000
Cub Foods in Buffalo,
$500
Freedom Valu Center #71
in Lakeland, $500
Hy-Vee Food Stores
in Winona, $500
Coborn’s #2043 in Melrose,
$1,000
Kwik Trip #357 in Rochester,
$500
EZ Stop #05 in Minneapolis,
$250
PRESORTED
STANDARD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
DETROIT LAKES, MN
PERMIT NO. 14
Minnesota State Lottery
2645 Long Lake Road
Roseville, Minnesota 55113
mnlottery.com
Debbie Hoffmann, executive editor
Marie Hinton, managing editor
Emily Frost, editor
Megan Kleinschmidt, graphic designer
This publication is available in alternative
formats to individuals with disabilities by
calling (651) 635-8273, (888) 568-8379.
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New Games
Nov. 10, 2015:
#572 — The Perfect Gift ($1/$1,000)
Correction
The October issue of the Link incorrectly
showed the number of $1 million Raffle prizes
as one. There are two $1 million Raffle prizes.
#573 — Family Guy™ ($2/$15,000)
#574 — Holly Jolly Cash ($5/$75,000)
#575 — Freezin’ Greetings ($3/$30,000)
Dec. 1, 2015:
#576 — Very Cherry Slingo® ($3/$20,000)
#577 — Super Cash ($5/$100,000)
#578 — Big Money ($50/$100,000)
#579 — Corner Bonus Crossword ($3/$25,000)
Big Money has 10 $100,000 prizes and
is loaded with 110 $50,000 prizes!
Reminder!
Installations for the new state-of-the-art lottery
equipment are underway. They are scheduled
to be completed by the end of December.
Please keep in mind that the current software
will run until the conversion date, which is
scheduled for April 17, 2016.
If you have any questions about the new
software, please contact your lottery sales rep.