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! 1 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): 2 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. 3 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. 4 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.