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Washington State Lottery to Launch Mega Millions Early

"Tickets for Mega Millions, a 10-state lottery game, will go on sale at 2,600 retail outlets across Washington on Sept. 4. The first jackpot drawing will be Sept. 6 - and it could be a whopper.

"Washington, the only Western state participating in the big-jackpot game, had planned its launch for October, but is rushing to get ready early so it can generate more cash for state coffers.

"…Most of the state's profit from the new game is earmarked for the state general fund, which pays for schools, higher education, prisons, health care and other services.

"At the urging of the governor, lawmakers voted earlier this year to join the new game, hoping to generate about $32 million a year to help plug a billion-dollar hole they faced in writing the current budget. Locke and lawmakers now are girding for a shortfall of up to $2 billion for the 2003-05 budget cycle.

"State budget writers hope the early start - the first drawing originally was planned Oct. 1 - will bring in an additional $2.5 million to $3 million.

"A large opening day jackpot could jump-start those sales, said lottery spokesman D. Eric Jones. This week's jackpot is $78 million. If there is no grand-prize winner over the next couple of weeks, lottery retailers will be selling tickets for a Mega Millions game that could have a jackpot of $150 million to $170 million, he said.

"…Fifty percent of the money from ticket sales in Washington will be set aside for prizes, 7 percent will go to retailers, 3 percent to overhead and 40 percent to the state…"

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