Lottery Ticket Production

 

Vocabulary

jumbo	line up	conservative
sample	lottery	surveillance
scratch	generate	scratch-off
prize	draw (2)	behind the scenes
fund	found (2)	printing press
layer	buck (2)	background
ship (2)	gigantic	executive
shine	make sure	cross-section
scam	instant	flashlight
cheat	dishonest	stay ahead
tamper	left over	household items
ceiling	stretch	compromise (2)
priority	entertain	Show Me State
audit	credible	questionable
ensure	combine	background check
odd	Midwest	check and balance
odds	jackpot	for quite a while

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 
 

Transcript

Female News Anchor: “People are lining up to try to win Power Ball’s Jumbo Jackpot. The jackpot is up to $360 million, after there were no winners on Saturday. It’s the third largest jackpot prize ever offered in the game.

The next Power Ball drawing is tomorrow night. We’ll bring the numbers to you on FOX 2 News at ten.

Well they entertain millions of folks across the country — and can make people millionaires.

We’re talking about lottery scratch-off tickets.

Fox Two’s Rocky Maden got a behind the scene’s look at place where scratchers are made — those colorful tickets generate billions of dollars a year.”

Male News Anchor: “They sure do . . . and Sandy these are what they look like when they come off the big printing press — these of course are just samples.

You know, since our country was founded, lotteries have long funded government projects, including the Washington Monument.

Well today, Missouri’s lotto funds go to education: scratch-offs bring in $288 million bucks a year.”

About twenty miles north of Atlanta inside the Scientific Games building, hundreds of Missouri instant tickets are made and shipped to stores like this one is Maryland Heights.

Scratcher sales generate more money for the state than Power Ball and Mega-Millions combined.

According to the lottery’s executive director, May Scheve Reardon.

May Scheve Reardon, Vice President, Scientific Games: “About 64% of Missourians buy the tickets.”

Customer One: “It’s a dream and it’s also fun just to, you know, maybe to get lucky.”

Back in Georgia, this gigantic printing machine creates the scratch-offs. It’s more than half a football field long.

Twenty different layers make up each of the Missouri tickets.

This cross section of a ticket shows how the different colors are added.

Six of the layers, like the black one, are for security.

Joe Bennett, Scientific Games: “They are typically designed to make sure you can’t shine a flashlight from the back of a ticket and somehow see the data that might be on the front of the ticket.”

But there’s a lot more to it.

Inside the company security lab, employees spend their days trying to “break a ticket”, much like a dishonest person would try to scam a casino.

Joe Bennett, Scientific Games: “We have to make sure we stay ahead of these people who would try to cheat.”

They use common household items like an iron and chemicals including vodka to determine if the products could change a losing scratcher to a winner, or somehow see if it’s a winner before it’s bought.

Workers here also check questionable winning scratch-offs to find out if they have been tampered with.

Joe Bennett, Scientific Games: “We have a lot of smart people — a lot of chemists, mathematicians — making sure that nobody can compromise a ticket.

Every month, two billion lottery tickets, like this Missouri ones, are printed in this plant. They’re shipped to other states, as well as other countries.

They are wound in big spools and stacked to the ceiling, and then shipped to 44 states and more than 50 countries.

The Show Me State is a big customer.

May Scheve Reardon, Vice President, Scientific Games: “Out of the 44 states that sells scratch-tickets, we are at the fifteenth number, level, and then 25th overall in the world.”

If Fox 2’s Jimmy Zale placed the 257 million Missouri tickets sold yearly, side-by-side, they’d stretch to Hong Kong and back and still have a lot of scratchers left over.

Security is a priority at Scientific Games: more than 180 surveillance cameras focus on each employee’s every move.

Former FBI agents run background checks on workers.

And to make sure the game is fair and credible, multiple audits are done while the being game is produced.

Joe Bennett, Scientific Games: “There are a number of checks and balances that ensure that ALL the prizes are in the game.”

It’s no secret that the odds are against winning — it says so on every ticket.

Still folks play.

May Scheve Reardon, Vice President, Scientific Games: “Scratch-off tickets I think are definitely going to have a great future.”

Players may one day purchase and scratch them on the internet. Twenty dollars is the most expensive ticket in Missouri . . . some states plan to sell really expensive ones.

Joe Bennett: “We’ve done $50 games. We are planning to do a $100 game.”

Male News Anchor: “But of course, people in the Midwest are a little conservative; in Missouri lottery officials are expected to keep the $20 ticket as probably the highest amount for quite a while.”

Questions

1. Big money is involved in lotteries. True or false? Give examples.

2. Does the prize money stay the same or is it cumulative?

3. Why are lotteries held? What is the purpose of having lotteries?

4. There is only one type of lottery. Is this correct or wrong? Describe the different types.

5. Is the lottery an industry? Are lottery tickets printed and produced on an industrial scale?

6. Why are lottery tickets comprised of many different layers (of color)?

7. Is there a laboratory in the lottery printing press? What do they do there?

8. “There are a number of checks and balances . . .” Why are there checks and balances? What are some security measures at the lottery printing company?

9. The printing company only sells and distributes lottery tickets in the region. Yes or no?

10. What are some predictions for the future of the lottery?
 
 
A. Have you every won prizes in the lottery? Do you know anyone who has won money through the lottery?

B. My friends and I sometimes (or regularly) buy lottery tickets. True or false? Is the lottery very popular in your town or city? Who buys lottery tickets?

C. Are there many different types of lotteries in your city?

D. Do different people have different attitudes towards the lottery? What is the government’s position on the lottery?

E. What will happen in the future? What is the future of the lottery?