Hoosier Lottery History

On November 8, 1988 Indiana voters approved a lottery referendum by a 62% majority. On May 3, 1989, the Indiana General Assembly ratified the Lottery Act and a week later it was signed into law.

Three months after the creation of the first Commission, the Hoosier Lottery was in full operation. On October 13, 1989, scratch-off ticket sales began at 12:10 p.m. On the first day alone, 8.19 million tickets were sold. By the following week, sales had exceeded $21.8 million.

The Hoosier Millionaire show debuted October 28, 1989 on WTTV-4 in Indianapolis and on its 10 station network. The Hoosier Lottery began its first draw game, Lotto Cash on April 30, 1990 with the first drawing taking place May 5. Due to the success of Lotto Cash, subsequent additions to the Lottery’s draw game lineup were: Daily 3 and Daily 4 (July 1990); Lotto America (October 1990), which later became Powerball; and Lucky 5 (November 1993).

Lotto America changed to the Powerball game in April 1992. Indiana led the nation in Powerball sales after only two weeks and Brazil, Indiana native, Bert Morlan, became Powerball’s first jackpot winner later that month. The first bar-coded scratch-off tickets, “Cash Crop”, “Draw Poker” and “3 Times Lucky”, began in April as well.

In September 1994, Hoosier Lotto replaced Lotto Cash. Hoosier Lotto was designed to have more winners and bigger jackpots and offered the only "match two of six" prize in a pick-six game in North America. Later in September, the Hoosier Lottery hosted the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) convention in Indianapolis.

In June 1995, the Hoosier Lottery introduced “Instant Euchre,” the world's first lottery game to use suit and trump. Two years later, the Hoosier Lottery would introduce its first scratch-off game to offer a $1 million top prize, called “Tax Free Million.” 

The Hoosier Lottery launched its first web page on the internet (hoosierlottery.com) in September 1997. Three years later, the Lottery redesigned and revamped the website with new features which included a newsroom, financial information, resources on problem gambling, and a VIP club for players.

The Power Play multiplier feature was launched by Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL) in March 2001. This feature gave Powerball players an opportunity to multiply their non-jackpot winnings up to five times. In October 2003, Lightning struck twice with back-to-back Hoosier Powerball winners.

On July 1 2005, Indiana hit the jackpot with record Hoosier Lottery sales of $739 million for Fiscal Year 2005. By December 31, the total funds transferred to the state of Indiana for important projects topped $2.7 billion since the Lottery’s inception in 1989.