California Lottery launches new consumer Service with Birthday Scratchers Featuring Lucy & Desi; Winning Scratchers now can be cashed anywhere in the state.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 11, 1997--The California Lottery announced today the start of its new consumer service beginning April 14 that will now allow customers to cash all winning Scratchers tickets at any Lottery retailer in the state.

The new cross-redemption service is being introduced through a new line of special occasion Scratchers tickets. The first will be a birthday Scratchers ticket featuring the popular images of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The ability to cash a winning ticket anywhere makes an entire new consumer product line practical for gift-giving. With the new birthday Scratchers, the California Lottery becomes the first in the industry to introduce a ticket that can double as a birthday greeting card.

"With our new automated Scratchers system, we will be able to offer both an important customer convenience and a new consumer gift item," said Denise Kimes, Lottery director for sales, marketing and research. "We anticipate this cross-redemption feature will produce a 15% increase in overall Scratchers sales."

The $2 birthday tickets featuring Lucy and Desi offer a top prize of $20,000, and players may win up to eight times on a ticket. A total of nearly 14 million tickets were produced which display four different humorous birthday greetings. The Lottery worked in partnership with Desilu, too, LLC to use the images of the popular television icons. The licensing agreement is valid for a six-month period and will be followed by a similar campaign with different television or movie characters. A unique television advertisement using original footage from the "I Love Lucy" show with computer-generated graphics has been designed to promote the new line of Scratchers and will be aired beginning April 14.

Previously licensed property Scratchers games like Star Trek(R) and Monopoly(R) have consistently proven popular among California collectors and lottery consumers. In the second quarter of this fiscal year, Scratchers sales increased to more than $10 million a week with the introduction of Star Trek Scratchers.

The California Lottery sells its products through a network of nearly 22,00 outlets statewide. By law, the Lottery is required to provide at least 50 percent of its revenues to players as prizes, 34 percent to public schools and 16 percent for administrative expenses, which includes 6.5 percent for retailer commissions. Since 1985, the Lottery has raised more than $8.6 billion for public schools. Annual Lottery revenues currently represent approximately 2 percent of all state, federal and local funding received by California's public schools, K-12 and higher education institutions.

CONTACT: California State Lottery 

Jeanne Winnick or Norma Minas, 916/324-9639