The Finance Ministry has ordered the National Lottery (Mifal HaPayis) to cancel its new “bigger prizes, smaller odds” prize system.

As reported here earlier this month, the Mifal HaPayis abruptly changed its prize system this year, to the detriment of most ticket purchasers. The Grand Prize increased by 25%, from four millions shekels to five million. However, instead of having to choose six winning numbers out of only 34 possibilities, it became six out of 37 – a decrease of some 35% in the chances of winning the Grand Prize.

The odds of winning the Grand Prize thus dropped from 1 out of 13.5 million to 1 out of 18.5 million - and this has been borne out by the fact that no one has won it in the past several weeks. The chances of winning even smaller prizes also dropped.

Critics noted that since most of the lottery customers are on the lower end of the income earners, the national lottery thus became an even more demanding form of income tax, leaving the losers with almost no chance of winning even their initial investment back.

Not only critics took note; the Finance Ministry did as well. Yoram Ariav, Director-General of the Finance Ministry, whipped off a note this week to Sha’ul Slotnick, Director of the Mifal HaPayis, ordering him to change the system back.

The new system was announced illegally, Ariav wrote, as it was not approved in writing by the Finance Minister. The lottery must therefore change the system back to the way it was, as of the coming lottery drawing, this April 4.

The news was reported on News1 by guest correspondent Reuven Leib, a long-time critic of the National Lottery. Leib says he was the man who first coined the term “Lottomania,” which is now used by the Mifal HaPayis itself to promote its products.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />



Response to INN

Mifal HaPayis said at the time that its goal was to raise ticket sales from 3.75 billion shekels in 2008 to 4.15 billion shekels in 2009.  The organization further explained to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel National News then, “Like any other commercial body, we attempt to increase our earnings by matching the product to our consumers’ demands.” It denied, however, that the improved system was an attempt to take advantage of the under-privileged classes. A fifth of the lotttery's income is used to build classrooms and sports halls around the country.