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November 8, 1988 — September 1994
The vote and the first ticket: Indiana had banned lotteries in its constitution since 1851. On November 8, 1988, the state's voters lifted the ban, approving the lottery referendum by 62 percent. The General Assembly ratified the Lottery Act on May 3, 1989, and the governor signed it a week later; a director and a commission were in place by midsummer. The first tickets — scratch-offs — went on sale on October 13, 1989, at 12:10 p.m., in Fort Wayne as everywhere else in Indiana; the Lottery's published history puts first-day sales at 8.19 million tickets statewide and more than $21 million in the first week. Two weeks later the Hoosier Millionaire television show debuted, on October 28, 1989, and ran until November 2005 — for sixteen years the state's winners were crowned on television.
The games stack up: The first draw game, Lotto Cash, began sales April 30, 1990, with its first drawing May 5. Daily 3 and Daily 4 followed in July 1990. Indiana joined the multi-state Lotto America game that October, and when that game became Powerball in April 1992 Indiana had the very first Powerball jackpot winner — a Hoosier, though not a Fort Wayne one — and the Hoosier Lottery's releases have noted ever since that Indiana leads the nation in Powerball jackpot wins, with 39 and then 40. In September 1994 the flagship Hoosier Lotto replaced Lotto Cash. Mega Millions tickets went on sale in Indiana on January 31, 2010. Fort Wayne's own documented winners begin appearing in the Lottery's public record as the games do; the cases below are the ones the record holds at size.
Sources:
- Indiana Prevention Resource Center, "History of Gambling in Indiana" — the November 8, 1988 referendum (62 percent), the May 3, 1989 Lottery Act, and the October 13, 1989 first sale at 12:10 p.m.
- Hoosier Lottery, "35 Years of Championing Hoosier Dreams" (October 11, 2024) — the October 13, 1989 first ticket sale and the 1988 referendum.
- Hoosier Lottery game-history summaries — first-day sales of 8.19 million tickets; Hoosier Millionaire debut October 28, 1989; Lotto Cash April 30, 1990, first drawing May 5; Hoosier Lotto replacing Lotto Cash in September 1994.
- Hoosier Lottery news releases (2024–2026) — Indiana's first Powerball jackpot winner in 1992 and its national lead in Powerball jackpot wins.