The Hoosier Lottery arrives — and seats its northern office in Mishawaka

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 authorized the lottery in May 1989, and the Hoosier Lottery's own history — its 35th-anniversary account, published October 11, 2024 — fixes the first sale exactly: the first ticket sale occurred on October 13, 1989. The first game was the scratch-off that shared its name with the television show, Hoosier Millionaire, which debuted October 28, 1989 and ran until the end of 2005. Tickets went on sale that October day in Mishawaka as everywhere else in Indiana. No source reached for this section — not the Lottery's anniversary history, not its news archive, not the Tribune record as searched — keeps a first-sale record for Mishawaka itself: no named first Mishawaka retailer, first Mishawaka ticket or first Mishawaka buyer is published. That absence is printed as a named gap: what is missing is a Mishawaka first-sale record; searches run were the Hoosier Lottery's published history and news releases and Tribune-targeted searches; the settling source would be the Tribune's October 1989 local coverage read in full and the Lottery's original 1989 retailer list, neither reached in published form.

The games stack up: The first draw game, Lotto Cash, began in the spring of 1990; Daily 3 and Daily 4 followed in July 1990; Indiana joined the multi-state game that became Powerball in April 1992; the flagship Hoosier Lotto replaced Lotto Cash in September 1994; Mega Millions tickets went on sale in Indiana on January 31, 2010. The Lottery's releases note, and repeat, that Indiana leads the nation in Powerball jackpot wins — a state distinction in which, as the articles below show, Mishawaka has no share: none of those jackpots was sold here.

The city's place in the state game is institutional, and it is the largest lottery fact Mishawaka owns: The Hoosier Lottery is headquartered in Indianapolis, and it keeps exactly three Prize Payment Centers — Indianapolis, Evansville, and Mishawaka. The North Region Prize Payment Center stands, as of November 2026, at 230 Red Coach Drive, Suite D, Mishawaka, IN 46545, open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern, on the Lottery's own contact and claim pages. The claim rules that run through that office are the game's working law in this city: prizes under $600 may be cashed at retailers; prizes of $600 to $49,999 may be redeemed by mail or at a Prize Payment Center, Mishawaka among them; prizes of $50,000 or more are claimed by appointment at headquarters in Indianapolis. Draw-game prizes must be claimed within 180 days of the drawing, scratch-off prizes within 180 days of the game's end, Fast Play prizes within 180 days of purchase. Every northern Indiana winner in the middle tier, from across the region, is therefore part of Mishawaka's lottery history in the clerical sense — they came here to be paid — even though the Lottery's published record does not break its claims down by payment office, and this fragment does not invent a count. The retail face of the game in the city is the ordinary one, documented in the Lottery's own retailer promotions: Mishawaka 7-Eleven stores at 601 North Main Street, 1329 East 12th Street, 1302 Milburn Boulevard, 112 East Catalpa Drive, 910 West Douglas Road and 117 West McKinley Avenue all appear as participating Hoosier Lottery retailers in the Lottery's 2022–2024 promotion lists, alongside the groceries and convenience stores named in the winner articles below — Kroger, Golo Food Mart, Mr. Fresh, DS Quick Stop and the rest. The Lottery's site map also carries a winner-era item titled “Celebrating 35 Years of Lottery Fun at 7-Eleven in Mishawaka!” — the title is the record reached; the article's text was not retrieved for this section, and no detail beyond its title is claimed here.

Sources:

1. Hoosier Lottery, “35 Years of Championing Hoosier Dreams” (October 11, 2024) — first ticket sale October 13, 1989; the 1988 referendum; more than $7.4 billion given back by October 2024.
2. Hoosier Lottery, claim and contact pages as published in November 2026 — the three Prize Payment Centers; North Region Prize Payment Center, 230 Red Coach Drive, Suite D, Mishawaka, IN 46545, hours as stated; the $600 / $49,999 / $50,000 claim tiers and the 180-day claim windows.
3. Hoosier Lottery retailer promotion lists (2022–2024) — the Mishawaka 7-Eleven addresses named above as participating retailers.
4. Hoosier Lottery game-history summaries, as carried in the South Bend companion leg — Lotto Cash, Daily 3 / Daily 4 (July 1990), Powerball (April 1992), Hoosier Lotto (September 1994), Mega Millions in Indiana (January 31, 2010).
5. Hoosier Lottery site map (crawled November 2026) — the title “Celebrating 35 Years of Lottery Fun at 7-Eleven in Mishawaka!”; title only, as stated.