8/15/2007 - 11:06 AM

The Louisiana Lottery Announces the end of sales for Cash Quest

The Louisiana Lottery announced today that it will be ending sales for Cash Quest in preparation for the launch of a new draw-style game, Easy 5, on Sept. 16.

The last day to purchase a Cash Quest multidraw ticket, good for up to 20 drawings, is Saturday, Aug. 18. Sales for Cash Quest, which can be played Tuesday through Saturday, will end at 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 15 with the final drawing to occur that evening.

"Market research indicates that players would prefer a game with Easy 5's simple, familiar play style and prize structure," said Lottery President Rose Hudson. "We're excited about adding a new jackpot game with great overall odds of winning a prize, and we believe our players will be, too." 

Easy 5's starting pari-mutuel cash jackpot will be $50,000, which will grow after each drawing until it is won by matching five numbers in a field of 1 through 37.  The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 435,897. Prizes can be won by matching as few as two numbers, and the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 8.

The first Easy 5 drawing will occur Sept. 19, with subsequent drawings every Wednesday and Saturday evening, like Powerball and Lotto, the Lottery's other two draw-style jackpot games.

With the launch of Easy 5, the Lottery will also unveil an instant-win feature, ezmatch, available as an add-on for an additional $1.  The ezmatch option will give players the chance to win up to $250 instantly on their Easy 5 ticket and will be available for a limited time.

The Lottery launched Cash Quest in October 1998. Sales for the game were $4.2 million during fiscal year 2007, or about 1.4 percent of the Lottery's total sales.

Players must be at least 21 years of age to purchase a Lottery ticket.  The Lottery encourages anyone who has a gambling problem or friends and family of anyone with a gambling problem to call toll-free 1-877-770-7867 for help.