Lottery hopes new game heats up

A new multi-state lottery game called “Hot Lotto” fires up with tickets going on sale tomorrow night. Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer says the game is similar to the popular “Powerball” game.Hot Lotto though has a jackpot that starts at one million dollars and uses a smaller pool of numbers, so the odds of winning the jackpot are better. The odds of winning in Hot Lotto are one-in-10-million, compared to one-in-80-million in Powerball. While the games are alike, Neubauer says the new game shouldn’t take players away from the old.She believes people will play both games and Hot Lotto will be something new to play. Hot Lotto replaces the “Rolldown” game used with “Powerball.” Players said they want a game in which they know the prize before they play, which Rolldown didn’t provide. The last Rolldown game is today. The Hot Lotto drawings will be on Wednesday nights right after Powerball drawings.