Massachusetts Unveils Sweepstake to Clean up Non-winning Ticket Problem

BOSTON, Massachusetts – March 2, 2001 – As reported by the Associated Press: " Lottery players dream about how their lives would change if they won the big jackpot. But for the owners of stores littered with discarded losing tickets, the lottery can be a nightmare.

"Massachusetts state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien hopes to clean up those stores -- along with sidewalks, roads and bushes -- with a new drawing for people stuck with non-winning tickets.

"The `Clean Fun Sweepstakes' unveiled Thursday will give people who turn in $10 worth of losing tickets to a lottery vendor or by mail a chance to win up to $100,000 in `second chance' drawings.

"The anti-litter campaign opens the door for nonplayers, who could collect discarded tickets from bushes and sidewalks.

"…Hanna Paper Recycling Inc. plans to pay the state $50.78 per ton to recycle the losing tickets, turning them into pulp used in the manufacture of paper towels, cereal boxes and other paper products…"