BOISE, Idaho ÔÇô The Idaho Lottery has a special holiday weekend offer to kick-off the fifth week of sales for the $500,000 Spring Raffle. The "Five for Friday" offer is this Friday, May 28, 2010 and begins at 3:00 p.m. MT and runs for five hours until 7:55 p.m. MT (2:00 p.m. PT to 6:55 p.m. PT). During this five hour window, Lottery players will receive a free $1 Powerball ticket for every $5, $500,000 Spring Raffle ticket they purchase. The Powerball jackpot for Saturday night is $220 million. The offer has no limit on the number of Raffle tickets purchased.

"Our $500,000 Spring Raffle is all about the fives," said Idaho Lottery Director Jeff Anderson. "This five-hour offer highlights two of our more popular games just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend. In addition to having a chance at the big Powerball jackpot, players will also have their opportunity to win a half-million dollars in our Idaho-only $500,000 Raffle."

The $500,000 Spring Raffle went on sale on May 1 and plans to sell all 300,000 of the $5 tickets by the end of June. The winning amount is a guaranteed prize of $500,000. There are a total of 5,000 prizes in the game. In addition to the top prize, there are two hundred and fifty (250) $500 prizes, fifteen hundred (1,500) $50 prizes, and three thousand, two hundred and forty-nine (3,249) $25 prizes.

This game is not sold in any other state, however, players do not need to be Idaho residents to play or win. Individual tickets are issued sequentially from 000001 through 300000.

"We carried a similar offer to this one earlier in May that met with tremendous success," added Anderson. "When all the tickets for Raffle are sold, we will not issue anymore. When they're gone, they're gone."

The winning number announcement for the $500,000 Spring Raffle is set for June 30, 2010 at 5 p.m. Mountain Time.

"With a $220 million Powerball jackpot this weekend and a chance to play for a guaranteed $500,000 on our Spring Raffle, we are encouraging everyone to play responsibly," said Anderson.

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