Jackpots, Pork Roll & Jersey Pride with Jim Carey of the NJ Lottery

On this episode of Greetings from the Garden State, host Mike Ham takes the show on the road to the New Jersey Lottery headquarters for a deep-dive conversation with Executive Director Jim Carey. Powered by the New Jersey Lottery, this episode explores the games, events, and community impact of one of the state's most recognizable institutions.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• The story of how Jim Carey and Mike discovered their mutual connection to local legend Johnny Pork Roll
• Behind the scenes of the Million Dollar Replay event, including how second-chance entries work and what it’s like to hand out over $1.3 million in prizes
• Highlighting March as Problem Gambling Awareness Month and the lottery’s work with the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey
• New games for 2025, including the Jersey Giant scratch-off featuring Shaquille O’Neal and the summer release of the Shore Thing series
• How the lottery uses Jersey culture—from pork roll to Parkway exits—to create fun, locally themed experiences
• Second-chance travel promotions like the Hard Rock Resorts giveaway
• Details on the upcoming change to Mega Millions, moving from $2 to $5 and offering bigger jackpots and improved second-tier prizes
• The importance of retailers and how the lottery balances tradition with digital expansion
• How the New Jersey Lottery contributes to the state pension system, with a major focus on supporting teachers
• A look at the history of the NJ Lottery, from old ball machines to its location on a former Negro League baseball field

Key Quotes:
“People from New Jersey are able to laugh at themselves—and then win a million dollars while they’re at it.” – Jim Carey
“The lottery’s biggest expense is paying prizes. More than 55 percent of revenue goes back to players.”
“Everybody knows Shaq’s from Jersey. Well… everybody here, anyway.”

Want to Play or Learn More?

• Visit your local retailer to grab a ticket
• Check out njlottery.com for game info, promotions, and responsible gaming tools
• Join the free VIP Club through the app to access second-chance drawings like Million Dollar Replay

Resources Mentioned:

• NJ Lottery VIP Club
• Council on Compulsive Gambling of NJ – 1-800-GAMBLER
• Mayo Performing Arts Center

Episode Sponsor:
This episode is powered by the New Jersey Lottery. Must be 18 or older to play. Please play responsibly.

Hosted by: Mike Ham
Recorded at: New Jersey Lottery Headquarters
Produced by: Greetings from the Garden State

Subscribe, leave a review, and share the show to help us keep highlighting the people and stories that make New Jersey special.

Transcript

Jim Carrey [0:00 - 0:00]: Foreign. 

Mike Ham [0:20 - 0:29]: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Greetings from the Garden State, powered by the New Jersey Lottery. Fun thing for us. We're here at the New Jersey Lottery headquarters. Right? 

Jim Carrey [0:30 - 0:30]: Headquarters. 

Mike Ham [0:31 - 0:44]: Love it. There's a lot of really cool old games and picker things. I want to talk about that, too. Cause that just blew my mind. I thought that was so cool. But we're here with the executive director of the New Jersey Lottery, Jim Carrey. Jim, welcome to the show. 

Jim Carrey [0:44 - 0:45]: Thanks for having me, Mike. 

Mike Ham [0:45 - 0:53]: Absolutely. So I thought it was hilarious because we were at Million Dollar Replay. Was that two weeks ago now? 

Jim Carrey [0:53 - 0:54]: About two weeks ago, yeah. 

Mike Ham [0:54 - 0:57]: And we realized that we have a mutual friend, Johnny Porkrell. 

Jim Carrey [0:57 - 0:58]: Johnny Porkrell. 

Mike Ham [0:58 - 1:03]: I mean, I feel like he's everybody's friend, but you know him, like, from. From way back. 

Jim Carrey [1:03 - 1:16]: So I went to high school with him. Yeah. He lived down the street from me at the Jersey Shore. We Both went to St. Rose High School in Belmar, where my son goes now. I had a lot of fun. I pumped gas with him. Sure. In Red bank in Spring Lake Heights. 

Mike Ham [1:16 - 1:16]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [1:16 - 1:23]: So I've known John for years. I used to listen to him on whtj. So character, a lot of fun. Makes great pork roll. 

Mike Ham [1:23 - 1:35]: Yeah, a great pork roll. And I can only imagine, like, I know Johnny pretty well now. I can only imagine him when he was, like, a kid and, like, trying to figure out the world. Cause I feel like it's probably pretty similar, but, you know, he's the best. 

Jim Carrey [1:35 - 1:45]: Yeah, he showed up the first time I met him. He showed up at my house and he had his hair all spiked, and he'd put Vaseline in it, so it was standing up straight. So he was a character when he was 14, and he's a character now. 

Mike Ham [1:45 - 2:15]: Yeah, I love that. So. But I do want to also, because we talked about that at Million Dollar Replay, and that was just such a funny thing. It's like a busy day for you. And then we got a chance to just kind of chat a little bit, which, the first time we did that, we had no time to chat. And we did a quick interview at the end and didn't get to really, like, know you much. But this Million Dollar Replay I thought was phenomenal. We got a lot of winners in the house, including the Million Dollar Winner, which was great to see. So, success, right, for you guys? 

Jim Carrey [2:15 - 2:47]: A big success. It's a big success every year. Million Dollar Replay is a program that the lottery runs to do something, give something back to our most dedicated players. People can take non Winning scratch off tickets, they join our VIP club and then they can use the app to enter those. To use those non winning scratch offs as a way to enter a second chance drawing. We gave away a million dollar grand prize, but we had, I want to say 13 other top tier prizes ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. 

Mike Ham [2:48 - 2:51]: And was it like, it comes out to like, was it 1.5 million that you. 

Jim Carrey [2:51 - 2:52]: I think it was 1.3 million, 1.3. 

Mike Ham [2:52 - 2:53]: Million that you give out over the week. 

Jim Carrey [2:53 - 3:31]: So tons of prizes, a lot of $10,000 prizes, $20,000 prize, $50,000 prizes, $100,000 prizes. And the million dollar one. Yeah, we have a party. We had 250 or so of the 400 finalists in the contest. For the people that actually go to the party, you can win the million dollar prize and not be at the party. But for the people that actually go to the party, we have door prizes and the door prizes are $1,000. We gave away some gift baskets filled up with like grills and beach supplies and scratch offs. I think the thousand dollar prizes are the most popular. 

Mike Ham [3:31 - 4:22]: Oh well, for sure. Cause you know, boom, right there. You know, I think it's cool too because it's like the people that we got a chance to talk to. Cause we did get a chance to talk to players both years and how excited they are just to be there. Even if they're not the one that's actually there for, you know, they're not one of the actual 400 people that could win that million dollars. They're there as like a guest of a, of a player. Which I think is great because it just, it shows that, you know, the, it's a family affair. In some cases, people like make a trip out of it and they all have fun. They're all engaging with the stuff that you do and spinning the big wheel, the prize wheel, getting a T shirt or you know, having a chance to do whatever and eat lunch with people. And I think it's just a cool way to kind of like bring a lot of players together from different parts of the state. And to me, that's my favorite part is just being able to engage with different communities of New Jersey, which is awesome. 

Jim Carrey [4:22 - 5:08]: Well, it's lots of fun for that. It's lots of fun when we see somebody from Gloucester county or Cumberland county winning because we always hear how come people in North Jersey win all the big prizes. And so we've seen a couple of Cumberland winners, a couple of Gloucester winners. It's a lot of fun. Because it's a live drawing with the actual ping pong balls. We don't use. I don't. We do use some ping pong balls. Million Dollar replay, but it is a live drawing. We've got a big tumbler with 400 balls in that with everybody's name inside of it. Then we've got a ping pong ball machine putting all those balls in order when we do the selection of the final winner. So there's a lot of moving pieces, there's a lot of people, and it ends up being a lot of fun. We also get a ton of viewers on social media, so it's a great event every single year. We have a ton of fun with it. 

Mike Ham [5:08 - 5:29]: Yeah. And I think it was also interesting for me because March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month. Correct? That's the correct term. Yeah. This year you had the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey in the house for that event, which I thought was cool. We got a chance to speak with Jake. If I mess that up, I'm just gonna edit right over Jake's name and say what? 

Jim Carrey [5:29 - 5:29]: Jake Alaskowicz? 

Mike Ham [5:30 - 5:50]: Yes. We had Jake there and he came over and chatted with us a little bit about just how people can engage with gambling and, you know, do it in a safe and responsible way, which obviously is an important thing for any outlet that is providing a service of gambling and all that to, you know, people. Right. So, I mean, that must have been important to have them there. 

Jim Carrey [5:51 - 7:11]: So it's crucial for the New Jersey Lottery to take responsible gambling seriously. And we do. We offer a gambling product, and gambling products for the vast majority of the population are a lot of fun. That's all it is. That's all it should be, is a fun game. There are some people out there that end up developing a problem gambling, and we don't want to take advantage of them. We want to offer them opportunities to get some help if they need that. The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey has been a partner with the New Jersey Lottery for years. I actually sit on their board of directors. We do a lot of work with them. We do announcements every year during Problem Gambling Awareness Month, reminding people that the council is out there and can offer help. We work with them before school starts every year in September, reminding people that you have to be 18 to play the lottery. And one of our most important responsible gambling campaigns is every year during the holidays. We remind people, don't gift lottery tickets to kids. Not a good idea. We laugh, but people love to do it. And it's, it's not a great idea. The council has a helpline number, 1-800-Gambler. If you or someone you know has a problem with gambling or you even worry that they might have a problem with gambling, you can give them a call and they can give you resources to help that person. 

Mike Ham [7:11 - 7:23]: Yeah. Which is great. And you know, obviously, like, it's something like you want to provide fun and entertainment for people, but you want to make sure that you're, you know, protecting them. Maybe not protecting isn't the right word. 

Jim Carrey [7:24 - 7:24]: Doing it the right way. 

Mike Ham [7:24 - 8:02]: Doing it the right way, exactly. And I think that that's really important. And it was cool to see, you know, Jake and you know, the council there at the Million Dollar Replay. So the reap, the million dollar replay was a great event. But 2025 has been, I mean, we're recording this at the end of March. It's going to come out April 1st. It's been a big year already for the New Jersey Lottery. Like some new games, some new scratch off tickets, some new games people can play. Obviously the Million Dollar Replay event at the time of this recording, it hasn't happened yet, but it will have happened. The Rock, Paper Scissors event at American Dream. So there's a lot of really cool things going on with the lottery right now, isn't there? 

Jim Carrey [8:02 - 8:05]: There's loads of cool things. There's always cool things going on with. 

Mike Ham [8:05 - 8:05]: The lottery, of course. Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [8:05 - 8:38]: I mean, the first for 2025, we had a new ticket, the Jersey giant. It's a $2 scratch off ticket featuring New Jersey native Shaquille O'Neal. Like I was saying before we started, everybody in New Jersey, I think, knows that Shaquille O'Neal is from New Jersey, that he was born and raised in Newark. People outside of the state don't really know that, but people in New Jersey know that. And over the past couple of years, we have tried to take a New Jersey centric approach to some of our games. Like we talked about with Johnny Pork Roll, we had a pork roll themed ticket. 

Mike Ham [8:38 - 8:39]: I love this one. 

Jim Carrey [8:39 - 9:08]: If people outside of New Jersey don't know that Shaq is from New Jersey, they really don't know what Pork Roll is exactly. Baffled. So I'd be talking to lottery directors from Colorado or California and they'd be like, you made a scratch off ticket out of a breakfast meat. And we'd be like, yeah. And it's really popular in New Jersey. They didn't know what it was. They didn't know what you do with it. And I had to explain it to them. I think we were shocked and baffled that we did not win the best new scratch off ticket of the year. 

Mike Ham [9:08 - 9:14]: I'm shocked and baffled too. It's because they're like, what the hell is this? You know what I mean? They're like, what does this mean? You know? 

Jim Carrey [9:14 - 9:22]: So I think that we should have. What we should have done is we should have made a video with me cooking pork roll egg and cheeses for all of these other lottery directors. 

Mike Ham [9:22 - 9:28]: It's as if you wish that you knew someone that basically built his whole life around pork roll. 

Jim Carrey [9:28 - 9:35]: And then we find out and remember that I do know somebody built his whole life around pork roll. And I can totally understand building a life around pork roll. 

Mike Ham [9:35 - 9:41]: Sure. No, listen, I am jealous of him like every day of my life. Really. Cause he's like my spirit animal. 

Jim Carrey [9:42 - 9:42]: A Jersey treasure. 

Mike Ham [9:42 - 10:10]: Exactly. He really is a Jersey treasure. So there's also some things going on too with. I know we wanted to talk about the Hard Rock Resorts stuff that you guys do too. Because I feel like that's something that people sleep on sometimes. Cause like they know all the things like the games, the Powerball Mega Millions, the scratch offs, all that. But this is another opportunity for people to engage with the lottery in a different way, sort of and still win some cool things. 

Jim Carrey [10:10 - 10:48]: So it's a promotion that we're running. We have have a game called fast play progressive. One particular game, $10 Rocking Riches can be used just like million dollar replay to enter into a second chance drawing. The prizes for the second chance drawing are a five night Hard Rock all inclusive. Stay. You can choose between Punta Cana, Riviera, Maya, Cancun, Los Cabos or Puerto Vallarta. We pay for round trip airfare and airport transfers. We help with pick passport services. Thousand dollars spending cash. That promotion is open between now and May 11th. And we'll be selecting five winners for that. 

Mike Ham [10:48 - 11:04]: Yeah. And that's a cool. There's been. I remember last year and I forget where they went. I should have listened to the episode of My ride down here. But that's my bad. But they won a trip. I think it was like to the Super Bowl. Well, yeah, it was the Super Bowl. It might have been the super bowl. 

Jim Carrey [11:04 - 11:06]: That was with Quick Draw, but that. 

Mike Ham [11:06 - 11:14]: Was this Super Bowl. The one that just happened. Right. So this is last year, last million dollar replay. Someone was saying that they won a cruise or something. 

Jim Carrey [11:15 - 11:17]: Power cruise years ago. 

Mike Ham [11:17 - 11:17]: Yeah, yeah. 

Jim Carrey [11:17 - 11:19]: And that was. That predates me. 

Mike Ham [11:19 - 11:31]: Yeah. And I was like, I didn't Even know that the lottery did stuff like that. Like, I just thought it was like you win money and like that's it. But I feel like it's a cool thing to kind of add in different ways that you could engage and win and play. 

Jim Carrey [11:31 - 11:51]: There's all sorts of different ways that you can engage people and win. A lot of lotteries do out of state trips, as second chance drawings or as other types of promotions. We have found in New Jersey that lottery players in New Jersey are kind of old fashioned. They like ping pong balls and they like cash. Yeah. I mean, so that's, we all like cash. 

Mike Ham [11:52 - 12:21]: So there's a lot of these big things that we're talking about. I do also because it's, you know, something that's coming that will happen next week I think is the increase from $2 to $5 on the mega Millions ticket, which I know at first glance people are like what? And they don't really understand all the benefits that people get off of that increase. But there are a lot of benefits and there are a lot of positives around how Mega Millions be restructured a little bit. Right. 

Jim Carrey [12:21 - 13:15]: Well, the biggest positive, and this is the reality with Mega Millions, is people play to win a large amount of money and they're most excited when there's a big jackpot. Today the jackpot for mega millions is $20 million because somebody won it just the other night in Illinois and they won a $300 million jackpot. And that's a huge number. But now we're back at $20 million. And while I certainly would be happy winning $20 million, me too. I think that that would be incredibly life changing. A lot of people wait to play lottery games until they see a number like 500 million or 700 million or even a billion dollars. And by changing the Mega Millions game a little bit, we hope to drive up sales so that jackpots rise quicker and there are bigger and more frequent jackpots for the game that will attract people to the game to play it. 

Mike Ham [13:15 - 13:15]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [13:15 - 13:28]: So we're excited for it. There's some real important changes. Starting jackpots are going to go to $50 million. That matters. The odds of winning will drop slightly from. I'm going to have to look at my notes. 

Mike Ham [13:28 - 13:29]: Yeah, yeah, go for it. 

Jim Carrey [13:29 - 13:33]: From 1 in 302 million to 1 in 292 million. 

Mike Ham [13:35 - 13:37]: One of the significant increase, right? 

Jim Carrey [13:37 - 14:51]: Well, it's a significant decrease. And the odds are still huge. The odds are still huge, of course, but New Jersey punches above our weight in terms of Mega Million salespeople in New Jersey buy more Mega Millions tickets per capita than just about here anywhere else in the country. And we really punch above our weight in the number of winners. So in the six years that I've been the director of the New Jersey Lottery, I want to say that we've had at least five, maybe six or even seven people who have won Powerball or Mega Millions during that period. In that same period of time, the Georgia Lottery has had one player win Powerball or Mega Millions. So we've done really well with winners. But even better is every year we have about 10 or 20 people win the second prize in Powerball or Mega Millions. And people don't realize the second prize for Powerball and Mega Millions. Second prize in Mega Millions is a million dollars in the current game. And with the changes, every ticket's gonna have a multiplier. So that second prize is going to increase to at least $2 million. But it could also be three or four or even $10 million. And like I said, we see about 10 of those a year. So we're excited to see a lot of big winners in New Jersey from the changes in the game. 

Mike Ham [14:51 - 15:19]: Yeah. The Mayo Performing Arts center is the heart of arts and Entertainment in Morristown, New Jersey. MPAC presents over 200 events annually and is home to an innovative children's arts education program. To see MPAC's upcoming schedule of world class concerts, stand up comedy, family shows and more, head to mayoarts.org or just click the link in our show notes. Maybe you know this or not, but I feel like mega millions at $2. When was the last time that changed? Like prior to now? Must have been a while ago. 

Jim Carrey [15:19 - 15:29]: It changed between 2013 and 2017. There was a change before I got here. What happens is people get used to lottery games. 

Mike Ham [15:29 - 15:29]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [15:29 - 16:17]: And so Powerball and Mega Millions were established in the early part of this century, late 1990s. They were multi state games, which hadn't happened before. Some of the smaller states got tired of having to compete with bigger states, so they created Powerball. Then Mega Millions was created and you had these two giant games that were working across the country. And after about 10 or 12 years, things were starting to get a little bit slow and the games weren't as interesting to people anymore. And so they made some changes. They made it harder to win and they made the odds much higher. And what we saw were $500 million jackpots, $700 million jackpots. And then around 2018, when I got here, it was One of the first billion dollar jackpots. And that made things really go crazy with mega millions. 

Mike Ham [16:18 - 16:43]: Yeah. I did want to ask about the billion dollar jackpot because when I think that ticket was sold like a week or two after million dollar replay last year, and that was the first time that I met you and I met Missy and some of the other members of the team and just knowing how crazy that made everything because you started to see that number climb and climb. And I think by the time we did MDR, it was like in the 900 million range, somewhere in there. 

Jim Carrey [16:43 - 16:43]: Okay. 

Mike Ham [16:43 - 16:54]: But just like a billion dollars. It's like Dr. Evil level, like a billion. You know what I mean? Like, it's crazy to think that someone won a billion dollars here in New Jersey. 

Jim Carrey [16:54 - 17:31]: It was thrilling. Yeah, it really was. And at the same time, I've met people that have won $20 million. I've met a couple of people that have won $100 million. I met a couple of people that won $200 million. It's an extraordinary amount of money and it requires extraordinary luck to win that. The odds are 1 in 300 million. But people around the country do win the lottery and they live happily ever after. They get to remain anonymous now in New Jersey, so you don't have to tell your friends and your family that you've won $100 million. And I think everybody that has won a big lottery prize has chosen or remain anonymous. 

Mike Ham [17:32 - 17:33]: I get that. 

Jim Carrey [17:33 - 17:33]: I get it too. 

Mike Ham [17:34 - 18:06]: Yeah. But I think it also is important to note too, and we're talking about all these prizes and how New Jersey punches above its weight and winners and all that the lottery is designed for people to win. You gotta play, you gotta be in it to win it, all that kind of stuff. But there are prizes everywhere. It's not just the billion dollar prize or the $500 million prize. There's prizes across the board at various levels on different games. I mean, that's a big piece of what the lottery does. 

Jim Carrey [18:06 - 18:58]: So if you were to look, if you think of the New Jersey lottery as a business, and we are a business, and we have an income statement like any other business. And the biggest expense every year of the New Jersey lottery is prizes that we pay to our players. And more than 55% of the money that comes into the lottery goes back to players as prizes. Our second biggest expense is commissions that we pay to retailers. So every retailer earns 5 cents on every dollar in tickets they sell. They also earn about 1.2 cents for every dollar in tickets they cash. Because of course, you can cash a winning ticket at any retailer and get cash right there that day up to $600. So we pay our retailers commissions, and that's a big part of it. You know, I don't know that the lottery is designed to win, designed to. 

Mike Ham [18:59 - 19:05]: Play, but with the chance to win. With the chance to win. That's a better way to say it. 

Jim Carrey [19:05 - 19:07]: It's supposed to be a fun game. 

Mike Ham [19:07 - 19:07]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [19:11 - 19:14]: You do have to buy a ticket to have a chance at winning. 

Mike Ham [19:14 - 19:14]: Right. 

Jim Carrey [19:14 - 19:35]: If you don't like it, you don't have to buy a ticket if, you know, if. If. So that is important to understand. But we have a lot of fun with the lottery. I loved playing the lottery before I got here. I'm not allowed to play it now, which is probably a good thing. Sure. But I loved it when I was before I got here. 

Mike Ham [19:35 - 20:22]: Yeah. So I do want to also just touch on something quickly, briefly, that you had mentioned there. But retailers are obviously like a major piece of what the lottery does. You know, like you walk into any gas station, convenience store, what have you. You see the, you know, the numbers in the window, you can buy whatever game you want to play. They're obviously important. And then how do you balance kind of like the coming into, like, of age with online sales and different things like that and being able to offer things to people faster and, you know, a little bit more technological, technologically advanced, I guess, but also maintain and, you know, support those relationships that you have with retailers who are obviously a major piece of what the lottery does. 

Jim Carrey [20:22 - 21:31]: So retailers are our most important partner. We've got over 6,500 retailers selling lottery tickets in the state of New Jersey. They are essential to our success. At the same time, we want to keep growing the lottery. We've been growing, you know, at. We're more than 50 years old. We're the third oldest lottery in the country. We want to keep growing the lottery. And if we want to keep growing the lottery, we've got to look and try and attract younger players. And when I think of what I mean by younger players, I mean somebody that's older than 25 and younger than 35 is a younger player to us. And younger people have spent their lives doing everything on their phone. And so in some ways we've got to adjust. So we're looking at, and exploring, doing online sales. We want to do it in a way that will benefit all of our retailers. That will be a win win not only for the lottery, but for our retailers and for our players. But we have to realize is that, you know, you gotta be where players are and a lot of younger people are on their phone. 

Mike Ham [21:31 - 22:05]: Right. And I think it also kind of touches back too a little bit on as you're exploring ways to do that. That has a positive impact on everybody, but also falls under the line of responsible gaming too, because sports betting apps, for example, you can make bets all day on games. If you're buying lottery tickets now all day because they're just so easy to access. Obviously that's something that you want to avoid, but it's striking that balance. Make sure that you're growing and continuing to grow, but also giving people a fun thing to play responsibly. 

Jim Carrey [22:07 - 22:30]: Online sales can create better opportunities for responsible play because then you have to know who your player is, know your customer, and you can see bad habits developing and you can say, well, maybe this is a problem and we should do something about it. Maybe this we should recommend. Well, I don't want to say recommendations. Maybe this player wants to exclude themselves from doing it. 

Mike Ham [22:30 - 22:30]: Sure. 

Jim Carrey [22:30 - 22:58]: Whereas right now playing the lottery is a very anonymous experience. You can go into any one of 6,500 retailers and if you're 18 or older, you can buy a ticket right there. Requires a little bit of effort. You've got to get up and go to a store to do it, but it is done anonymously. And responsible gaming, when we know who you are and when you're on the Internet, you can take responsible gaming to a slightly different level and add and enhance that approach that we have. 

Mike Ham [22:58 - 23:19]: Yeah, that's a really good point too. Okay. We talked about some of the things that have already gone on events, games that have come out already, but there's some more stuff coming this spring, this summer. I know last year we had the it's a Jersey thing scratch offs. We have another one coming this summer. Right. 

Jim Carrey [23:19 - 23:21]: We're doing this summer. We're doing sure Thing tickets. 

Mike Ham [23:21 - 23:22]: Love it. 

Jim Carrey [23:22 - 23:33]: So last summer we had Jersey thing tickets and we had various Jersey themed things like what's your exit? And a down the shore ticket. 

Mike Ham [23:33 - 23:34]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [23:34 - 23:53]: So that was a lot of fun. This year we're doing strictly a shore thing. The Jersey Shore. Where I'm from, where I'm born and raised, is a huge part of New Jersey. And so we want to push that a little bit and have a little bit of fun with that. Our promotions team will be out all summer. They're scratch off tickets. They're a lot of fun, but they're Jersey themed and we think people like that. And have some fun with it. 

Mike Ham [23:53 - 24:01]: Yeah. Is it? I mean, it's gotta be kind of cool and interesting because, like, as a Jersey guy, as, you know, a lifelong Jersey guy, I take it, right? 

Jim Carrey [24:01 - 24:01]: Yep. 

Mike Ham [24:01 - 24:46]: Yeah. To be the executive director of the New Jersey Lottery, but then to also do stuff like this, like, I mean, this is cool. Like the pork roll ticket or the Jersey thing ticket or a shore thing ticket, and be able to kind of tie back into, like, those Jersey roots that you have and, like, stuff that is like. So, I mean, I know this because I am the same way. Like, I've lived here pretty much my whole life and am born and raised here, but, you know, know now, especially doing this show, a lot about the state and then to just like, take that and kind of put it into something that people can play and engage with and like, in some cases, like, learn about stuff. Like, if they didn't know Shaq was from Newark, that's something that they just learned, you know, like, different. Different ways to kind of engage people and get them playing and having some fun. 

Jim Carrey [24:46 - 24:55]: Yeah. New Jersey is the greatest place. It's completely different. I think there's a Jersey attitude. 

Mike Ham [24:55 - 24:56]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [24:56 - 25:05]: And we have a lot of fun with it. I think people from New Jersey are able to laugh at themselves and know, you know, we've got all these great things. There's all these great reasons to live here. 

Mike Ham [25:05 - 25:05]: Right. 

Jim Carrey [25:05 - 25:28]: It's fun. People are genuinely nice. People want to be a part of a community. And we've got this great community in New Jersey, and then we get to do something silly and fun like have a pork roll themed ticket. Because nobody else outside of New J. Jersey still doesn't know what pork roll is. We could talk about it all day and go on the news and talk about pork roll, and people aren't going to try it, they aren't going to eat it, and they're going to be missing out. 

Mike Ham [25:28 - 25:52]: Right. I got to ask you, so six years as executive director of the lottery, do you have a particular favorite game? Was it the pork roll one where you were just like, this is the coolest thing we've ever done or just something that really struck home with you personally? I know it's a hard question, and we didn't prepare for that one, so I'm putting you on the spot. 

Jim Carrey [25:54 - 27:04]: Okay. So I Love Jersey Cash 5. Jersey Cash 5 is a daily jackpot game. The jackpots started at $150,000. They have gone as high as $2.5 million in the last year. Jersey Cash 5, to me, is Interesting, because when I got here, Jackpots started at $75,000 and would go up to about 350, $500,000. We doubled the price and we raised the price from $1 to $2. And what it did was we created bigger jackpots. And that's, again, what people want. We didn't raise the price because we wanted to make more money and we wanted to, you know, or because of inflation. We did it because we wanted to see bigger jackpots. And bigger jackpots leads to more sales. And what I love About Jersey Cash 5 is that every week somebody in New Jersey WINS at least $150,000 from that game. And in most weeks, people win $350,000 or $500,000. And every couple of months, somebody wins more than a million. So I have a lot of fun with that game because it's a great game. That's actually people from New Jersey win it every week. 

Mike Ham [27:04 - 27:24]: Yeah, I love that. And I think it's also cool. And I was mentioning this to Dean. Shout out Dean. As we were walking through. So, like, I love, like, that's why I like Iceberg park, because I love, like, old architecture, I love old signs. I love old stuff like that. And to see the different, like, ball. What do you call the ball hopper thing? 

Jim Carrey [27:24 - 27:25]: So. So ball machines. 

Mike Ham [27:26 - 28:00]: Ball machines. All right. Yeah. Very high tech name. But like, to see all the old ones, like the one in the lobby, that's from the 25th anniversary, which was 25 years ago, that was used to pick numbers. And I think that that is so cool. And it was like, cool to see as I was walking around a little bit, and even right outside here, there's like some old scratch off games. I don't know how old some of those are, but some of them looked. They're really pretty old. I saw like a baseball one that I thought was cool. I mean, it's just like the history of the New Jersey lottery is really interesting and fun. And, you know, I just think it's like a cool. A cool thing that I got to experience as I walked through here. 

Jim Carrey [28:00 - 28:18]: Well, the first thing you have to understand is, so we're a government agency, and we were listening to the radio one day, and the guys at New Jersey 101.5 were like, what's it like if you win the lottery? And they know that we're part of the government and they're saying, is it no fun at all? Is it just, you know, come in and cash your ticket? 

Mike Ham [28:18 - 28:22]: Yeah, I walked in, I was like, this is where you guys keep all the money, isn't it? You know, like. 

Jim Carrey [28:22 - 28:25]: Well, well, no, we don't keep any money here. There's no money here. 

Mike Ham [28:25 - 28:25]: There's no money. 

Jim Carrey [28:25 - 28:29]: You cannot come here and cash a ticket. You can come here and drop a winning ticket off. 

Mike Ham [28:29 - 28:30]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [28:30 - 29:19]: But it will take us two to three weeks to pay the claim. We do not cash tickets here, but people do drop off tickets here. We receive about 4,000 claims a month in the mail, and people mail million dollar tickets to us, and they show up one time, and it takes us three to four weeks to pay a claim. We're working to improve that. But people do come here when they win big prizes, and we want to make sure that we show them a good time. We want to have a little bit of fun with them. So one of the things that we did over the past couple of years was as we were decorating the building, we started taking old ball machines that we had retired and were using as a backup, or they had been retired even from being a backup. And we put them out in our lobby so that people could see them and have a little bit of fun and know our history. 

Mike Ham [29:19 - 29:21]: Yeah, I think that's so cool. 

Jim Carrey [29:21 - 29:36]: Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And in our history, you know, it goes way back. And again, you want to talk, you know, you just want to talk Jersey, and I know you're a baseball player, but we're on the site of an old Negro leagues field. So that's where the New Jersey Lottery's headquarters is. Yeah. 

Mike Ham [29:36 - 29:36]: Oh, interesting. 

Jim Carrey [29:36 - 29:39]: I didn't realize that was it Willie Mays that played here. 

Mike Ham [29:40 - 29:40]: That's cool. 

Jim Carrey [29:41 - 29:49]: So, you know, this is. It's a great location. We're a part of New Jersey, and like I said, we're the third oldest lottery in the United States, so we've been a big part of it and we have some fun. 

Mike Ham [29:49 - 29:54]: Yeah. Awesome. I'm gonna take a quick pause. Did we hit everything that we were supposed to hit today? 

Jim Carrey [29:54 - 29:56]: We want to talk about our contribution. 

Mike Ham [29:56 - 29:57]: Contribution? 

Jim Carrey [29:57 - 30:00]: Yeah, for where our profits go. 

Mike Ham [30:00 - 30:08]: Okay. I don't know if you want to segue just general purpose of lottery in. 

Jim Carrey [30:08 - 30:11]: The first place or anything like that. Don't say general purpose. Yeah. 

Mike Ham [30:11 - 30:20]: Mike, you can come in. Sorry, sorry. No, I didn't want to saw you standing out there. Yeah, yeah. What's up? Contribution. 

Jim Carrey [30:21 - 30:28]: You know, we badgered Matt into getting us these tickets, and it he's not paying attention anymore, he's like, I gotta. 

Mike Ham [30:28 - 30:32]: Get out of here before they ask me to do something. Else. Okay. 

Jim Carrey [30:32 - 30:37]: So we're required by law, obviously, we have a profit. 

Mike Ham [30:37 - 30:38]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [30:38 - 30:55]: We're required by law to take 30% of all of our revenue. Every dollar in revenue. 30%. And it is dedicated to the state pension system. And 88% of that goes through the teacher's pension, consistent with our, you know, original direction to support education and institutions. 

Mike Ham [30:55 - 31:01]: Got it. Okay. Has that. How long has that been the case? Since. 

Jim Carrey [31:01 - 31:07]: So we have been part of the. We have been an asset of the pension system since 2017. 

Mike Ham [31:07 - 31:14]: Okay. All right. Just thinking of, like, the best way to kind of go from where we were into. 

Jim Carrey [31:14 - 31:19]: I mean, you say, you know, talked about an income statement before where, you know, your business, where do the profits go? 

Mike Ham [31:20 - 31:27]: Okay, cool. And then that's it. That's all the stuff that we wanted to hit. I'm proud of that. I think we hit pretty much everything. 

Jim Carrey [31:27 - 31:28]: Yep. I think so. 

Mike Ham [31:28 - 31:33]: Yeah. I think this is. I mean, this has been going great. So. All right. 

Jim Carrey [31:38 - 31:41]: Who, Michael? Yeah. 

Mike Ham [31:41 - 31:43]: So many Michaels. Jesus. 

Jim Carrey [31:44 - 31:48]: And baseball players. Poor crow lovers. I mean, it all blends in at a certain point. 

Mike Ham [31:48 - 32:10]: All right, here we go. Okay. So the third oldest lottery we mentioned, too, before about how, you know, income statements and all that kind of stuff. I do know also that, you know, there's contributions to the pension fund that the lottery makes, and it's a big part of. We talk about communities, and I feel like that's a big part of the community as well. Right. 

Jim Carrey [32:10 - 32:58]: Yeah, it is. So think of the lottery as a business. We turn a profit. By law, we are required to contribute 30% of every dollar in revenue to the state to support education and institutions. In 2017, the legislature enacted the Lottery Enterprise Contribution act, signed by Governor Christie, which made the lottery a part of the New Jersey pension system. So now we're an asset of the pension system. So our money goes to support pensions. 88% of that goes to support teacher pensions. It is, I think, a great initiative. Teachers have worked for years, dedicated their careers to helping kids in New Jersey, and we get to be a crucial part of what they do and the promises that have been made to them. 

Mike Ham [32:58 - 33:13]: Yeah, and I think that's a cool thing, too, because we talked about, you know, being part of a New Jersey community for your whole life. Me, too. I think that that's a great, you know, kind of piece of this that should be talked about more. You know, my mother was a teacher. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

Jim Carrey [33:13 - 33:15]: In public schools. She loved it. She spent her entire career there. 

Mike Ham [33:15 - 33:16]: Yeah. 

Jim Carrey [33:16 - 33:20]: And to be a part of that for her means Something to me. 

Mike Ham [33:20 - 33:46]: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Well, this has been amazing and I appreciate you giving me some time and sharing some stories and both on and off mic. I appreciate it. And, you know, obviously I've. I told you this last year, but the relationship that I have with the lottery now is like, literally changed my life in just, you know, its own way. So I'm very thankful to everybody here for that. So thank you for having me here. Great. 

Jim Carrey [33:46 - 33:49]: Thank you for coming. Thank you for supporting the New Jersey Lottery. We appreciate it. 

Mike Ham [33:50 - 34:03]: Absolutely. So if there's places you would want to send people to learn more, or maybe not learn more, but to play, what would you encourage them to do? Go visit their local retailer? Go to the website. Where would you send them if you. 

Jim Carrey [34:03 - 34:22]: Want to play the lottery? Go to any convenience store in New Jersey and they're probably selling lottery tickets. If you want to learn about the lottery, check out our webpage. We love it. We think it's a lot of fun. We think it's informative. If you want to be a part of MDR Million Dollar Replay, check out our app and become a member of our VIP club. 

Mike Ham [34:22 - 34:47]: Which is free, right? Yeah, VIP club free. There's not a lot of VIP areas you can get into for free. So we appreciate that. So I'll make sure I put all the links and stuff like that in the show notes. People just go, click, download the app, whatever. Again, thank you for having me here today. And this has been the Greetings from the Garden State podcast powered by the New Jersey Lottery. We were here at the New Jersey Lottery headquarters with executive director Jim Carrey. I'm Mike Hamm. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time. 

Jim Carrey [34:47 - 34:48]: Thank you, Mike. 

Mike Ham [34:48 - 35:04]: Do you wanna lie? You do all my baby do you wanna ride? Oh, tell me before you go all the way do you.