Michigan Once Dialed a 900 Number for Lottery Results Until It Was Outlawed

It may be difficult looking back now 25 years into a new century, but 900 number toll lines were once ubiquitous. They were used for entertainment by connecting to psychics, party and love lines, gambling tips...they were everywhere. Even state governments used the toll lines.

Michigan was no exception. Long before the invention of the internet there were few ways to get winning lottery numbers. They were broadcast on TV, printed in the newspaper, available at lottery retail locations or, if you were willing to pay, available with a phone call.

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Deep within the virtual archives of the state of Michigan are lottery results from 1988. Listed with the daily Lotto, Match 6, Match 5 and Match 4 games is the "Winning Number Information Hotline" 313-976-2020.

976 numbers were, like 900 numbers, toll, or premium rate numbers, where the caller was billed higher than the standard rate for the call.

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In 2003 the Michigan Legislature took up a bill to outlaw the state of charging citizens a fee to get this type of public information. Contemporary news reports say the fee for calling these lottery lines were as much at $1.50 a minute.

The state, via a spokesperson countered any claim that the state profited from the toll call business:

“We don’t profit at all from this,” she said. “The revenue goes directly to pay the salaries of the two staffers who control the 900 numbers.” The department generates about $80,000 annually from the service, Campbell said. This meets the estimated cost of the staff hired to handle the calls, which is about $45,000 each with benefits

And that's fairly incredible. The state was paying more than $90,000 to staffers to update the toll call lines but bringing in $80,000 in revenue, meaning the service ran as a roughly $10,000 loss.

Of course by 2003 when the bill was introduced, the internet had become commonplace making a toll call for lottery results.

Beyond the lottery, the state at the time made other public information available only via tolled line calls. What we today would say is 'behind the paywall.' Another instance cited by the legislation to curtail the practice is checking to see if a provided like a doctor has a valid state license to practice in their field.