Fifty years.

That’s how long it’s been since the first lottery ticket arrived in Rhode Island. And that’s also the amount of time that the lottery has been in a partnership with Stop & Shop, one of the original retailers of the state lottery.

To celebrate the occasion, Stop & Shop will be hosting an event today (Thursday, May 30) from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m: the 50th Anniversary Spin & Win Event.

Here are the details.

At which Stop & Shop is the event taking place?

The Stop & Shop located at 200 Atwood Ave. Cranston, RI.

How do you play?

When you make a $5 Wild Money purchase, people can “spin the golden prize wheel to win a prize,” the lottery office said. Prizes include concert tickets, restaurant gift cards and more.

What’s the history of the Rhode Island Lottery?

The Rhode Island lottery was passed by a constitutional amendment in 1973, and the first tickets were sold in 1974.

Comparatively, Rhode Island was late to the game for the lottery. Massachusetts had moved on from just having a lottery to having one with instant winners. New York had a gimmick where people could win $200 a week for life. Stories about lottery winners were in The Providence Journal all the time, just never with Rhode Island tickets.

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And Rhode Islanders wanted their own piece of the action, so demand for the state to start one was high.

Since the lottery started, it’s contributed over $8 billion to the state’s general fund. About 8% of all the money the lottery takes in goes to the state, with the largest bulk of the money that comes in being set aside to pay out prizes.

Katie Landeck contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on wickedlocal.com: RI lottery: Special event today at Stop & Shop to celebrate 50 years