Is the PA Lottery living in the past?

Now, I'm not knocking on living in the past. Nowadays, you'd be a fool not to. But, the Pennsylvania Lottery, for the second time this year, has brought back and old game, this time it's the Saturday Spin. It may only be a for very limited time, but it's still something old being brought back, just like Super 7.

Overall, it's not a very good promotion. First off, to qualify you need 1 non-winning ticket each from Daily Number (okay), Big 4 (do I have to?), and Quinto (O.K., you lost me). If it was just Daily Number it would be fine, but having to play that travesty called Quinto just ruins it for me. And to make thing's worse, there won't be a wheel, but a virtual wheel driven by a Random Number Generator determining the winner. The only saving grace is that there will be 10 winners each week, 9 of $5,000, and one of $20,000. Not terrible odds, especially since the bulk of the entries will be invalid as result of the complexity of the rules. But it won't be enough for me to get excited about. I'll just keep playing what I normally play.

I haven't forgotten about you.

It's not like this site gets a lot of visitors, but to those few who do, I just want to say I haven't forgotten about the site. It's just been a slow news month, and my tool for creating new games has still been down. Couple that with a mad dash to prepare for Marshall U, and the unjustifiable closing of my Twitter account (it was my primary promotional tool), and it's really easy to get distracted.

So bear with me, I haven't forgotten anything. I've even been making new Excel sheets for new NJ instants, though I've yet to upload them. And if you really want to accelerate my next legitimate article, send me an e-mail with your ideas.

I need your help.

Now, I don't have any problem with figuring out software or how to use Blogger, etc. So, I don't need help with that.

I've been having trouble figuring out what I should post, and that's a big reason why I have not been posting regularly. I can't post game ideas because the website I use to figure out odds and payouts has been down for quite a while. And news in the lottery business, outside of the misfortune of certain lottery winners, is pretty slow. So I'm calling on my visitors for help. What do you want to see on the site?

Wait, before you e-mail me, here are two things I will not put on my site:

• Anything about predicting winning numbers.
• Stories about lottery winners, positive or negative.

Everything else lottery-related is fair game. So please send any ideas to JimmySand100@gmail.com and give me your input today.

The new Tri-State Megabucks sounds good until...

If you live in Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont, Tri-State Megabucks has probably been a mainstay in your life. Started in 1985, it was the very first multi-state lottery game, and paved the way for all the other multi-state games we play today. Well, it's going to be a completely different game in a couple of weeks with the introduction of "Megabucks Plus". Just months after Massachusetts made big changes to it's "Megabucks", adding 7 numbers and a doubler feature the game, the Tri-State consortium in making even more radical changes.

It will be changing to a Powerball-style game, you will pick 5 numbers from 1 to 41, and a "mega" ball from 1 to 6. This will actually make the odds of winning the jackpot better, from 1 in about 5.24 million in the current 6/42, to odds of 1 in 4.5 million in the new game. The overall odds will also decrease from about 1 in 20, to about 1 in 6. And on top of all that, the minimum jackpot will double from $500,000 to $1 million. These are all really nice changes, but, of course there is a downside. They are also doubling to price to $2. I guess that's neceessary if they want to double the minimum jackpot and make it easier to win at the same time. Plus you're more likely to win a prize with a single $2 Megabucks Plus ticket than with two $1 Megabucks tickets. But it still cuts the games "fun value" in half.

So even with a several nice changes, raising the price kind of makes the change neutral, in that it doesn't make the game worse, but doesn't make it better.

And the prizes:

Match	Prize	Odds
5+Mega	Jackpot	1:4,496,388
5	$30,000	1:899,278
4+Mega	$1,300	1:24,980
4	$150	1:4,996
3+Mega	$25	1:714
3	$7	1:143
2+Mega	$5	1:63
2	$2	1:13
1+Mega	$2	1:15
Overall Odds 1:5.9

It goes on sale July 26th, and it's first draw will be on July 29th. Good luck.

New games in PA

Sorry for taking so long, I've got a lot of stuff on my plate.

I was just looking at the PA Lottery's profit report and I learned about a new game coming...this November. And another game coming...a year from now. But at least I can inform you of them.

The first one is replacing mix & match and it will be played in a very similar manner to Match 6. And the best part, it will only cost a buck. So that sounds exciting, though there are lots of other details yet to be divulged, so I have no idea on whether it will be a good game or not. That's coming in November.

The next is coming way out in the future, a year from now, and is actually exactly something I called for...a few days after this report was published. It's those instant win games that come from the lotto terminal, just like the ones in Minnesota and Virginia. It's a shame they're waiting until mid-2010 to do it, but better late than never.

Big Win for Me

Now, typically I don't use this blog to brag about my winnings, but I'll make an exception here.

Check that out, a $400 win on a $2 ticket. Can't do much better than that. Well, actually you could, but it's almost impossible to do, so I'll just relish what I've got.

Changes in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Lottery has just changed their lottery software, and as a result, if you bought lottery tickets in Pennsylvania today, you may have noticed something different on your ticket. Instead of a barcode on the bottom of the ticket, there are now three boxes that each look like pixelated Rorschach tests. There are also no promo or jackpots announcements on top of the ticket making the tickets smaller and thus saves paper, but I don't know if that will last.

Of course that's all just technical information with no real use to players like us. But it may the beginning of some nice changes that we could use. I don't know what they could be, or whether or not they'll actually happen, but it's worth noting.

Terminal-Based Instant Games - Why hasn't this caught on?

Well, in a way this has caught on. Games like this can be played in Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, as well as the Tri-State consortium (ME, NH, VT), and until recently, Arizona. South Carolina also has this type of game, but you have to buy a Pick 3, Pick 4, or Palmetto Cash 5 first. I was playing games like this just last week in Virginia, and they were fun, and they were good play value. And the same could be said for Ohio's games. Plus, they have the distinct advantage of each ticket having a truly equal chance of winning because each ticket is printed on the spot, unlike scratch-offs which are printed all at once with all the results pre-determined (although nobody knows the results until they're scratched).
So why hasn't this caught on? I couldn't tell you. All of America's lotteries have the technology to do it. And they're very cheap to implement. So I'd like to call upon the lottery directors of the world to get on it. Call your on-line vendor, and ask about these terminal-based instant games. And if you live in a state with these games, give them a try.

Maybe the longest lottery drawings ever.

Sorry for the long hiatus. I was in Virginia on vacation, and I got inspiration for at least one article which I will post some time soon. I hope to also finish the New Jersey scratch odds page.

But until then, here's something interesting. Most lottery draws we in the US have seen never last anymore than 2 minutes. But go back about 25 years, and north to Ontario, you could see a drawing that lasted anywhere from a half-hour to a full hour. These draws were for the now-defunct Wintario game. And not only did they draw several different winning numbers each draw, but they went around various cities and towns around Ontario to do it and showcased whatever attractions were in the town, which I suppose was necessary considering the length of the draw show. Want to see? Well, here's the first part of a special hour-long draw from 1984.



If you want to see the rest, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/wintario.

Ontario no longer televises drawings. In fact, if I remember correctly, Loto-Quebec is the only Canadian lottery with televised draws, and only in French. But the Ontario lottery agency still uses these machines for all of their in-province games, just with smaller balls. You can see the machines in modern times here.

Hope to post again real soon.

New Jersey Scratch Odds Are Here, sort of...

I've got the webpage up, as well as the odds for the long-running games NJ has. I'll be posting the other, limited time, games later on. Until then, check out what I have at http://thelottogeek.freehostia.com/NJScratch.html.

Coming Soon, my new service for New Jersey lottery players

Knowing the odds for any lottery game is important to know. But the New Jersey lottery does not do that for their scratch-off tickets. Fortunately, they do give the information on their site regarding the numbers of total prizes and total tickets and such, which is what one needs to calculate odds.

So in layman's terms, I have calculated the full odds for all the instant games offered in New Jersey, and will posting them in .xls (Microsoft Excel) format on a new site which I'll link to when it's finished.

No 7/7 in Super 7, that's normal, but...

Not only were there no jackpot winners Tuesday, but nobody even matched six out of seven. Now granted, the odds of doing that are 1 in 78,867, and Cash 5 was up to a nice, round million dollars which kind of diluted the appeal of Super 7 among players. But come on, are you meaning to tell me they can't sell 78,867 tickets from Saturday to Tuesday when there are 12,000,000-plus possible buyers. Something tells me that, to a lot of players, Super 7 just isn't that super. Which is kind of a shame because it's, design-wise, a good game. I think the $2 price tag, and the fact that matching 3 only gets your $2 back, kind of hurt the game's potential though. That and Powerball.

Big Time Powerball Jackpot

O.K. Typically I like to talk about the nitty-gritty of the games, but this should be of interest to a lot of you.

Powerball is up to $222,000,000 (or $113,000,000 if you want cash).

This is the biggest Powerball jackpot so far in '09, and is the first $200,000,000+ jackpot since September of last year, when it reached exactly $200 mil. This is also the largest jackpot since March of '08, when it reached $275 mil. The question is, how long will it hang on until we get a winner? My guess, until this Wednesday. Call me a pessimist (or an optimist, depending on your point of view) but I really think this thing will be won next drawing. But if not, I think we could see somewhere between $260 and $270 million for next Saturday.

Virginia Scratcher Payouts

A quick post on the payout percentages of Virginia Lottery Scratchers, since I'll be in Virginia for about a week starting this coming Friday. It's a pretty straight-forward scheme they have, each price point has a set percentage which virtually all games follow exactly or close to it. Two games, long running games at that, have lower percentages. Here are the payouts.

• $1 Scratchers pay out about 61%, except $1 Blackjack, which pays out 58.297% of sales.
• $2 Scratchers pay out about 64%, except $2 Crossword, which pays out 62.71% of sales.
• $5 Scratchers pay out about 68% of sales.
• $10 Scratchers pay out about 70% of sales.
• $20 Scratchers pay out about 75% of sales.

Now just to remind everyone again, the payout percentage is important because the higher it is, the more you stand to win because more of the purchase price goes back into prizes.

Arkansas Lottery Ideas

With Arkansas just months away from their lottery getting up and running, it gave me the idea to rehash some ideas I had posted in 2007 at Lottery Post for what was at the time just an idea pitched by the Lieutenant Governor. But I still think the ideas are just as good now as they were then. So here are my ideas for America's newest lottery.

A run of the mill pick-3 game, with straight/box, combo, and pairs, front, back, and split. $500 for a $1 straight bet, $83 for a $1 6-way box bet, and $167 for a $1 3-way box bet.

Pick 5 numbers from 1 to 30, tickets are $1.

Matches	Prize	Odds
5/5	$50,000	1:142,506
4/5	$50	1:1,140
3/5	$5	1:47.5

Overall odds : 1 in 45.587


Pick 6 numbers from 1 to 40, tickets are $1.

Match	Avg. Prize	Odds	% Of Sales
6/6	$1,830,612*	1:3,838,380	31%
5/6	$470	1:18,815.6	2.5%
4/6	$30	1:456.1	6.5%
3/6	$3	1:32.1	10%

Prize pool is 50% of sales, all prizes pari-mutuel
Overall odds : 1 in 29.917
*Paid in 26 annual installments. Cash option worth about 50-65% of annuity value.

Preferred Multi-State Game


The reasons for Arkansas joining Mega Millions as opposed to Powerball are as such:

Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee.

All Powerball states, all connected to Arkansas. Add Mississippi to that, and you've got people from Shreveport and Monroe in LA, Greenville, MS, the Missouri Ozarks, perhaps Tulsa, and of course, Memphis, coming into Arkansas tp play MM when it's gets big. Arkansas would make a lot more money off Mega Millions than Powerball for this reason alone.

Only problem is the moratorium on new states joing MM. Perhaps AR is small enough squeeze in without an adverse effect on jackpots, but if whoever is heading the MM group right now, won't budge, that's what Lotto 6/40 is for.

Start-Up Plan

Scratch tickets will be the first offerings, along with a "Grand Opening Raffle" to be drawn the day before the other on-line games get started. Once that happens, The Daily Game, Diamond 5, and Lotto 6/40 will go on sale, with the former two games having their first drawings that same day.

Drawing Methods and Such

If I was running the show, we would only use RNGs for raffles. Other games will be televised live, with ball machines. I was thinking of the Smartplay Standard Daily for The Daily Game, and a Smartplay Magnum for Diamond 5 and Lotto 6/40. The balls for the Daily Game and Diamond 5 would be white with black numbers, with Lotto 6/40 balls being red with white numbers.

And there it is, my proposal. Now if you're part of the Arkansas Lottery commission, please e-mail me, because you're more than welcome to use these ideas. My logos (save for the Mega Millions logo) you can use too for a nominal fee (can't be giving away my intellectual property). If you're a future AR lottery player, just leave feedback below.

New Game in Idaho

It's been a long time, folks. But I finally have some time to post something. And it's on a new game in Idaho, and an unusual game it is. It's called Double Play Daily. It's a typical pick 5 from 36 game, but they draw two sets of numbers each day, at the same time, and tickets for a particular day's draw are eligible for both draws.

This isn't a completely new idea, the French 6/49 "Loto" had two draws on one night just like this up until very recently, when it changed to a Powerball-like format (with just one draw a night). But I'm pretty sure this is the first game of this kind in North America.

And to add to the weirdness, the jackpot has been rolling over by about $60 per draw. Not $60,000, but sixty dollars. I guess not many people are playing this new game, but then again Idaho isn't a very populated state. And even weirder is the fact that the fixed $20,000 prize for matching 5 in the first draw is only to single winner. If there is more than one winner, they share the $20,000.

And now, the run-down:

• Tickets are $2
• Pick 5 from 36
• Match all 5 numbers from the first draw and win $20,000 (to a single winner)
• Match all 5 numbers from the second draw and win a jackpot that starts at $20,000 and keeps growing (very, very slowly) until someone wins
• Match 4 numbers from either draw and win $200
• Match 3 numbers from either draw and win $12
• Match 2 numbers from either draw and win $2
• Win up to twice on a single play

And boom, there you go. I can't promise I'll post again soon, The Lotto Geek is plenty busy with other things right now, but I'll try to make sure I don't go as between posts.

What should North Carolina's next game be?

Just about a week ago, North Carolina finally added a fourth game to their lineup, and surprise, surprise, it was another pick-4 game. Nothing special, nothing to get excited about (unless you're into that sort of game). But in any case, the North Carolina Lottery will hopefully not wait another two and half years to add another game, and when they add another game, I think they need to add a traditional in-state lotto. Every one of the ten most populous states has some sort of in-state game with a million-dollar plus jackpot, except for Georgia and North Carolina.

When designing the game, I figured that the number possible six-number combinations should be as close as possible to the population of North Carolina. What I came up with was game remarkably similar to the now-defunct lotto game in Georgia, which ironically is the other top-10 state with no $1 million-plus game of it's own. But it fits my plan, a 6-out-of-46 game has 9,366,819 possible combinations, and North Carolina has about 9,222,414 people (according to U.S. Census estimates). So, with that out of the way, I came up with this:

Carolina Lotto

• Pick 6 of 46
• Match 3 or more to win
• Jackpots would start at $1,000,000 (annuitized)
• 50% of sales go toward prizes
• All prizes pari-mutuel
• Prizes and odds below...

Match	Avg. Prize	% Of Prize Pool	Odds
6	$4,416,095*	61.29%	1:9,366,819
5	$1,000	5.13%	1:39,028.4
4	$50	12.9%	1:800.6
3	$5	21.09%	1:47.4
Overall Odds 1:44.702

*Average annuitized prize based on current interest rates. Jackpots would be paid by either 26 annual payments or a cash option.

So whoop, there it is. If you think this is a good idea, write the folks at the NC Lottery, hopefully they'll get this game, or something similar, up and running before this time in 2010.

My Ideas for the Connecticut Lottery

I've been noticing on my StatCounter that I've been getting a lot of visitors from Connecticut, probably getting info on Lucky-4-Life. Well, I've got some ideas on improving Connecticut's other games. Again, these are just ideas of mine.

Play 3/4

Get some playslips for these games, seriously. Why on earth would you not have them?

Rolling Cash 5

It's exactly the same game as the Cash5 you play now, same matrix, same price, same Kicker add-on, but with one key difference. Instead of a fixed $100,000 prize, matching 5 would win a rolling cash jackpot that starts at $100,000 and grows by at least $1,000 each time it's not won. The average jackpot when won would be about $116,000 with my proposal, a modest increase over the current fixed prize, but it would have ability to grow bigger, and a $250,000 jackpot would be very possible. About 35.74% of $1 base game sales would go to the jackpot, with about 65% of sales going to overall prizes (minus a 2% reserve). The kicker feature and other prizes would be unchanged.

Classic Lotto with Lottoplier

Ah yes, Classic Lotto. It's amazing how this game has held on, even though it only gets about one-third of the sales Powerball gets from Nutmeg State gamblers. Perhaps this would generate some extra sales, and keep Classic Lotto from being ditched for a niche game like some others like it have.

This is how the Lottoplier would work. Like Powerball's PowerPlay feature, paying an extra dollar would give you the chance to multiply non-jackpot prizes up to five times. During the drawing, a ball would be drawn from a machine loaded with ten balls; two 2x balls, two 3x balls, two 4x balls, and four 5x balls. Whatever ball is drawn would be the multiplier for the drawing. And the prizes?

Match	Classic Lotto Prize	2x (1 in 5)	3x (1 in 5)	4x (1 in 5)	5x (2 in 5)
6/6	Jackpot	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
5/6	Avg. $2000	Avg. $4000	Avg. $6000	Avg. $8000	Avg. $10000
4/6	Avg. $50	Avg. $100	Avg. $150	Avg. $200	Avg. $250
3/6	$2	$4	$6	$8	$10

Please leave questions and comments below, thank you.

Change to Pick 3 in Virginia coming (at some point)

A new add-on feature in being added to Pick 3 in Virginia. It's going to be called "Boost", and it's pretty simple. Adding it will double your wager, and gives you 5 three-digit numbers. If one of them matches the winning number in exact order, you win $50 or $100 if you wagered 50 cents or a dollar, respectively. I don't know when it starts, if it hasn't started already, but I guess it's coming some time soon.

More Lottery Lunacy in Tennessee (with a difference)

Tennessee has been the home to a lot of lottery-related brouhahas, mostly related to faulty computerized drawing equipment. But this time, it has nothing to do with drawings, or the lottery management itself. A state lawmaker actually wants to ban welfare recipients from claiming any prize over $600. That's right, he essentially wants to ban poor people from playing the lottery. Wow, what's next. Why is freedom of choice under attack in this country?

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