The Lotto Geek - Please Leave Comments!

New Jersey makes history.

2010-08-25T20:06:00.002-04:00

A quick update, not much going on. But the New Jersey lottery is introducing a new $10 scratch-off called $100,000,000 Spectacular. It will have 75% payout, which I believe is the highest payout percentage in the state's history, and is higher than anything neighboring PA or NY offers. So give this game a try if you have a ten burning a hole.

Georgia Five Review

2010-08-08T23:03:00.004-04:00

This is the third game in America that involves the selection of a single five-digit number, after Quinto in Pennsylvania and DC-5 in Washington, D.C. But unlike these games, this is not simply a 5-digit version of the common pick-3 and pick-4, but rather a version more similar to the add-on games popular in Canada and Europe, such as Ontario's Encore, Quebec's Extra, Ohio's Kicker, and the like. Hence, this game has much better odds of winning. While the top prize still has odds of winning of 1 in 100,000, the overall odds are about 1 in 5.

You can win by matching all 5 digits in order, or by matching either the first 1, 2, 3, or 4 digits, or the last 1, 2, 3, or 4 digits, again in order. It is also possible to win twice, for example if you match both the first and last digits, you win $2, $1 for the first, and $1 for the last. Or if you match the first digit, and the last 3 digits, you would win $21, $1 for the first digit, and $20 for the last 3. Just remember, if you don't match either the first or last digit, you don't win, even you match some or all of the middle digits.

Matches (in position, front or back)	Prize
5/5	$10,000
4/5	$225
3/5	$20
2/5	$10
1/5	$1

Overall odds : 1 in 5.26

All and all, this is a good game, leaps and bounds better than Quinto. Granted some would like the long-shot options offered in Quinto, but this game offers enough for me. If PA offered a play option like this for Quinto, I would play it, but until then, I'll just have to go to Georgia. You did good, Margaret, you did good.

Score: 4.2/5

3 Things

2010-08-06T23:10:00.002-04:00

It's been a while, mostly because I've been on the road, but I got 3 bits of news for you.

First, in Ohio, Ten-OH has got a promotion in August where they pay out 50% more than usual. That creates a 79.4% prize return, and a top prize of $750,000 instead of the normal $500K. Only catch, it's only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. It's definately worth throwing money at.

Second, Florida (where I was) is adding a new a play option to Cash 3 called 1-Off. It allows players to win if their digits are one off the winning digit. So if you play 123, you can also win if 234 is drawn, or 124, or 023, or 014, etc. It's a bit confusing, so they'll print all the potential winning numbers on each ticket. I don't know when it goes online however, stay tuned.

And third, Georgia introduced a new game the first of the month called Georgia Five. This is a five digit game, similar to Quinto in PA, but with a key difference. While Quinto is set up like a pick-3 or 4 with straight and box plays, Georgia Five is set up like Encore in Ontario, or the Kicker in Ohio, where you match each digit, in order, from front to back. This creates much better odds of winning a prize. You can go to the GA Lottery website for more info, at least until I do a proper review. That's all for now, keep watching for updates.

The REAL reason lotteries like RNG

2010-07-07T00:53:00.006-04:00

Random Number Generators. They are, for many reasons, the bane of many lottery player's existance. In some cases the complaints are enough to make you believe that the complainer is a member of the frequent buyer's club at Ty's Tin-Foil Hat Warehouse. But there are just as many good reasons for hating these things, one of which is that they have proven to be problematic, and those problems can go on unnoticed indefinitely.

For example, when ball machines screw up and have problems, they're easy to spot, because ping-pong and rubber balls, and the machines that mix them, are completely tangible. If there's a crack in the ball, you're going to see it, and you can rectify it quickly. That isn't always possible with RNGs, because you can't easily spot a "crack" in a computer program's code. Case in point, when problems came up with California's and Tennessee's RNG, they were not noticed and fixed until some keen-eyed players noticed the problem many draws later. These problems kept some players from winning, and these problems would not have occurred if the lotteries in question had stuck with ball drawings. The lotteries obviously did not want this to happen, as at least in Tennessee, this proved to be a PR nightmare. But none of these lotteries have switched back to balls despite the bad press. Why is this? Are they really trying to screw players? Are they rigging the draws and just got caught? No, frequent buyer of tin-foil hats, but the real reason, as I have figured out, isn't that much better. The reason is, they're lazy.

Yeah, they're lazy.

You see, RNGs are a lot easier to use. No inspecting balls, no loading balls into the machine for the test draw, not loading balls for the real draw. All officials have to do is sign a few names, clip a few seals, make a few mouse clicks, and just like that they have numbers. That's the real reason a lot of lottery directors like these things, and that's the real reason the use them. Lost sales are, in their eyes, perfectly justified if it means less work for them and as long as the sales drops aren't catastrophic, lottery directors won't be getting any pink slips from the governor. After all, they get most of their sales from scratch-offs anyway.

To 'Ply or not to 'Ply. That is the question.

2010-06-29T23:36:00.012-04:00

No, I didn't misspell "play". And no, this has nothing to do with paper towels. But rather, 'Ply is just my faux-hip way of saying multiply. It's an option players have in the two big multi-state game, as well as a select few others. And I'm going to a spell out just how much more (or less) players stand to win (or lose) by doubling thier ticket price and adding these features.

Powerball: Prize Payout 50%
Powerball w/ Powerplay: Prize Payout 49.76%

This is the first jackpot game to ever have a multiplier feature, and among multi-state games, it has the best. There are 4 multiplier numbers, 2, 3, 4, and 5, each having an equal chance of being drawn. And if you win a non-jackpot prize, and you added Power Play, your prize is multiplied by the Power Play number, unless you match the 5 white balls without the Powerball. In that case, the prize is increased to an even $1,000,000, regardless of the Power Play number.

The prize payout, as seen is above, is practically the same with or without Power Play. And, like all multipliers (except for one, which will come up later), the jackpot is not affected by the multiplier. So the idea of whether to add Power Play comes down to one factor, do you care at all about the lower tier prizes? If you do, add the Power Play. You stand a much better chance at winning some multiple-figure amounts, including turning the $200K prize for matching the 5 white balls into a guaranteed million. Plus, $15 for matching the Powerball is way better than just $3. But if you only care about jackpot, still buy the Power Play, you'll thank me later.

Power Play verdict: BUY

Mega Millions: Prize Payout 50%
Mega Millions w/ Megaplier: Prize Payout 47.53%

For years, Megaplier was only available in Texas, but last year during the massive Powerball/Mega Millions love-in, many of the new Mega members began offering Megaplier, though of the pre-2009 Mega members, only Texas and Illinois offer Megaplier.

Megaplier isn't quite as good a deal as Power Play because

there is a more sizable cut in the prize payout (though that's still not too much).
the smallest prizes are not quite as big as Powerball.
the overall odds are not quite as good, so you don't have as good as chance as making the extra cost worth something.
the maximum multiplier is only 4, no 5x here.

To give you an example, if you match the Mega ball alone for $2 and the maximum multiplier of 4 is drawn, you win $8. About half as much as the $15 you could get for matching the Powerball in, well, Powerball. Plus, the prize for matching the 5 white balls is not guaranteed like Powerball. It could be a million, but it could also be just half a million.

But there is one advantage to the Megaplier. The odds are heavily tilted towards the 4x. In fact, the 4x will come up 57% of the time. The minimum 2x, on the other hand, only comes up 9.5% of the time. But despite that, I don't really think this is as good a deal as the Power Play. But if you want to add a little zest to your Mega Millions experience, go for it.

Megaplier verdict: Depends on your priorities.

Hot Lotto: Prize Payout 50%
Hot Lotto w/ Sizzler: Prize Payout 48.71%

Hot Lotto's Sizzler may not seem all that great, and well, it isn't. The biggest reason is because that multiplier is fixed at 3x. That takes away a big element of surprise.

But other than that, and considering the odds of winning, this really isn't that bad a deal. The prizes are already a bit more skewed toward the lower tiers compared to the two big games, and this increases that advantage even further. Plus, the odds of winning something are about 1 in 16, so you have much better chance at making this extra wager worth it. Of course, adding the Sizzler will not create any life changing amounts of money, as the most you can win outside the jackpot is $30,000. But hey, that's still an improvement over $10K. I say go for it.

Sizzler verdict: BUY

Florida Lotto: Prize Payout 50%
Florida Lotto w/ Xtra: Prize Payout (at the moment) 60%

When the Florida Lottery replaced their awful Lotto Plus feature with Xtra, it was like replacing a Yugo with a Mercedes-Benz. Not only can you multiply your prize lower-tier Lotto prize (same multiplier scheme in Power Play, equal chance of 2x-5x), but on top of that, you can get a free ticket for matching 2 numbers, something you can only get with Xtra. And to make it even better, with Xtra the prize for matching 3 is guaranteed to be multiplied by 5, which means at least $25. It's techinically a limited time offer, but they have extended it indefinately. Hopefully they make it permanent, because it jumps the prize return to 60%. But even if they had the match 3 prize multiplied by the Xtra number, the return would still be 54.12% thanks to the Free Ticket prize. So, if you play Florida Lotto, always add Xtra, because it not only betters your winnings, but it betters your chance at winnings.

Xtra verdict: MUST BUY

Palmetto Cash 5: Prize Payout 45.91%
Palmetto Cash 5 w/ Power-Up: Prize Payout 63.13%

In craps, it's often wise to do something called "taking odds", because it lowers the house advantage to next to nothing. And while the house advantage is still significant in any lottery game, adding Power-Up to South Carolina's Palmetto Cash 5 is probably the closest lottery equivalent to taking odds in craps. It increases your expected prize return by 27%! The reason for this is because this is the only game (other than monitor keno) where the multiplier multiplies every prize including the jackpot. Considering this, the multiplier is heavily skewed towards the minimum factor of 2x, that comes up about half the time. However, the multiplier can go up to 5x, though the odds of that coming up are 1 in 16. In any case, with the big increase in expected return, and the fact that you can increase the jackpot, this is a no-brainer.

Power-Up verdict: MUST BUY

So, yeah. I like most multipliers, that add a little extra excitement and they can, sometimes greatly, increase your potential winnings. But remember, they cost double, so be careful.

Lottery Reviews - Pennsylvania

2010-06-23T23:15:00.005-04:00

In my continued attempt to create content in a dearth of lottery related news (no new games or anything like that), I've decided to start reviewing entire lotteries. Every game, well, every on-line game at least. The scratch-offs will be graded cumulatively. Each game will be graded on a 5-point scale, and the overall state score on a letter scale. So, with that said, let's do my first of hopefully many state lottery reviews, with the state I'm currently in, Pennsylvania.

Don't let the name confuse you, it's pick-3. And that's about it. Run of the mill. Straight, box, straight/box, combos (known as Super Straight), and front and back pairs. Midday is drawn with computers, but evening is drawn the right way with balls, so players have choice of draw methods. But other than that, nothing really special. It's pick-3, nothing more, nothing less.
Score: 3.2/5

A clearer title, it's a typical pick-4. Problem is, it's very bare bones. Straight plays, box plays, and nothing else, not even straight/box. That can be a bit frustrating for a lot of players, as you either have to fill out twice the number of plays, or frustrating for the clerks at the store, because it means twice the number punching. And there's the whole matter of more paper being used, but then again if the lottery cared about trees, they wouldn't print each play on a separate ticket. Plus it's pick-4, so you get a lot of losers before you get a winner. But that's a general problem all pick-4's have.
Score: 2.7/5

A lot of players on Lottery Post are envious of PA players because of this game, and I for one don't get it. This is an awful game! You think pick-4s can get frustrating? This is 10 times as hard. Straight players (and by "straight", I mean exact order) can expect to buy 99,999 losing tickets before winning the $50,000 top prize. 1 in 100,000 odds of winning anything. That's just mental, I don't care what the prizes are. Sure there's also box plays (but like Big 4, no straight/box), but best odds you can get there are 1 in 833.33. You might as well buy a straight on Daily Number. And the front and back combinations, in the 2-, 3-, 4-digit, are straight only. So don't expect to win, unless you get a pair, but then again, you can do that on TDN too. So this is game is completely pointless, either on account of redunancy or ridiculous odds. Should they get rid of it, no, other people do like it, blind of it's flaws, but if they do get rid of it, I won't miss it.
Score: 1.0/5

O.K., now here's a good game. It's got a lot of the things you look for in a good game. Good odds of winning something, good prizes for the odds, and the jackpots are decent too, good because of the odds, and sometimes, good from the sheer size. $100,000+ jackpots are not uncommon, and the record was $180,000. And this is a pick 5 of 30 we're talking about here, odds of winning the jackpot are comparatively low; about 142.5 thousand. And unlike Quinto, the odds of winning something are only 1 in 5.45. So this game will at least throw you a bone sometimes. I'd give this game a perfect score, but it has one flaw, computerized drawings. Unlike the digit games which give you an option, this game is only drawn at midday, and like all midday games in PA it's drawn in the secretive world of RNG cyberspace. Well, no game is perfect, well at least this one isn't. But it's worth throwing a few dollars at.
Score: 4.0/5

A lot of folks would call this game an all-time classic. Well, I disagree. Now the original 5/39 Cash 5 was an all-time classic. But the Cash 5 of today is nothing like the game introduced in 1992. When they added 4 balls to the field 2 years ago, they essentially created an entirely new game that just happened to have the same name and look as the game it replaced. Now, the original 5/39 was pretty good. The current 5/43, it's just O.K. It's harder to win a prize now, even though the lower-tier prizes did not really go up, except for the match 4 prize, which actually went down. But the jackpots have gotten bigger, because they been able to roll longer, which culminated in a record of $1,800,000 back in April of '08, and has led to 6 $1mil+ jackpots over the past 12 months. But nonetheless, this a definately a jackpot-driven game now, the other prizes are just an afterthought by design, and in my opinion that hurts the game. But, if you're all about big jackpots that are not too hard to win, Cash 5 is still where it's at. Score: 4.0/5

I just talked about this game in a recent post, as it just came back. And how wonderful it is that has. This is one of my favorites. You know how it works, you get three lines of numbers, and you win by matching 3 or more on one of the lines, or 4 or more on the three lines combined. Match all 6 on one line and win the jackpot, that starts at half a million. This is one the few on-line games that you can call straight-up "fun". And not only that, it combines a fun play style with pretty big jackpots, that like Cash 5 and Treasure Hunt are all-cash. The last version got up to about $9 million one time, IIRC. That's quit-your-job money right there. Only flaw, it's $2 per play, but you get a lot for the money. Glad to see they brought this game back before nostalgia sets in.
Score: 4.5/5

Now to review the instant games, and yes, that is a picture from "Groundhog Day". Gus the Groundhog, Groundhog Day, get it? HA!

And again, this is a cumulative score, so this takes into account every game. Problem for Pennsylvania, the scratch-off's here are actually a pretty staid affair. Almost every game $2 and above is of the number match variety, with very few variations therein. The only tickets that don't fit that category exclusively are the Bingo/Crossword games, $2 Win For Life, and $5 Birthday Bucks. I guess they're only interested in providing variety in the $1 tickets. And as far as extended play games, they typically only offer a $2, $3, and $5 Bingo, and a $3 Crossword. And though a $5 Crossword just came out, I don't look for it to come back for another edition. Other $3 extended play games come around every now and then, such as Money Comb, but they usually don't deviate from the Bingo/Crossword format.

The payout percentages, a very important factor in instant games, are about on the national average. The exact percentages are noted in a previous post, they have not changed since then. But payouts aside, these are some pretty standard offerings. Nothing special play-style or payout wise, so there you go.
Score: 3.5/5

Now for the overall score. The instant games are, for the most part, just the same game with different names. So nothing special. Yet Pennsylvania has long been an innovative lottery in the on-line game department, and continues to be today. Granted, some of these innovations are poorly-executed (Quinto), but some are great (Match 6). PA's on-line games numerous enough that, even if you hate one game, there's bound to be one you like. And the lottery has ball drawings for most of those games, and they air live at 7 across the state. So, overall, a good lottery. You're probably going to find something that suits your fancy.

Overall Score: A-

I'm Back...

2010-06-13T01:13:00.003-04:00

I took a long trip to Wisconsin, and had a really bad internet connection, so updating was near impossible. But I did learn one thing on my trip, Wisconsin is probably to most upfront lottery I've ever seen. They put both the odds and the expected prize return on every ticket. And I mean every ticket. Scratch-offs have all the odds on the back of the ticket, and here's the kicker, they print the odds of winning each prize and the prize payout on every on-line ticket. So whatever you play, the odds of winning the jackpot, or the odds of winning 2 bucks, or the odds of winning anything at all, they are all right there on the ticket. Every state should do this. It looks good on press releases, and makes players more knowledgable about their odds of winning, no matter how good or bad.

Plus they have an awesome 2nd chance drawing for all their games, and it's a permanent deal, not a limited time thing. Ten $1,000 winners every week, indefinately.

If they could bump up their scratch payouts and bring back ball drawings, they'd really have something there. Hey, they already have Culver's.

Megaplier Quietly Expands

2010-06-01T20:25:00.003-04:00

The Illinois Lottery has, in a sudden, unannounced move, added Megaplier to Mega Millions. This is the first charter member of The Big Game/Mega Millions to offer the Megaplier, and could be a sign of Megaplier eventually becoming available everywhere Mega Millions is sold. As for Illinois, they might want to keep this going and add a multiplier to their Lotto game, seeing it's now available on their other jackpot games.

Match 6 Prologue

2010-05-28T08:17:00.003-04:00

A couple of notes. Since posting I've found out that the new Match 6 will actually have a larger average jackpot than the original. The new version will put 17.79% of sales into the jackpot, compared to 12.83% in the original. That means an average jackpot of about $1,650,000, or about $460,000 more than the previous average. And the best part to that is the smaller prizes did not take a hit in order to fund it. The smaller prize tiers are exactly the same as the original.

Plus, check out this twist they made on the Match 6 logo:

It looks like a printing error, but no, that's the real logo. I don't get the point of making it like that, but hey, at least they're bringing Match 6 back.

Match 6 is coming back!

2010-05-28T03:25:00.002-04:00

Match 6 is coming back, with tickets going on sale this Tuesday. It's going to replace Mix and Match, which I'm sure will result in a big improvement in the eyes of a lot of players. Match 6 ended last year to make way for the new Super 7, which of course ended itself not too long ago. The game, according the lottery press release, will be played exactly the same as the original, and will start at $500,000 lump-sum cash, again like the original.

Match 6 was one of my favorites, and I couldn't be happier to see it come back. It almost makes up for getting rid of Super 7 and not replacing it with anything, almost.

What can I say?

2010-05-24T06:27:00.002-04:00

To say I went on a hiatus is bit of an understatement. It was more like I just forgot about this thing. And to be honest, I kind of did. Now granted, I went off to college (Marshall University) about the time of my last post and was pretty occupied with my duties both in class and at WMUL radio. But strangely enough, I have checked on this site's activity, and even with the lack of updates, I still get roughly the same amount of viewers I did when I did update. So that also kind of messed up my interest.

Another big reason I stopped updating was I was banned from Twitter because some Red Ruski hacked into my account and put spam on my page in my name, and apparently some (expletive deleted) thought it actually was me. So that was immensely discouraging.

Plus, one of my best tools, or my only tool, for creating all those brilliant game ideas I have stopped working, and as of now it still does not work. I'm talking of this once sterling odds and payout calculator devised by Walt Baranger. Once that stopped working, I've had no way of devising new games and making them realistic.

Plus, being a college student, now on his own and on a budget, I really had to cut back on my actual lottery play. And it's really hard to get into the lottery when you can't actually play it with any regularity.

And the worst part about all of this is? I skipped updating right when the biggest lottery development in decades was taking place, the cross-selling agreement between Powerball and Mega Millions. Now every U.S. lottery, except for Florida, California, and Louisiana, sells both of the big multi-state games. And I completely missed covering all of that.

So what does this all mean. Well, this could function as a long-awaited goodbye post (in which case, see you, wouldn't wanna be you). Or, it could be the first of many posts as I make a triumphant comeback. It all depends on what kind of mood I'm in. So check back often, just in case the latter happens.

Is the PA Lottery living in the past?

2009-08-03T19:36:00.004-04:00

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.

2009-07-29T04:47:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-07-11T22:10:00.007-04:00

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...

2009-07-10T21:51:00.008-04:00

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

2009-07-02T22:50:00.004-04:00

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

2009-06-20T19:50:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-16T21:58:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-06-08T18:31:00.007-04:00

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.

2009-06-06T19:56:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-05-28T21:26:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-27T21:54:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-05-27T00:30:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-24T18:12:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-23T17:24:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-16T21:15:00.008-04:00

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

2009-05-09T05:02:00.004-04:00

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?

2009-04-24T00:30:00.006-04:00

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

2009-04-14T16:10:00.002-04:00

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)

2009-04-13T01:12:00.004-04:00

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)

2009-04-07T18:18:00.003-04:00

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?

Source

New game idea, the first of (hopefully) many.

2009-04-01T21:40:00.007-04:00

Introducing the lotto game, HiLo!

O.K., this is isn't being introduced anywhere, it's just an idea for a game had. And no, this has nothing in common with the Price is Right pricing game of the same name.

So, how do you play HiLo, if it could indeed be played? Well, very simple. All you have to do is pick 10 numbers from 1 to 20 (that's right, you pick half of the numbers in the number field). And if you match all 10 numbers, you win the grand prize. And here's what makes it unique, if you match no numbers at all, you also win the grand prize. This is possible becuase the odds of matching ten of ten, and the odds of matching zero of ten are the same. You also would win prizes for matching 7 or more numbers, or by matching 3 or fewer numbers. That's why it's called "HiLo." You win for having a "Hi" number of matches, and you win by having a "Lo" number of matches. So, as long as don't match 4, 5, or 6 out of 10, you would be a winner.

Here's a sample prize structure:

Match	Prize	Odds
10 or 0	$10,000	1:92,378
9 or 1	$100	1:923.8
8 or 2	$10	1:45.6
7 or 3	$1	1:6.4
Overall Odds 1:5.5

So, what do you think? Leave comments below.

2 New Games (one in Arizona this Thurs., one in Massachusetts maybe)

2009-03-30T21:04:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the long hiatus, I've been busy with school.

There are two new games I have to report, one of which is in Arizona, and it's a game they've already been promoting on their website. It's called "Cash 4", and while the name sounds like a traditional "pick a 4-digit number from 0000 to 9999", it's actually a lotto-style game where one picks 4 unique numbers from a field of 26. Washington State already has a very similar game to this called "Match 4," and I think it's an excellent, if not vastly superior, alternative to the 4-digit number games most other states have. Here's the details on Arizona's game:

Pick 4 numbers from 1 to 26
Tickets cost $2
Top Prize of $10,000
Drawings every day except Sunday
50% of sales go toward prizes, on average
And the prizes?

Match	Prize	Odds
4	$10,000	1:14,950
3	$25	1:169.9
2	$2	1:10.8
Overall Odds 1:10.136

Now, this is not quite as good as the Washington State game. For one, there are 24 numbers in the WA game, as opposed to 26 in Arizona. That translates to a 29% better chance of winning 10 grand in WA than in AZ. Two, about 65% of sales, on average, goes into Washington's Match 4 game, compared to 50% in AZ's new Cash 4. Let's also not forget this is a computer-drawn game, which Washington's game is as well. And finally, and this has nothing to do with the game, but with lottery policy, you actually have to be 21 to buy Arizona's new game, or any other game there, compared to 18 in most other states including Washington. That's right, according to Arizona law, you're mature enough to die for your country at 18, but you're too stupid to buy a lottery ticket. I may be 21 now, and don't techincally apply to this crazy rule anymore, but I still find that law quite offensive.

Sorry if I'm ranting, I'll stop now.

Rating for Cash 4 : 7 out 10 "rating units"

Well, the next state with a new game, or at least a potential new change to an existing game, is Massachusetts (see, I can spell Massachusetts, Mississippi too). The changes are for Megabucks, a game that has been around since November of 1982, and has only been changed a handful of times since then, each change quite modest if I remember correctly. But these changes will be quite sweeping. These changes would be best described in a list:

The matrix will go from a 6/42 game, to a 6 out of 49 game (the old Mass Millions had this matrix).
The starting jackpot will go up to $500,000, for $400,000.
A new, free doubler feature will be added, giving a 1 in 10 chance to double non-jackpot prizes (not sure whether this will be drawn during the drawing or randomly "sprinkled" onto the tickets themselves).
A cash option will be added (something this game needed for a while).
And the prizes and odds for the new matrix:

Match	Prize	Odds
6	Jackpot	1:13,983,816
5	$2,500	1:54,200.8
4	$100	1:1,032.4
3	$2	1:56.7
Overall Odds 1:53.655
Doubler Odds 1:10

Well, it's got a unique twist to it with the doubler, they're finally adding a cash option, and this will definately create bigger jackpots. The only thing is, unless you can match the jackpots of Mega Millions, it won't create much more sales, even if it can get up to, say, $50 million (which Mass Millions once got up to in 2004, after 1 year and 8 months with no winner no less). Perhaps advertising just how much better odds Megabucks has compared to Mega, would be just as effective as changing the game. Plus, $2 is kind of dinky for the 3/6 prize. It should really be at least $5. But all in all, it's not a step down from the old game. Not really a step up, but not a step down.

Sources : Arizona Lottery, Salem News

My First Dollar

2009-03-24T22:48:00.003-04:00

I've just made my first full dollar from Google AdSense. Thanks to all my visitors for making this all possible.

CT Lucky-4-Life Info

2009-03-24T15:49:00.007-04:00

Special thanks to JonnyBgood07 on Lottery Post and the CT Lottery for the help!

Connecticut is introducing a new game called Lucky-4-Life on March 29 (this Sunday), and the first drawing will be on Thursday, April 2nd.

Each play will cost $2, and will play similar to the new Tri-State Weekly Grand, or Florida's Mega Money. You play by picking 4 "Green Balls" from 1 to 39, and one gold "Lucky Ball" from 1 to 39. Matching all 5 numbers wins a really nice top prize, $2,000 per week for the rest of the winners life, or for the next 20 years, whichever is longer. You also win prizes by matching 2 or more of the green balls, the 1 lucky ball, or a combination thereof. Here's the prize chart for those interested:

Match	Prize	Odds
4+Lucky	$2,000/week/life	1:3,207,789
4	$10,000	1:84,415.5
3+Lucky	$500	1:22,912.8
2+Lucky	$70	1:898.5
3	$50	1:603.0
1+Lucky	$10	1:122.5
0+Lucky	$5	1:61.3
2	$4	1:23.6
Overall Odds 1:14.367

Also, while the prizes may appear to be set amounts, the top prize and $10,000 prize apparently may be split among multiple winners, but there is no guarantee this will happen everytime there is multiple winners.

So, should you play this game? Yes, definately yes, especially if you're young. The top prize should be enough to put you straight into the upper middle class (pending inflation). And if you are of advanced age, and you want some of the money to go to your family if you should pass away, there is 20-year minimum payment period. And the minimum prize is $4, so any win will at least double your wager. So this game is worth the money, play it if you get a chance.

Rating: 8 out of 10 "rating units".

UPDATE: The overall payout percentage appears to be about 60% of sales. And the top prize will be split among multiple winners, the $2,000 a week figure assumes a single winner. Also, the number of $10,000 winners is capped at 10. Any more than 10, and they will split a $100,000 pool.

New game coming to Connecticut!

2009-03-23T20:45:00.004-04:00

Connecticut is finally adding a new game to their on-line game line-up, called Lucky For Life. It will have a top prize of $2,000 a week for the rest of the winner's life. Unfortuately, this is the only information I can find so far, so stay tuned for more.

This is their first new game since 1998, when they introduced Wild Card Lotto, a game that was replaced a year later with the original lotto game it intended to replace (which is still on sale).

Pennsylvania has been lowering scratch payouts!

2009-03-19T17:36:00.007-04:00

Apparently, the last batch of scratch-off tickets here in PA have a lower percentage of revenues going back toward prizes than they have in the past. But it was a marginal decrease, and thought it might have been a temporary move to close some budget hole. Here were the payouts of the last batch:

$1 Fun 1's pays out 57%, down from 58% for previous $1 tickets.
$5 Gus Bucks and Wild Number Bingo pays out 69%, down from the 70%-71% range from previous $5 tickets.
The $20 $1 Million Nest Egg pays out 72%, down from 73% from previous $20 tickets.

They were only small decreases, and the next batch of games coming next week are going to continue the decreases, at least on some games.

The $1 Double It! will have the regular 58% payout.
$2 Lucky Dog/Fat Cat Doubler will have a 63% payout, down from the 64%-66% range other $2 games had.
$3 Super Match & Win will have a 63.5% payout, down from the 65%-66% range.
$5 Mother's Day Gift will be down to 68%, down from the 69%-71% range.

Now what does this all mean? Well, as I have said before, the higher the payout percentage of game is, the more you stand to win. Or to put it in gambler's terms, the higher the percentage, the lower the house edge.

So what am I saying? Should you not play these games? Well, no, not ideally. Lotteries only care whether a game sells, and if a game is selling slower than usual, that's their cue that something is wrong, in this case the house edge is too high. So, if you don't buy these new tickets, they'll get the message, or at the very least they'll be more likely to get the message. They'll probably get it sooner or later, as lowering payouts almost always lead to lower sales and less money for the lottery's benefactors.

Fortunately, there's a $5 game, Money Plus, on the docket and that will have a 71% payout, so perhaps this is a temporary move. But still, this is something that needed to be adressed.

Gone Fishin'

2009-03-14T22:31:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm not actually going fishing, but I am going on a trip. I'll be playing Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio (in that order). Here's to a safe trip, and I'll try to update the site while I'm gone.

Super 7 Jackpot Analysis

2009-03-11T22:23:00.008-04:00

I compared the annuity and cash jackpots for Super 7, and noticed something interesting. The cash option is only 46% of the annuity jackpot, $460,000 vs. $1,000,000.

Now, for those of you who don't know, the cash amount is the amount lotteries start with when determining the jackpot, and they determine the annuity by calculating how much the cash in the jackpot pool would make in interest from government bonds. They then add the cash amount with the interest it would make, creating the annuity jackpot.

And there is one rule of thumb when it comes to annuities of any kind, the larger the interest rate, the more the annuity will be worth. That makes the larger-than-usual inflation of the annuity odd to me, as interest rates right now are very, very low. The Powerball cash option is about 54%-55% of the annuity, and that's a graduated annuity, which make even more money than regular annuities. That's indicitive of low interest rates. So how is Super 7 able to inflate the jackpot that much with such low interest rates? I don't know, and I don't think I want to know. Do you think Ed Trees is some kind of master negotiator that got a sweet interest rate from a private firm, or the bean-counters are cooking the books somehow. All I know is I want to know how the PA Lottery got such a great inflation for Super 7 jackpots, because I'd love to use their method to save my own money for a rainy day.

Anyway, Super 7 jackpots, when won, will probably average $7.2 million annuity value and $3.3 million cash according to this rate. And if Super 7 sells as many tickets as Match 6, the jackpot should grow by at least $200,000 annuity, or $90,000 cash, with each draw without a win. So, Super 7 will have bigger jackpots than Match 6. But I doubt it will reach the 9-digit levels the original did. But if it can "match" Match 6's longest run, it could reach (and I'm making a ballpark estimate here) about $47,000,000 annuity. I'd take that. And I'm sure you will too. Have fun out there.

Powerball in New Jersey?

2009-03-11T18:41:00.002-04:00

Source : AP/Newsday

That source is important because this is the wackiest lottery story I think I've ever heard. But it's also serious at the same time, as it could redefine how lotteries do business. You see, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine wants the NJ Lottery to join Powerball. Now, joining Powerball isn't weird, unless the state joining is also part of Mega Millions and wants to add Powerball on top of it; that is exactly what Gov. Corzine wants to do. This would make New Jersey the first and only state to offer both of the multi-state jackpot games. This is not the first time a state has proposed this though. Texas once kicked around the idea when they were deciding on what multi-state to go with. But this is a far more serious proposal, from the governor no less. And according to an e-mail I got from the Powerball people, they seem open to the idea (no word on what the Mega people think).

Now what if this went through. Well, it may not a big story among most people. But within the U.S. lottery industry, this would be a revolution. It would definately give lotteries pause about how they approach multi-state games.

Last Match 6 - Aww, Hamburgers.

2009-03-10T20:34:00.003-04:00

What a disappointment. Not only did I spend $30 on the last drawing, and win zippo in the process, but someone won the final jackpot, so no rolldown, no extra money. What a gyp, but such is the luck of the draw. Good luck if you played, anyway.

New Game in Indiana

2009-03-09T02:05:00.010-04:00

This game started the first of March, and the first announcement of it was February 16th. So I wouldn't call this news. But, better late than never.

The Indiana state lottery, called the Hoosier Lottery, introduced a new keno game called Quick Draw. It costs $1 per play, and is played like most keno-type games, one picks 10 numbers from a field of 80, and the house picks 20 out of 80. But there is a big difference between this new keno game, and the others already out there. The big difference is no prize for matching zero numbers. I know that sounds like a ridiculous thing to have, but it is something virtually all games of this type have. The Keno game in Michigan gives out a free $1 instant ticket for matching no numbers, Ten-Oh in Ohio gives out $3, Pick 10 in New York gives out $4, and about all of the monitor-based keno games throughout the country give out $5 (for a 10-spot play). But this game gives out $0 for 0 numbers. Plus, this is a computer-drawn game, as is all Hoosier Lottery games (sans Powerball), so it's not truly random, but pseudo-random, which means it just looks random (I'll talk more about that in a later article, it's quite a point of contention between players and the lotteries).

So those are the drawbacks, here's the upside. The game has a average payout of about 64.18% of sales, which is well above average for a terminal-based game, and even higher than Indiana's $1 scratch-offs (which hover around a 59.8% prize payout). Plus it has break-even odds of 1 in 3.09 (break-even odds being, as i've defined it, the odds of winning a prize when you have a number of plays that is valued the same as minimum prize).

And now, the prize table:

Match	Prize	Odds
10/20	$300,000	1:8,911,711.2
9/20	$5,000	1:163,381.4
8/20	$500	1:7,384.5
7/20	$50	1:620.7
6/20	$15	1:87.1
5/20	$5	1:19.4
Overall Odds 1:15.466

Rating:
7 out of 10 "rating units"

The Pennsylvania Lottery's Past

2009-03-06T17:03:00.008-05:00

I know I do a lot of articles about the Pennsylvania Lottery. Well, this is the lottery I play most often and the one I know the most about, but in any case apologies if it seems I'm being keystone-obsessed.

With the PA Lottery getting in touch with it's past with the return of Super 7, which is less than a week away, it got me thinking of other ways it could connect with it's past.

1. Passive Draws

This the original way lotteries were drawn, and are still common throughout the world. They work similar to a raffle, a bunch of tickets are printed, and they are distributed much in the same way as scratch-off tickets. Something similar has been offered recently in PA in the form of the "Millionaire Raffle", which has achieved considerable success. But I'd like to see something a bit more faithful to the original games, something with weekly drawings (as opposed to a one-time thing), a cheaper price ($1 or $2, instead of $20), and perhaps pre-printed tickets (instead of printed from the terminal). I think it would be a novel throwback, and may even become an enduring favorite. For an example of a traditional passive draw, check out La Mini from Quebec's provincial lottery.

2. The Million Dollar Spin

A number of lotteries have given scratch-off players a second chance to win through some type of promotion, usually through an entry to appear on a lottery game show. Pennsylvania did something like this too, but instead of a game show, it would draw 10 names of players who won free tickets on $1 instants and decided to forego the "sure" thing and send their ticket into the lottery for the draw. They would then put the ten names on a wheel which was spun during the draw show, with a another wheel in front of the name wheel determining the prize amount for the player the name wheel landed on. Well, they should do something like that again, but instead of having players send in tickets that won another free ticket, have a dedicated $5 scratch-off with one prize being an entry for the drawing (like Ohio's Cash Explosion instant ticket). And with the higher price for the ticket, make the top prize something like $5,000,000. And there is plenty of time on the Saturday draw show to spin the wheel. I'd play that game.

3. The old draw theme song

I did not move to PA until 2004, so I never got to hear this theme on TV. But YouTube has opened me up to old theme, and it's a heck of lot better than the theme they use for drawings now. Much more melody, and less repetitiveness. So with Super 7, and old game from the late 80's coming back; why not bring back the old theme from the late 80's? Some examples of the theme are below, as is another one above.

Here's one version, as well as real nifty set. They should bring that set back too.

And here is another cut of the theme, with a draw of the original Super 7, and a set they should not bring back.

Japanese Lotto Prologue

2009-03-04T19:43:00.005-05:00

When I posted the article on lotteries in Japan a couple of days ago. Well, I missed something important in that post, how they draw the numbers. The machines they use are not anything like you've ever seen. First, let me show you what they use to to draw the Loto 6 and Mini Loto.

First the balls are manually fed into a sphere. Then, the machine works by first mixing the balls in the sphere at the top of the machine. Then the balls are poured unto a plate below. The plate then spins profusely like a centrifuge, mixing the balls further until one gets captured. The drawn ball is then placed on a rack, and the plate begins to spin again. The process is repeated until all the numbers are drawn. If you want to see this in action, click here to see it in action via streaming video.

The machine used to draw the Numbers games is even stranger. First, wheels are spun, which seem normal enough. But to actually select the numbers, the machine then shoots arrows (that's right, arrows) at the wheels, and whatever the arrow lands on will be the winning digit. If you want to see this in action, click here to see it in action via streaming video.

日本語ロト (Japanese Lotto)

2009-03-02T21:24:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the wonder that is Babel Fish, I am able to decipher to many lotteries around the world. Keep looking back for more world lotteries in a series I will name at a later date.

You would think that a place like Japan would not have lotteries so similar to those here in the U.S. But, they are in fact very similar, they have two digit games, a pick 5, and a pick 6. The digit games are the same run of the mill games you see in many states, except for one key difference, the payouts are pari-mutuel, which is how it's also done in California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Plus, the two games (called Numbers 3 and Numbers 4), only pay out 45% of sales overall toward prizes, which is lower than most such games here in the states. Other than that, it's all the same, so no real story here.

The Loto 6 game is the big game in Japan, though it isn't nearly as big as other lottos in other countries. This has a lot to do with the fact that it only has 43 numbers to choose from, as opposed to, say, 49. And when the people in one of the world's largest economies all share a game that has such good odds, there are bound to be a lot of winners, and there are. There is almost always a top prize winner, and it's not uncommon to see more than 5 in one draw.

That all may seem like a impediment to rollovers, but they figured out how to make rollovers happen despite all the winners with a rather complicated rule. What they do is limit the amount that can be won to 200 million yen (or approximately US$2,000,000), and then put any jackpot monies in excess of ¥200,000,000 into the jackpot pool for the next draw. That next draw will also have a winnings limit, but it gets upped to ¥400,000,000 (or about $4 million US). That higher limit will continue as long as there is excess jackpot money, with the limit being lowered once there is draw where the jackpot pool is depleted.

And now, some facts about Loto 6:

Tickets are 200 yen each (or about US$2)
Pick 6 out of 43
Drawings every Thursday at 6:45 pm Tokyo time (or 4:45 am Eastern time).
Winnings to single winner are capped 200 million, or 400 million yen if money was carried over from the previous draw. Any jackpot money in excess of the limit will be carried over to the next week's draw.
Prize and odds table is below:

Match	Prize in ¥	Approx. Prize in US$	Odds
6	About ¥100,000,000	US$1,000,000	1:6,096,454
5+Bonus	About ¥15,000,000	US$150,000	1:1,016,075.7
5	About ¥500,000	US$5,000	1:28,224.3
4	About ¥9,500	US$95	1:610.3
3	¥1,000	US$10	1:39.2
Overall Odds 1:36.81

Japan also has a pick 5 game called "Mini Loto". It is a far simpler game to explain because it doesn't have any complicated jackpot limit rules. It's a simple pick 5 out of 31, with a sixth bonus ball for second prize. It also appears to put a greater percentage of sales to the jackpot than Loto 6.

Tickets are 200 yen each (or about US$2)
Pick 5 out of 31
Drawings every Tuesday at 6:45 pm Tokyo time (or 4:45 am Eastern time).
Prize and odds table is below:

Match	Prize in ¥	Approx. Prize in US$	Odds
5	About ¥10,000,000	US$100,000	1:169,911
4+Bonus	About ¥150,000	US$1,500	1:33,982.2
4	About ¥10,000	US$100	1:1,359.3
3	About ¥1,000	US$10	1:52.3
Overall Odds 1:50.2

Well, there you go, that's Japanese Lotto. Leave comments if you have questions.

Good news about the last Match 6 draw.

2009-02-28T19:07:00.002-05:00

There's no word on the PA Lottery website about this yet, but the final Match 6 drawing on March 10th will have a very special feature. If no one wins the jackpot on the final draw, then the jackpot will re-distributed among the other prize levels. This will make all the other prize levels bigger, but only if there's no jackpot winner. So be sure buy your tickets for the final Match 6, not only to say goodbye to a great game, but also because you can stand to win a whole lot more.

Pennsylvania, Super 7 Is Back (After All)

2009-02-24T15:24:00.006-05:00

Last post, I said that someone posted something on Wikipedia about Super 7 coming back to replace Match 6, and me not buying it. Well, today I went to the store to buy my tickets and various junk foods and what do I see, a brochure about, you guessed it, Super 7. As it turns out, I duped myself into thinking I was duped.

Now, the lottery wants to be tight-lipped about Super 7, and won't make an official announcement for another week. That leaves me to make an unofficial announcement for them. The announcement: "Super 7 is back!"

Now, I'll miss Match 6, I'll miss it a lot, but I am a bit excited the new, old game. I think this is first time a lottery has revived a game this long gone. The first incarnation ended almost 14 years ago. But enough chat, let's see some details:

You'll pick 7 numbers from 1 to 77
The lottery will pick 11 numbers from 1 to 77
Matching your 7 numbers to any of the 11 drawn wins the jackpot, you can also win by matching 3, 4, 5, or 6 out of your 7.
The jackpot starts at $1,000,000 (30 year annuity). You'll have to choose whether or not you want annuity or cash when you play.
Tickets will be $2 each.
And here are the prizes and odds:

Match	Prize	% Of Prize Pool	Odds
7/11	Jackpot	48.16%*	1:7,287,298
6/11	Avg. $10,000	13.42%*	1:78,866.9
5/11	Avg. $500	21.81%*	1:2,426.7
4/11	Avg. $25	16.61%*	1:159.3
3/11	$2	N/A	1:20.2

* Percentage of prize pool after deducution of fifth prize. Prize pool is 52.19% of total sales.

Overall odds : 1 in 17.81

The Lotto Geek is your source for wall-to-wall Super 7 coverage. Keep checking back, I've got lots to say about this new game.

Super 7 Comeback?

2009-02-22T02:33:00.004-05:00

I was reading the Wikipedia article on the PA Lottery the other day, and I saw someone post a blurb about Super 7 coming back early this year. Now, since this was unsubstantiated, I promptly deleted that, but someone has reposted that, so I'm still looking for sources to see if this is actually true.

Now for those of you who aren't familiar with the history of Pennsylvania Lottery, here's what the original Super 7 was all about.

A player would pick 7 numbers.
The lottery would then draw 11 numbers out of 80 (from 1991 to 1995, 10 out of 74).
If you matched all 7 numbers on your ticket to any 7 of the numbers drawn, you win the jackpot. Prizes were also won for matching 4, 5, or 6 numbers.
It had broken two North American jackpot records, first in 1987 with a $46,000,000 jackpot (with one winning ticket), then in 1989 with a $115,500,000 jackpot (which had 14 winners). It also had jackpots of $63.9 million and $52 million in it's 9 year history.

Now, I'll say again that the blurb on the Wikipedia article is not substantiated, and thus should not be taken seriously. But at this point I'm looking for any kind of info on this new game, so pardon me if I'm indeed excited over nothing.

Jackpot Oddities

2009-02-17T16:16:00.002-05:00

When is the smaller jackpot the bigger jackpot?

Apparently right now. You see tomorrow's Powerball is $105,000,000, $2 million more than tonight's $103,000,000 jackpot for Mega Millions.

Yet the cash option jackpot for Mega Millions is actually bigger than Powerball's, much bigger. The Mega cash option is $67,600,000, while Powerball's is $58,200,000. That's a $9,400,000 difference in Mega Millions' favor.

There's a reason for this, but I won't go into it now, as it's quite complex. Maybe another time.

West Virginia Payouts

2009-02-10T23:10:00.006-05:00

I recently posted the scratch payouts for Ohio and Pennsylvania. But now I think I'll post the payouts for a smaller state, West Virginia. There are not many price points available here, but they have some of the nation's highest payout percentages. Pretty impressive for a state that everyone assumes is full of hillbillies (which I assure you is not the case, there's plenty of civilization there).

Price Point	Low %	High %
$1	63.00%	65.83%
$2	67.00%	70.35%
$5	70.13%	73.83%

And while I'm on WV, I'll also post some info on the state's own lotto, Cash 25. It's a fine game, you pick 6 numbers out of only 25 (hence the name), matching all six wins you $25,000, with other prizes ranging from $250 for 5, $10 for 4, and a buck for 3 out of the six. Plus the average payout is about 55.6%, more than the state's other on-line offerings which pay out, at most, 50%. And it has the best odds you'll find anywhere, the odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 177,100, and the overall odds are 8.028. So give it a try if you're in the state.

Match 6 - January 30, 2004- March 10, 2008

2009-02-09T20:49:00.004-05:00

I said a while back that a new game is being introduced in PA. I figured if it replaced anything, it would be Mix & Match, seeing it doesn't get the best sales. But apparently, according to an e-mail from the lottery, Match 6 is the game being killed off for this new game. I still have no word on what this game is, but it better be good because Match 6 is a fine game. Lots of ways to win,, good odds, great jackpots (which are paid in a lump sum). The Pennsylvania Lottery should tread carefully, because nothing is worse than replacing something good, with something bad (like when McDonalds replaced their decent Crispy Chicken Sandwich, with that awful so-called "Premium" Chicken Sandwich).

The "Winfall" - Why hasn't this caught on?

2009-02-09T00:49:00.006-05:00

There is a type of payout scheme that has been proven popular, at least to some extent, but has not caught on with many lotteries. It's called a "Winfall" game, and here is how it works:

It is played the same way as any other lotto game, and always has a rolling jackpot.
Once the jackpot reaches a certain level, and there is no winner for that drawing, the jackpot is redistributed among the lower prize tiers.
The jackpot is then reset to the minimum amount.
This scheme can allow for players who don't hit the jackpot, to still hit it big.

There is only one game that follows this paradigm, the "Cash WinFall" in Massachusetts. It's a pick 6 out of 46 game, and in a break with convention, each play costs two dollars. You also get a free ticket for matching two out of six, but this isn't affected by the winfall. The payouts are O.K. for a normal draw, but can jump big time once the jackpot hits $2,000,000. If it hits that level and there's still no winner, the jackpot will roll down to the players who matched 3, 4, or 5 numbers. Here's the payouts for the most recent rolldown on December 29th, 2008:

Numbers Matched	Normal Payout	Winfall Payout
6/6	Jackpot	N/A
5/6	$4,000	$32,381
4/6	$150	$902
3/6	$5	$29
2/6	Free Ticket	Free Ticket

Pretty nice payday for the odds.

Michigan also had a game like this, called WINFALL (all caps). That was 6 out of 49, $1 a play. That went away a couple of years ago in favor of the more traditional Classic Lotto47. But thus far MA and MI are the only two states to have ever had a game like this. And to that I ask; "Why?" This is an awesome concept. It makes a bigger jackpot even more exciting than usual, knowing that even if you come just short of the big one, if no one else does either you're still getting a nice payout. I mean, thirty-two grand for 5 out of 6?! Pretty sweet.

So come on, lottery directors of the world, get with the program! Get with the "Winfall Wave!"

Multipliers - A good bet? Or a Sucker's Bet?

2009-02-07T18:45:00.016-05:00

You've seen them, they cost double the normal bet, but could multiply your winnings. They're the multipliers, and while they all do the same thing, they do vary in distinct ways.

First off, the most common multiplier feature, Powerball's PowerPlay. It's simple, you add PowerPlay for extra $1 per play. If you win a prize other than the jackpot, the prize will multiply by a number between 2 and 5. Each number has an equal chance of being drawn.
Second, the Mega Millions multiplier, Megaplier. Only difference, this is only available in Texas. If you're playing Mega Millions in another state, you'll have to do without I'm afraid. This works the same as PowerPlay, but with numbers 2-4, no 5x here, and the odds of each number being drawn are different. The 4 comes up 57% of the time, the three 33% of the time, and the two the remaining 10%. So a greater chance at getting a good multiplier, but at the cost of losing the 5. And, like PowerPlay, this doesn't affect the jackpot.
Third is Tennessee's Lotto Plus, and the Plus feature. It has the 2-5 range of PowerPlay, but the odds are different. The 2 multiplier comes up half the time, 3 comes up 25% of the time, 4 comes up 16.7%, and 5 comes up only 8.3% of the time. And remember, this doesn't multiply the jackpot.
Fourth is the multi-state Hot Lotto, and the Sizzler (no affiliation with the restaurant chain). It's works like all the above multipliers with one key difference, the prize is always multiplied by 3. No draw for a multiplier here.
And finally, South Carolina's Palmetto Cash 5. The range of numbers are again 2-5, 2x coming up half the time, 3x being drawn about 31% of the time, 4x is drawn about 13% of the time, and the big 5x is drawn at a 6% rate. This has a very important difference though from the others, the multiplier affects all prizes, including the jackpot, which is a flat $100,000, but could become $500,000. That makes the heavy bias toward the minimum 2x much more acceptable.

Now here's a table showing the payouts and other info at a glance:

Game Name	Multiplier Name	State	Multiplies?	Number Range	Payout % without Multiplier	Payout %with Multiplier
Lotto Plus	Plus feature	TN	Non-Jackpot Prizes	2x-5x	50%	41.4%
Powerball	PowerPlay	Various	Non-Jackpot Prizes	2x-5x	50%	46.8%
Mega Millions	Megaplier	TX only	Non-Jackpot Prizes	2x-4x	50%	47.5%
Hot Lotto	Sizzler	Various	Non-Jackpot Prizes	3x	50%	48.7%
Palmetto Cash 5	Power-up	SC	All Prizes plus Jackpot	2x-5x	45.9%	63.1%

Now what does this all mean? Well the comparison between the payout with the multiplier, and the payout without it is a good gauge. Most of the time, there is a negligible reduction in overall payout when you add a multiplier, but not so much that it's bad choice. But with Lotto Plus in TN, the reduction quite more sizable, instead of getting 50 cents back on the dollar with no Plus, adding the Plus reduces it to just a 41.4 cent return on the dollar. Not the best bet, but then again, the lottery usually isn't (but it is fun to play). Now the Power-up for the Palmetto Cash 5 is another story, that brings a 17.2 cent on the dollar increase in payout over a "plain" Palmetto ticket.

So there you have it, the nuts and bolts of multipliers. If you have a question, leave a comment.

3 States, 1 New Game

2009-02-03T02:20:00.007-05:00

The Tri-State consortium of the Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont lotteries introduced a new game Sunday called "Weekly Grand", a $2 double-matrix game with a top prize of $1,000 a week for 20 years ($1.04 million total). This game replaced Paycheck, a 5/39 game which also had an annuity top prize ($2,500/month for 10 years, $300,000 total).

The game involves picking 4 numbers from a field of 35, and picking an additional "Lucky Ball" from another field of 35. This is the exact same matrix used in the Texas Lottery's "Texas Two-Step" game. Ironically, Texas has a long-running scratch ticket also called "Weekly Grand", with the same top prize as the new Tri-State game. Perhaps they've been enamored with Texas as of late.

It also has an instant win feature, where each play gives you a 1 in 30 shot at $5.

Now, would I recommend playing this, sure, why not? Sounds like something fun enough to throw a couple of bucks at. And a $1,000,000+ annuity is a nice little cushion to anyone's income. The instant win feature is a flat-out gimmick though, and could easily be disposed of. That money could have been used to add a few years to the annuity ($1,000/week for 25 years, perhaps), or maybe put to make some of the lower prizes larger.

Of course, this game's days are already numbered. How do I know? The game "Weekly Grand" replaced, "Paycheck," was only introduced about 2 years ago. And "Paycheck" in turn replaced "Triple Play," which replaced "Heads or Tails," which replaced "Cash Lotto," which replaced "WinCash," which replaced "5 Card Cash". With all those games coming and going in a veritable revolving door, there's nothing to make me believe "Weekly Grand" won't suffer the same fate. So folks in Northern New England; enjoy it while it lasts.

Goliath v. Goliath

2009-01-30T17:42:00.005-05:00

As my first analysis of on-line games, I've decided to compare the two big multi-state jackpot games, Powerball, and Mega Millions. I've got a unique way of looking at games and I'll explain it after the actual table comparing the two games.

Name	Powerball	Mega Millions
Minimum Jackpot	$20,000,000	$12,000,000
Average Jackpot (cash value)	$63,500,000	$55,900,000
Jackpot Odds	1:195,249,054	1:175,711,536
Overall Odds	1:35.114	1:39.888
Breakeven Odds	1:11.705	1:19.944
% of sales to total prizes	50%	50%
% of sales to jackpot prize	32.53%	31.80%
% of sales to non-jackpot prizes	17.47%	18.20%

Now, what exactly does this all mean? Well, let me show you.

Minimum Jackpot : The minimum advertised (annuity) jackpot. No draw will have a jackpot lower than this. Keep in mind this is the annuity jackpot, the cash value will be less than this.
Average Jackpot (cash value) : The average cash value amount a jackpot will be when won.
Jackpot Odds : The odds a single play has of winning the jackpot.
Overall odds : The odds a single play has of winning any prize.
Breakeven odds : The overall odds divided by the minimum cash prize. i.e. The overall odds of winning a prize in Powerball are 1 in 35.1, and the mimimum Powerball prize is $3. 35.1 divided by $3 is 11.7. Thus, the breakeven odds are 1 in 11.7. This is a gauge of how much of the prize pool goes to the lowest prize, the prize you are most likely to win.
% of sales to total prizes : The percentage of total sales that go toward prize money.
% of sales to jackpot prize : The percentage of sales that go to the jackpot alone.
% of sales to non-jackpot prizes : The percentage of sales that go to all of the lower prizes.

And there you have it, my system for analysing numbers games. This will help you find which game puts more emphasis on the top prize, more emphasis on the bottom prize, and which game is easier to win. Put it good use, and if you have any questions, leave a comment.

Ohio Scratch Game Payout %

2009-01-28T23:52:00.004-05:00

I just did the payouts for Pennsylvania and I wasn't sure which state to do next, but as soon as I heard that my mom told one of her friends in Ohio about the blog, I knew what to do. So Gary, this is for you.

Like I said before, the higher the payout percentage, the more you stand to win. And Ohio is no exception. So here are the payouts for scratch games in the Buckeye State (hence Brutus Buckeye on the right).

$1 scratch games in Ohio pay out 61% of sales.
Both $2 and $3 scratch games pay out 65%
$5 games pay out 69%
$10 games pay out 73%
$20 games pay out 75%

Now there are a few exceptions to this, but not many. The $1 Cash Explosion game pays out 65%, instead of the standard 61%. And three Christmas-themed games (still on sale at time of this post), $1 Holiday Cash, and $2 Silver Bells and Merry Money Tripler, all pay out 71%.

Just remember, just because higher priced tickets pay more than lower priced ones, doesn't mean you should play more than you can afford. Never budge from your budget.

That being said, use this information wisely, and you will be more likely to hit larger prizes.

Source : Ohio Lottery "Ticket Seller" newsletter

Waiting Is The Hardest Part...

2009-01-28T16:20:00.002-05:00

Excuse me for another Pennsylvania post, but it is the lottery I play most, so I guess I'm a bit biased.

The PA Lottery is introducing a new game on March 11th, less than two months away, but we don't have any information, not even a name. So I'm going kind of crazy, what is this mystery game? Will it replace an existing game, if so, which one? How is it played? How much will it cost? I want to know so I know whether or not to look forward to it.

Pennsylvania Scratch Game Payout %

2009-01-27T20:31:00.004-05:00

For my first real post, I've decided to post something I think will be really helpful, at least for instant game players in Pennsylvania.

Every scratch-off ticket, and every other lottery game, has a payout percentage. This is the amount of revenue from the game that goes towards prizes. In laymans terms, the higher the percentage, the more you stand to win. Thus, it is often helpful to know what percentage of sales go back into prizes.

I've done some calculating of the odds of the latest games on offer in PA, and got their payout percentages.

$1 games pay out 58% of sales
$2 and $3 games pay out 66%
$5 games pay out 71%
$10 and $20 games pay out 73%
$25 games pay out 77%

Most of them stick to the above percentage depending on the price point, but there are some deviations, so if in doubt, ask the PA Lottery, or calculate it yourself (it is a complicated and tedious process to do though).

And if you are wondering about your state and their payouts, keep checking back here, I'll get to yours eventually.

Who is The Lotto Geek?

2009-01-26T19:51:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new blog, completely dedicated to the matters of lotteries everywhere, all presented by me, the Lotto Geek, a self-titled industry expert and avid lottery player. Here you will see my takes on new games, opinions and facts about existing games, even some of my own ideas for new lotteries.

If you have any feedback, don't hesitate to leave a comment. I might even it address your concern in a future blog.

Many thanks,
The Lotto Geek