Wash. Lottery considers adding third weekly drawing

Jan 20, 2005, 8:24 am (12 comments)

Washington Lottery

Lotto and Quinto players may get a third chance to strike it rich each week.

The Washington Lottery Commission will meet at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport today to consider adding a drawing on Mondays for the flagship Lotto and Quinto games.

Presently, drawings are conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

If approved, the new rule would take effect immediately.

Ceil Buddeke, legal counsel for the Lottery Commission, hopes the extra draw day will increase player interest and revenue for the state.

"We're always looking at the bottom line," Buddeke said.

The five-member commission will decide if adding the extra day will be beneficial.

Seung Choi, who owns Hewitt Market at 1705 Hewitt Ave. in Everett, hopes a Monday drawing will increase sales.

"Maybe with more drawings, the same people who come in two times every week will come in one more time," he said as he stood next to his store's Lotto machine Wednesday night.

Jackie Floberg, 46, of Everett now buys a Lotto ticket once a week. "If they offered an extra day, I might buy it just to get the extra chance," she said.

But Gabriel Rothstein, 29, an attorney who works in Everett, said he'll stick to Mega Millions - which has a higher jackpot - no matter what the Lottery Commission does.

"I only buy the bigger one," he said. "I want to win it all, or nothing."

Both Lotto and Quinto are draw games. In order to win, players' tickets must match numbers in Lotto or cards in Quinto. Tickets cost $1.

Since its creation in 1982, the lottery has generated $2.1 billion in revenue for state programs. Education receives the majority of the money. Portions also go to support the two sport stadiums in Seattle.

Lottery tickets are sold in about 3,500 supermarkets, convenience stores and other businesses around the state.

A computer analysis by The Herald found that Snohomish County generates the third-highest amount of lottery revenue in the state, about $52 million in 2003. That same analysis determined the statewide average of spending on lottery game tickets is about $80 a person per year.

Lotto and Quinto are two of seven games offered.

Herald

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CASH Only

Quinto should be replaced with an all-NUMBER pick-5. WA also needs to dump Unlucky for Life.

Maverick's avatarMaverick

I hope NY Lotto and Mega Millions remain at twice weekly. I find that's the perfect amount of time to prepare my picks.

CASH Only

Mav:

I've told you NY Lotto is a waste of money with its 38%-40% prize return.

Maverick's avatarMaverick

Heh, yes you did say that on more than one occassion, but you and I continue to play it don't we?

CASH Only

Mav:

Almost never.

Maverick's avatarMaverick

But we do. That is the point regardless of how little

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

i think more drawings could also produce higher jackpots at quicker rates.

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

I actually like quinto as cards. The problem with the washington lotto is not the number of drawings it's the game itself. The odds are too low versus the population of players. That's why lotto plus had such great jackpots. If anything I wish I had shown up just to ask when Megamillions is going to get fixed. The current game is bad.

starchild_45's avatarstarchild_45
Quote: Originally posted by DoctorEw220 on January 21, 2005

i think more drawings could also produce higher jackpots at quicker rates.






i had to say something about this one. the oregon megabucks is already doing this and the jack pot takes forever to grow. it does grow but real slow. quinto did this one time before as a novelty and the only thing it did for me was make me spend more money. the highest i can remember quinto getting was about 21 million and that was because no one hit in for months.



another thing is that washington changed how it lets the pot grow. it used to let it grow by a millon everytime no one the washington lotto. the pot went to 48 million by doing that. shortly after that they changed the rules to let it only rise by what money it took in per drawing. i don't remember it growing over 10 million since that time.



i prefer the megamillon but honestly i get more hits on quinto. i need another one.
dvdiva's avatardvdiva

Quinto never got to 21 million. The highest it got before the current drawing was 2.8 million. While the Oregon lottery has a slow growing pot - it does just that - it grows. The problem with the washington lottery is that it does NOT grow. Someone keeps hitting the jackpot before it hits even 3 million. Same problem with megamillions - it should grow to 300+ million but doesn't due to the odds not matching the player base.



The reason why the 48 million pot occured was because the odds for lotto plus were 1 in 13 million just high enough over the 1 to 7 million (current odds) to result in a very high jackpot. Sometimes it only takes a minor increases to get higher jackpots.

dvdiva's avatardvdiva

Changing the odds and the starting jackpot would be two different issues. Oregon's Megabucks breaks 15-20 million almost every year and it grows only 200-300k per drawing. For Megamillions to change the game would cost a lot less than keeping a game with poor sales. Most people play the lotto or megamillions so they don't have to work anymore. Sadly when you divide the lotto jackot in half to get its cash value it rarely matches quino. A pick 5 game should not have the larger jackpot on a regular basis over a 6/49 game.

CASH Only

diva:

I've been suggesting an all-NUMBER (with fewer balls) pick-5 in WA for years.

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