Newest Pa. lottery scratch-off sports $30 pricetag

Feb 2, 2014, 9:54 am (31 comments)

Pennsylvania Lottery

The Pennsylvania Lottery earlier this week launched its most expensive instant lottery ticket, a $30 scratch-off that offers a top prize of $3 million.

The game, appropriately called "Three Million," is already in place at many of the places that sell instant tickets. It is the state's third $20 or more instant prize game offered at 9,100 retailers statewide.

So far, local lottery players have been slow to try the new game.

"I think $30 might be a little expensive for a scratch-off," said Dario Hilton of Coatesville, who recently won $200 in an instant lottery. "I think it depends if the risk is worth the reward. If it offers more prizes, then it's a possibility, otherwise I'll stick to the $10 game."

The prizes that can be won in this game are: $30, $35, $40, $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, $30,000, $300,000 and $3,000,000. The prizes that can be won in the "Cash Bonus" area are: $40, $50, $100, $250 and $500. A player can win up to 26 times on a ticket.

There are four $3 million scratch-off tickets, 15 $300,000 tickets, 229 $30,000 tickets, 11,518 $1,000 tickets, 23,019 $500 tickets and 57,628 tickets. The odds of winning $30 to break even is one in 10 while the odds to win the grand prize of $3 million is one in 1.65 million. Because there are so many ways to win on one ticket, the overall odds of winning any prize is one in 2.7.

Gary Miller, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Lottery, said the game is the newest in instant games that are offered once a month.

"This is the highest prized instant game we offer, and it will remain on sale indefinitely," he said. "These games perform very well and our players are very receptive to this price point. We're offering something for everyone's taste."

Miller said it's important to continually offer new games.

"We have a legislative mandate to generate funding for older Pennsylvanians," he said. "In the last two fiscal years, we generated $1 billion each year and we are very proud of that."

While some people may scratch their heads wondering who would pay $30 for a scratch-off lottery ticket, local therapists who treat people for gambling addiction fear it could create problems with people who play the lottery often.

"People with gambling addictions, you can keep raising the price like with this $30 card, and as long as they can justify it in their mind, there is no limit to what they would be willing to bet, with the assumption that the payoff will be better," said Seth Rosenberg, a licensed professional counselor with offices in West Chester. "It's like with the Powerball jackpot gets high, people have no problem laying out $20 because the idea that $300 million is somehow better than $100 million. The risk to reward is greater with a $30 scratch-off ticket."

Matt Mauriello, a West Chester licensed professional counselor and licensed behavioral specialist who specializes in dealing with problem gamblers, agrees.

"Ultimately, it is the excitement of the game, and the risking of money," he said. "One thing about the lottery I find fascinating is that most parents would frown on giving their kids a bottle of alcohol or tobacco in their Christmas stocking, but are OK with giving them lottery tickets. People just don't recognize the risk (of future gambling addiction) that comes along with the lottery."

Mauriello said he had a client who ditched his company-sponsored retirement plan when the market crashed in 2008, and invested that money in lottery tickets. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for him.

"More than nine chances out of 10, if you play, your money is gone," he said. "For folks that have gambling problems, it's not so much the reward, it's the anticipation and the risk."

Hilton agrees.

"It's always exciting when you see your number match and you scratch the bottom part and see how much you won," he said.

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Delaware County Daily Times

Comments

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

I wouldn't buy a $20 ticket so buying a $30 ticket isn't even a possibility.

luckyshoes's avatarluckyshoes

Whats the name of the Game?.........Greed

Players are receptive to the price?....eh, guess again

No game comes out that the House doesnt win / win back

dpoly1's avatardpoly1

I will rush out and not buy one of these

faber98

this clown miller is proud of the fact that they have eschewed 1 billion dollars in each of the last 2 years from their sales. good luck pa residents trying to beat those odds. boycott.

rcbbuckeye's avatarrcbbuckeye

Quote: Originally posted by faber98 on Feb 2, 2014

this clown miller is proud of the fact that they have eschewed 1 billion dollars in each of the last 2 years from their sales. good luck pa residents trying to beat those odds. boycott.

Same for Texas. I don't begrudge them that. Lotteries are in business to make money for the state. Thay make that very clear. Now if they tried to hide that fact I would find that offensive.

Personally, I rarely play scratch offs of any price, but the fact is scratch off tics outsell online games, at least here in Texas. People like the instant gratification. I prefer the anticipation of the upcoming draw.

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Crazy @ $30 scratcher

Slick Nick's avatarSlick Nick

30 bucks is a heck of a whack, I dunno if I would spend that much!Crying

CDanaT's avatarCDanaT

Here's a $20.00 scratch off we have in TX. I am liking this one a bit better than what PA is offering for $30.00

Game No. 1387 - $500,000,000 Extreme Cash Blast
Image of Front of $500,000,000 Extreme Cash Blast Ticket
Image of Back of $500,000,000 Extreme Cash Blast Ticket
$20 Dollar Game
Game Features

  • Over $513.1 million in prizes in this game!
  • 50 cash prizes from $1,000,000 to $2,500,000!
  • Over 1,000,000 prizes from $100 to $500!
  • Win up to 20 times!
  • Pack Size: 25 tickets
  • Guaranteed Total Prize Amount = $170 per pack
Prizes Printed
Amount No. in
Game*
No.
Prizes
Claimed
$2,500,000 10 2
$1,000,000 40 11
$25,000 277 86
$10,000 860 249
$1,000 22,841 6,475
$500 45,765 13,133
$200 150,084 42,963
$100 891,821 255,193
$50 686,555 197,355
$30 1,372,828 393,306
$25 2,745,878 787,101
$20 6,177,270 1,769,007

( Scratch-Off Prizes Claimed of February 1, 2014 

larry3100's avatarlarry3100

A $30 scratch-off ticket- no way. I would rather purchase 15 Powerball lottery tickets at $2.00 each for that $30 than that one $30 scratch-off. The Powerball game is more exciting, getting that chance of winning several hundred million. If your going to dream big, go Powerball!

DoctorEw220's avatarDoctorEw220

PA used to offer $25 scratch-offs a few years ago.  They didn't go over too well, so they stopped offering them.  So if they tried a cheaper ticket, and it didn't work, what makes them think that people will do spend more?

maringoman's avatarmaringoman

Quote: Originally posted by larry3100 on Feb 2, 2014

A $30 scratch-off ticket- no way. I would rather purchase 15 Powerball lottery tickets at $2.00 each for that $30 than that one $30 scratch-off. The Powerball game is more exciting, getting that chance of winning several hundred million. If your going to dream big, go Powerball!

 I Agree!  Also if someone from PA could take that $30 and buy 15 lines of MM each with Megaplier and cover all megaball numbers (1-15) they are guaranteed to win something. Imagine spending $30 and coming out with nothing Chair

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

Here is the Illinois lottery $30 scratcher:

Overall Odds: 2.43 to 1

Game Highlights

Highest top prize on an instant ticket.

Win Up To 30 Times.

Over $328 Million in prizes.

Category: Money
Launch Date: September 3, 2013
Expiration Date: TBD

________________________________________

In comparison to the PA one $30,000 a week for 30 years is one heck of a prize.

Artist77's avatarArtist77

I can't bring myself to spend $5 on a scratchoff.

LottoMetro's avatarLottoMetro

Quote: Originally posted by larry3100 on Feb 2, 2014

A $30 scratch-off ticket- no way. I would rather purchase 15 Powerball lottery tickets at $2.00 each for that $30 than that one $30 scratch-off. The Powerball game is more exciting, getting that chance of winning several hundred million. If your going to dream big, go Powerball!

Interesting scenario. Buying 15 PB tickets gives you roughly 38% chance of winning anything. Buy one of these these PA tickets gives you roughly 37% chance of winning anything. PB sounds better right? Sure, until you look at chances of at least making your money back......

PB prize >= $30, Odds are 1 in 491.4

PA prize >= $30, Odds are 1 in 2.7

Since the PB "breakeven" prize for $30 would have to be $100, let's be fair and divide its odds by 3.33. That makes it 1 in 147.6, still worse than PA. This, of course, is a rough estimation. If you wanted to be more fair you could use the net prize values.

Winning something might seem better than possibly winning nothing, but over repeated trials it can actually be worse (same principal as buying tickets in one draw versus multiple draws). In general you will win more often with better overall odds. The odds of PB are over 10x worse than PA here.

Personally, I buy the tickets with the best odds, regardless of price. The amount wagered is higher but in the end my return is the same or better. In 2013, I purchased 15 tickets $20 or higher with 7 losers and 8 winners. My total payback was 80%. I purchased 28 tickets $10 and under, and there were 15 losers and 13 winners. My payback for that category was only 58%. That includes 2 free tickets which were both winners.

So not only did I win more with higher $$$ tickets (as I should since they cost more! Evil Smile), I won more often.

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