Insider Buzz: Boycott launched to protest increase in Lotto 6/49 pricesAt least one regular lottery player is betting he can challenge changes to Lotto 6/49 that take effect this weekend.
John W. Sullivan has started an e-mail campaign urging people to abstain from playing the 6/49 to protest against ticket prices that are being doubled to $2 on Sunday.
"Our boycott will begin June 2, at which time nobody will purchase a 6/49 lottery ticket on that date," Sullivan, who describes himself as a Quebec resident, wrote in a recent electronic message forwarded to The Gazette.
"As well, nobody will purchase 6/49 tickets on any Wednesday following this date."
Sullivan has his work cut out for him, however.
Although the 6/49 isn't the lottery of choice that it was in the late 1980s - when its sales peaked at $623 million across the province in 1988-89 - Loto-Quebec spokesperson Jean-Pierre Roy said this week $379 million worth of tickets were sold in 2002-03.
The Interprovincial Lottery Corp. announced in November it would begin offering a new version of the 6/49, starting May 30.
The ILC conducted extensive consumer research across the country and found players wanted bigger jackpots, more often.
"They did a sweep and this is the preferred format people wanted," Roy said.
Under the changes, jackpots are expected to start about
$4 million and grow to $10 million or more on about half the draws - some reaching as much as $25 million during the course of a year. That represents an increase in prize value of 45 to 47 per cent.
"It should go over $20 million often, and I think that has happened only once in the history of 6/49 (introduced in 1982)," Roy noted.
Players' chances of winning will also improve, going to one in 32 from one in 54 at present, he added.
The rise in the number of casinos and the introduction of other lottery games has taken its toll on the 6/49, with Quebec sales dropping 40 per cent in the last 15 years.
Instant scratch-and-win lottery tickets account for $550 million in sales each year.
These first changes to 6/49 in 22 years are designed to "bring back the suspense of the early years," Roy said.
The Loto-Quebec spokesperson said he was surprised to learn of Sullivan's campaign, part of which takes issue with a new 6/49 category offering a $5 prize.
Sullivan, who couldn't be reached for comment, wrote in his Internet missive that raising ticket prices to $2 for the chance to win $5 is laughable.
"You jump to a high jackpot as an excuse to raise the ticket to $2, and then (the) addition of a $5 extra prize to the winning outlay doesn't impress me at all," he said.
