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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jul 11, 2015
As of 6 AM Saturday July 11th there are less than 65,075 tickets left. Tickets can be sold until 5 PM tonite. I think they're gonna just make it! The drawing is at 7 PM tonite. G5
It will be interesting to check the progress by the hour. As of 8:32 am there are 62,718 tickets remaining
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Just some extra information ... of course the Lottery wants a sell-out by 5pm today but they still have profit ... maybe just a little less.
Last week I was figuring this out ... they really need to sell 300,000 tickets to cover all the prizes and have a small profit ...
Here are the figures ... I think I am accurate:
$100 x 5,892...... $589,200
$1000 x 1000...... $100,000
$100,000 (4)...... $400,000
$1 million (4).. $4,000,000
Total prize money awarded = $5,089,200
300,000 tickets sold = $6 million ... so they should probably be happy or "breathing a sigh of relief" at the PA Lottery when ticket sales pass the 300,000 total mark.
There is no reason for them not to keep having a raffle drawing ... when they can't sell at least 300,000 total tickets ... then they have a problem.
I just checked the latest number of tickets remaining ... they have no number showing. Tickets are still for sale but they have no current figures.
I will also add this ... I would like to see the Lottery sell only 400,000 total tickets and keep all the same prizes ... just give everyone some better odds for this one lottery game.
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Interesting the lottery pulled the number of remaining tickets off their website. I wonder what that means? Did they discount them yet? It is better odds for those who bought tickets if they didnt sell out, assuming the lotto does not buy them up.
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Quote: Originally posted by Jeopardy1941 on Jul 11, 2015
Interesting the lottery pulled the number of remaining tickets off their website. I wonder what that means? Did they discount them yet? It is better odds for those who bought tickets if they didnt sell out, assuming the lotto does not buy them up.
Good question ... thanks for confirming that, I thought I might be having a problem on my end.
Maybe they are updating ... I know people have mentioned that they were able to buy raffle tickets at a discount ... I have never had the chance, always have paid $20 ... perhaps they have marked them down, even a smaller amount of money is still profit at this stage.
Just the people that already paid the full price lose out a little. If anyone wins a million dollar prize with a discounted ticket ... they really have a story and "good fortune".
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Quote: Originally posted by Crazy Wombat on Jul 11, 2015
Just some extra information ... of course the Lottery wants a sell-out by 5pm today but they still have profit ... maybe just a little less.
Last week I was figuring this out ... they really need to sell 300,000 tickets to cover all the prizes and have a small profit ...
Here are the figures ... I think I am accurate:
$100 x 5,892...... $589,200
$1000 x 1000...... $100,000
$100,000 (4)...... $400,000
$1 million (4).. $4,000,000
Total prize money awarded = $5,089,200
300,000 tickets sold = $6 million ... so they should probably be happy or "breathing a sigh of relief" at the PA Lottery when ticket sales pass the 300,000 total mark.
There is no reason for them not to keep having a raffle drawing ... when they can't sell at least 300,000 total tickets ... then they have a problem.
I just checked the latest number of tickets remaining ... they have no number showing. Tickets are still for sale but they have no current figures.
I will also add this ... I would like to see the Lottery sell only 400,000 total tickets and keep all the same prizes ... just give everyone some better odds for this one lottery game.
...
wow!!! so the lottery pockets near 48%.
The odds make no difference, they pocket ALOT!
Lesson learned, never buy the first 100,000. you wont win jack.
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Quote: Originally posted by TheGameGrl on Jul 11, 2015
wow!!! so the lottery pockets near 48%.
The odds make no difference, they pocket ALOT!
Lesson learned, never buy the first 100,000. you wont win jack.
GameGirl ... I have a small correction to my earlier figures about what the total raffle prizes actually cost.
I forgot the slight cost of the bonus to retailers for selling the larger prize tickets ... from what I can find out, for selling a million dollar winner a retailer gets $5,000 and for selling a $100,000 prize, a retailer gets $500.
So add $22,000 to my earlier total of:
$5,089,200 + $22,000 = $5,111,200 ... I don't think there is any bonus for the smaller $1,000 prizes.
So 300,000 tickets at $20 = $6,000,000 - $5,111,200 = $888,800 Profit and any tickets sold over 300,000 all gravy and more profit.
... I'm not figuring in the cost of the paper and ink ... that's just the cost of doing business !!!
Wyomissing, PA United States
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Quote: Originally posted by Jeopardy1941 on Jul 11, 2015
Interesting the lottery pulled the number of remaining tickets off their website. I wonder what that means? Did they discount them yet? It is better odds for those who bought tickets if they didnt sell out, assuming the lotto does not buy them up.
Based on the posted raffle results, sales fell short by around 38,000 tickets; not a sell out. PA Lottery still made a bundle. However, PA Lottery lost bragging rights for always selling out - this time they didn't, and appeared to be caught off guard.
PA Lottery still drew 6,000 winning tickets as advertised. So those who played (I didn't) had around a 7.5% better chance of winning a prize. Overall stated odds is 1 in ~83, but improved to ~1 in 77 due to around 462,100 tickets being sold instead of all 500,000.
As for what this means going forward, difficult to say. However, my hunch is the PA Lottery will continue with a raffle, but likely be scaled back to once per year and/or with less tickets (also maybe at a higher price-point of $25-$50).
For those in PA seeking to win a million with somewhat realistic odds at the same $20 price-point, there's still PA Pick-5 (formerly Quinto), which is drawn twice per day. Play $20 straight on a number and it pays $1 million - relatively easier to hit at 1 in 100,000 than the PA Lottery raffle of 1 in 125,000. Overall payout percentage for both raffle and Pick-5 are nearly the same at ~50%.
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Quote: Originally posted by Ron5995 on Jul 13, 2015
Based on the posted raffle results, sales fell short by around 38,000 tickets; not a sell out. PA Lottery still made a bundle. However, PA Lottery lost bragging rights for always selling out - this time they didn't, and appeared to be caught off guard.
PA Lottery still drew 6,000 winning tickets as advertised. So those who played (I didn't) had around a 7.5% better chance of winning a prize. Overall stated odds is 1 in ~83, but improved to ~1 in 77 due to around 462,100 tickets being sold instead of all 500,000.
As for what this means going forward, difficult to say. However, my hunch is the PA Lottery will continue with a raffle, but likely be scaled back to once per year and/or with less tickets (also maybe at a higher price-point of $25-$50).
For those in PA seeking to win a million with somewhat realistic odds at the same $20 price-point, there's still PA Pick-5 (formerly Quinto), which is drawn twice per day. Play $20 straight on a number and it pays $1 million - relatively easier to hit at 1 in 100,000 than the PA Lottery raffle of 1 in 125,000. Overall payout percentage for both raffle and Pick-5 are nearly the same at ~50%.
Thanks for the information ... I did not think the tickets were sold out. In the past they usually have it posted on the web site and also in a news release I have seen the Lottery say what time the last ticket was sold along with the location.
The PA Lottery could make a better deal for the player with future raffle drawings.
Sell only 400,000 total tickets and keep the same exact prize structure of 6,000 total prizes.
The Lottery can easily live on the profit from 400,000 tickets and players would for the same $20 ticket price, enjoy some better odds ... it would have my interest.
The PA Lottery is greedy trying to suck money in from all kinds of games ... it would not hurt for the lottery to offer one game twice a year ... like the raffle ... where players have better odds ... so they take in a little less money. They are making enough money in total from all the games anyway.
I think 400,000 tickets could probably be easily sold for the raffle.
Wyomissing, PA United States
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PA Lottery posted a press release a little while ago. And towards the bottom of it, they mention the exact number of tickets sold: 462,070. Officially not a sell out.
Same prize structure with 400,000 tickets would be nice, but not likely. $5,111,200 prizes on $8,000,000 sales would be ~64% overall payout. All PA numbers games are in the 50%-58% payback range with Treasure Hunt, reportedly (not confirmed), paying out 55%-58%, and Cash4Life 55%.
PA Lottery could easily go upwards of 70% overall payback on a raffle and still make a bundle. They already do for instants. Since the number of raffle prizes is pre-determined, there's no reason, other than greed, to limit payback to ~50%. A 70% payback raffle would be fantastic - fun to dream. For now, there are $20 instant games with decent payback; intermediate prizes are lousy, but allows for more play and chances of hitting the top prize.
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Quote: Originally posted by Ron5995 on Jul 13, 2015
Based on the posted raffle results, sales fell short by around 38,000 tickets; not a sell out. PA Lottery still made a bundle. However, PA Lottery lost bragging rights for always selling out - this time they didn't, and appeared to be caught off guard.
PA Lottery still drew 6,000 winning tickets as advertised. So those who played (I didn't) had around a 7.5% better chance of winning a prize. Overall stated odds is 1 in ~83, but improved to ~1 in 77 due to around 462,100 tickets being sold instead of all 500,000.
As for what this means going forward, difficult to say. However, my hunch is the PA Lottery will continue with a raffle, but likely be scaled back to once per year and/or with less tickets (also maybe at a higher price-point of $25-$50).
For those in PA seeking to win a million with somewhat realistic odds at the same $20 price-point, there's still PA Pick-5 (formerly Quinto), which is drawn twice per day. Play $20 straight on a number and it pays $1 million - relatively easier to hit at 1 in 100,000 than the PA Lottery raffle of 1 in 125,000. Overall payout percentage for both raffle and Pick-5 are nearly the same at ~50%.
Thanks for that reply. Even with the better odds, still did not hit anything. Between my two tickets and the 13 from the work pool, not a single number hit, not even for 100 dollars.
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Quote: Originally posted by Jeopardy1941 on Jul 14, 2015
Thanks for that reply. Even with the better odds, still did not hit anything. Between my two tickets and the 13 from the work pool, not a single number hit, not even for 100 dollars.
I sat this one out, but I have never won anything on the raffle over the many years I've played. Guessing I've bought at least 40+ tickets ($800+ worth) over that time, and possibly somewhat more. While the overall odds are 1 in ~83 (well except this time; 1 in ~77), to never win anything isn't surprising on such limited play, but still disappointing. The excitement just isn't there.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the PA Lottery offers a millionaire raffle, but it's time for them to change it up a bit. Such as offering less tickets at a slightly higher price-point of $25. And/or changing the payout structure, such as, dropping the $1K prizes and offer more $250 and $500 prizes instead. And/or higher overall payout percentage. ~50% doesn't cut it these days with so many gaming choices, including casinos, which are proliferating, both physically and legally on-line. 60%+ would get more interest, and 70%+ overall payout, assuming a decent number of intermediate prizes, would be a near guaranteed sell out even at $50 per ticket.
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I lost twenty bucks.
Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?Or have you seen the storehouses of hail, Which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,for the day of battle and war? JOB 38:22 HCSB
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Quote: Originally posted by Ron5995 on Jul 14, 2015
I sat this one out, but I have never won anything on the raffle over the many years I've played. Guessing I've bought at least 40+ tickets ($800+ worth) over that time, and possibly somewhat more. While the overall odds are 1 in ~83 (well except this time; 1 in ~77), to never win anything isn't surprising on such limited play, but still disappointing. The excitement just isn't there.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the PA Lottery offers a millionaire raffle, but it's time for them to change it up a bit. Such as offering less tickets at a slightly higher price-point of $25. And/or changing the payout structure, such as, dropping the $1K prizes and offer more $250 and $500 prizes instead. And/or higher overall payout percentage. ~50% doesn't cut it these days with so many gaming choices, including casinos, which are proliferating, both physically and legally on-line. 60%+ would get more interest, and 70%+ overall payout, assuming a decent number of intermediate prizes, would be a near guaranteed sell out even at $50 per ticket.
Although I've only played in the last two PA Millionaire Raffles, I have to agree with everything written above.
I realize that the raffle was held over a week ago, but I just downloaded a PDF file from the PA Lottery's website that lists the winning numbers in each prize category. I'm surprised by something I noticed, and that's that many winning tickets were sold very late in the selling cycle. I say that because I saw a lot of winning numbers listed that were above 300,000. That said, the 100 dollar winners do seem to have a normal distribution/bell curve of winning numbers.
Three of the four top prize winners had numbers above 360,000. Two of the of the four $100,000 winners had numbers above 359,000. I didn't count them, but it appears that slightly less than half of the $1,000 winners had winning numbers above 313,000. I don't know if this information has any significance or not.
I do know that players (for whatever reason) hold off from buying tickets until the bitter end, and I'm wondering if that can be tied to the large number of higher numbers that won. I cant think of a good reason why that'd be the case, but I'm very tempted to deploy a new strategy of NOT buying any tickets for the next Millionaire raffle until right after Christmas. I know, you're thinking I'm crazy, but it's true!
Holding off on buying raffle tickets until the last minute is not unique to PA. In Connecticut, where up until 2015, they held two "SuperDraw" raffles per year for a top prize of one million dollars, the same phenomenon is seen. This past July 4th, CT did NOT hold a SuperDraw raffle. That maybe due to the fact that for last year's Fourth of July raffle they sold 138,000 tickets out of a max of 275,000. That makes me wonder if they'll hold a New Years Day SuperDraw raffle. Time will tell on that. G5
PS This might make you feel a little better Ron, but FWIW, I run a pool of 8 guys at work and we bought 16 tickets for the New Year 2015 raffle, and 16 again for the July 11th raffle. (A total of $640) We haven't won a dime either!!