Games with no top prize remaining would be pulled from stores, if the measure is approved
If you buy a lottery ticket dreaming of winning a prize such as a hybrid car or $1 million in cash, those prizes should still be available when the ticket is sold, two New Jersey legislators contend.
State Assemblymen Paul Moriarty and John Burzichelli have co-sponsored legislation that would require lottery agents to be notified when the top lottery prizes have been awarded, so no other tickets will be sold.
The proposal has been referred to the Assembly Tourism and Gaming Committee.
Moriarty, vice-chairman of the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee, called upon the state Lottery Commission in July to pull instant scratch-off games where top prizes have already been awarded.
"If players buy a $10 ticket for possibly a $1 million prize and there is no prize, they are given false information and it's just not fair," said Moriarty.
A few changes have already been made to the New Jersey Lottery Web site in response to the bill, according to Dominick DeMarco, chief of communications at the New Jersey Lottery.
"Before Assemblyman Moriarty brought this issue to our attention, the game status page on our Web site didn't exist," said DeMarco.
The Web site now has a link called "Games By Year" that shows which instant games are active, closing, closed and expired. Another link explains that "active" means that the game is currently active at New Jersey Lottery retailers; "closing" means that this game is no longer being distributed to Lottery retailers for sale; "closed" means that the game has ended; and "expired" means that the one year period for claiming prizes from the game has ended.
"I am aware that the lottery commission updated its Web site ... and sent information out to the stores who sell the tickets, but that doesn't satisfy me," said Moriarty. "Players shouldn't have to go to a Web site to get this information."
Players can also check the status of their game by calling the New Jersey Lottery at (609) 599-5800.
"We are trying to make our number more accessible to the public, because people say they don't have the Internet," DeMarco said. "That way, our number can be programed in their phone and they can call us on the way to a store to ask us what games are still active."
Within the next month, a legislative hearing is expected on this bill.
"This issue was brought to my attention by a friend who plays the lottery," said Moriarty. "They just shouldn't be selling these tickets."
Sounds like a no brainer to me.If the top prize has been claimed and they are still selling the ticket,they are stealing from the public.
They should give the ticket's (1 or 2) to player's if they spend more than $2.00 to $10.00 on lottery numbers daily three or four etc, at the lottery retailers for free that's if it is any small prizes left you think.
Here's an idea for all you lottery executives:
For higher priced games — anything above $5 per card — why don't you simply have it built into the rules that once the jackpots have all been sold, the price for the game goes down to $1? That way, people are aware that the jackpot is gone, and you can still make some money selling off the rest of the tickets.
I can see many people jumping at the chance to buy a highly-discounted scratch game for a second-tier prize.
How about it?
I think Michigan is the worst in this regard. they have the list of games that don't have any big
prizes left..... but keep selling them because as they say"people still want to win the lower tier prizes"
what a crock of bull..... just so they can sell the game out and make a HUGE profit!!!!
Just wish some of these spineless politicians here in Michigan would stick up for the
little guys for once in their measly lifes, instead of being bottom feeders all their collective
lives !!!
I think you've hit on an important point: state legislatures are responsible for oversight of the state lottery, but it is the legislature itself that reaps the reward of a big lottery proft. More money from the lottery means more tax money that can be funneled to their district or to their special projects. See the problem?
Illinois give a print out of tickets left and some are past games with no prizes left yet they keep selling. I have seen on the list far back as Decemerber,so they know.
Smart peole like us, go onto the nj Lottery website, which lists how many prizes are remaining for which game, and we pay attention to the game number and color because you can have the same game i.e. Crossword or Win4LIFE, one color being newer and having more prizes remaining. The problem is many people aren't as savvy and stores are sneaky to sell such old ticket. Rule of thumb is higher game number is newer meaning should still have top prize.
They need to pull the old tickets and REPLACE with the same game or a newer game of the same cost in the same quantity as what they pulled thus they don't create a headache for the store owner. The owners don't know either sometimes what game has what remaining prizes. Send the Lottery crew over to wherever they know they still have old tickets.
The thing is also, what about prizes that are not the top prize? if the odds to win 500 dollars are the same on an older game w/ no top prize remaining but $500 prizes remaining vs. a new one with that plus the top prize, all else being equal I'd buy either/or.
If, for example, there are 8,100,000 tickets printed in an initial offering of a new game and the claimer reads there must be 3 first tier winners of $5million big ones and 1000 winners of $1,000 trickling down to lesser prizes to $5 for total potential sales of $40,500,000 that is $15mil first tier to shell out for 3 winners. If a structured settlement is chosen, it is only $7.5mil to pay out and $1mil for 2nd prizes etc. No one is going to let another say $24mil slide in revenue if the 3 first tier winning tickets were claimed soon there after hitting the market.
NJL might delay selling potential winning tickets to lottery agents until they recoup many $5 individual sales.
Top agent get better packs containing better winning tickets. Agents who have received customers' winning tickets to validate in their computer, display paid out or verified copies at the register so superstitious gamblers as good luck will flock there for their instant games' purchases.
We had the misfortune of a $5,000,000 winning ticket slip into the pockets of our local police. long exhausted story... The lottery agents locally who knew our plight were hesitant to cooperate with me as they said if they went against NJL they would not get good tickets for sale or could have their licenses pulled.
NJL knows which batches they send out contain that big grab-for-the-brass-ring scratch. They can manipulate when will be a potential win. If there is a high volume of tickets sold on a given game by a particular retailer, that agent may be favored to receive a batch containing better winning tickets. They can manipulate what town it will occur.
Many packs contain 150 tickets numbered from 000 to 149. Example : $2.00 game. 150 tkts at $2.00 = $300.00. Say average ratio winners may be 6:1 in a given game. The smallest win is $2.00 on that $2.00 scratch. Example of using exact 6:1 ratio, there should be 25 wins in the pack, but the least amount win in that particular pack could be only $25.00 or less numbers of $2 wins. I knew of a person who purchased the entire pack of 150 tickets thinking he would win more than his $300 back. He won only $100 leaving $200 profit less retailer commission of, I believe, $.05 on the dollar a ticket. It does not mean 5 tickets will be duds and every 6th ticket will be a winner; sometimes it is back to back, and sometimes more or less.
Some rolls contain 1000 tickets. The honey may be way down at the end. The packs of 150 that are like cards can be torn off either at the beginning or at the end, and some agents save either end for particular regulatr customers.
Some say it is better to randomly pick 1 or 2 from a particular game. Others claim on a 6:1 or 8:1 ratio, it is better to cover bases and get at least 1 win per so many. We've tried both ways. Tickets at the beginning, in the middle at at the end. Our Brass ring was the last ticket in the pack.
Getting back to the mainstream. I think it would be difficult to recall tickets once the top prize is gonefrom hundreds of agents on a rugular basis who have paid their NJL invoices. Numbers have to be printed on ticket, games thought up and reinvented, pulled out of stores and redistributed. It would be like stale bread past expiry date shipped back.
Some players are happy to go for the remaining $1000 or $500 prize.
The NJL website for instant games does contain remaining top prizes. The site changes Midnight Sunday updates. Perhaps a more simple list of remaining 1st tier wins could be posted by each instant game display. I've heard some serious players ask the number position on the pack/roll before purchasing. Others are happy even to get back $5.00 for $1.00 and others happy for another ticket at the same value win.
What is equally important to not sell false hopes and to not continue selling no win tickets, is for NJL to report honestly the number of ticket printed and sold. One cannot have 4 winning first tier winners when the exact ratio is 1 winning ticket in every 2,700,000 printed/sold tickets and claim instead of 10,8000 prints only 8,369,000 tickes were printed and slightly less distributed before it was taken off the market. That could be millions of dollars in unreported revenue.
The raffle game last winter was a good example of lottery players knowing up front what to expect for their chance puchase. They should restructure the concept for payouts of the scatchoff games.
Some of the lottey agents will tell their regular purchasers there are no top prizes remaining for a particular game. Others don't care; they want their revenue back. Ask them if it is still a good winning game before your purchase.
if the winning ticket face value win shows you've won $100, you can't be paid less than that face value winning. people have sued the lotteries for printed number mistakes between number and written value misprints beneath.
The Instant Games are Designed with a Prize Structure based on the Sale of the Number of Tickets printed. With that in mind the Lottery should be able to sell Tickets for each game until all the Tickets are gone. They should however keep an accurate list of Remaining Prizes, which should be posted at each Lottery Agents premises, so that Players can make a decision on which Game they want to play.