Hey, you wanted to be in the gambling business...
Tennessee officials are hedging their bets on Powerball to lift the lottery out of a sales slump that could hurt revenue projections for education.
Lottery CEO Rebecca Paul Hargrove says lottery sales have been running about $400,000 less per week than last year since the fiscal year began July 1.
She blames Powerball. The jackpot went over $300 million at one point last year but hasn't reached that level yet this year. Bigger jackpots increase sales.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the lottery chief told Gov. Phil Bredesen in budget sessions Monday in Nashville that the lottery is now projecting about $288.6 million in revenues for education this fiscal year.
That's about $2.5 million more than last year, but about $3.5 million less than earlier estimates.
In 2007, despite complaints from legions of upset lottery players, Hargrove decided to change the Tennessee Lottery drawings from a mechanical ball machine to a computer random number generator (RNG). Subsequently, the lottery was embroiled in criticism over a string of faulty drawings and errors, resulting from the computerized drawing system.
Hargrove claims that it would cost the lottery $5 million to revert back to the real drawings, but some say the lottery has cost the state more than that with the errors and loss in player confidence.
Some legislators recognized that the computerized drawings were hurting the player's confidence in the games and introduced legislation to revert back to real drawings. (See Tennessee Lottery may be forced back to real drawings, Oct. 9, 2007, and Tenn. lawmakers want to force lottery to drop computer draws, Mar. 26, 2008.)
But the State Senate never took up the measure that was championed by House Minority Leader Jason Mumpower, and the proposal was withdrawn in April (Tenn. proposal for real lottery drawings withdrawn, Apr. 30, 2008).
Now, with revenue shortfalls again facing the state, Tennessee lawmakers need to decide if the lottery's revenue projections will remain at the whim of Powerball jackpots, or if they will proactively generate player excitement — and increased revenues — by bringing real drawings back to the state.
The residents of the state also need to decide if they will take matters into their own hands, by contacting their state representatives and demanding that real mechnical ball drawings be reinstated in Tennessee.
Ahh, just like these sort of clowns, blame one thing while completely ignoring the other, bigger issue....
I'm sure Powerball cut into some sales, but all those problems with the RNG and their brilliant giving out the wrong phone number certainly didn't give customers a boost of confidence in how competent the people in charge of the state lotteries are.
The Powerball has nothing to do with the drawings.Of course she has to blame it on someone.The fine folks in Tennessee have been waiting on this,now the last laugh is on her.Cant wait till they come and say,,,,,,What you gonna do when they come for you,bad boys.!!!!!!!! oh yea with all these losing tickets I have stacked up in the cabinet are actually good? Who knows....
Boy, she still can't see past her nose....!
Powerball may have cut into some, but not 400,000 less per week. WAKE UP and smell the coffee Mrs Hardnose. The good folks in Tenn don't deserve to be bilked the way you're doing it with computers. Get some Balls Rebecca, then maybe the revenue will go back up. Tah Tah dolling......!
Well said MADDOG With a 10
That is amazing. I watched her on the news last night and this morning and she clearly stated that she thought it was the high cost of gasoline that had cut into sales of lottery tickets. she also stated that she thought that with gas prices coming down that the lottery would be able to make more money possibly getting to the amount of money they were making before all of the gas hikes. Well, whatever, it remains to be seen. I am sure player confidence does have something to do with the shortfall.
"The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the lottery chief told Gov. PhilBredesen in budget sessions Monday in Nashville that the lottery is nowprojecting about $288.6 million in revenues for education this fiscalyear."
That may be less than expected, but it's no small amount. If TN players want real drawings back, drop that number till the decimal point threatens to move.
I, for one, have quit playing Tennessee's lottory since they went to the RNG method. I have no confidence in any official of this state doing right, be they Republicans or Democrats. In my book, computerized drawings were introduced to make mainpulation easier and more difficult to uncover. I will keep my money in my wallet until they bring back ball drawings. If that means I never get to lay $1 down on the Pick 5 again, then so be it. I am finding that I don't have a problem not having a ticket for the next draw.
I think there are many people like you.
I really feel bad for you, because you all had the carpet ripped from under your feet with no warning or opportunity to voice you opinion. What the lottery did was just plain wrong. It's not what you signed up for.
It's awesome that you are voicing your opinion with your wallet, because that is the ONLY thing they care about.
Look how big this story is in Tennessee. Normally the annual financial updates from the lottery get scant attention. But because Hargrove missed the target, this became a much bigger story. Keep making her miss until she gives you back your drawings.
If you normally buy 2 tickets a draw, just buy 1. Or, like you're doing, buy none.
Well stated Maddog, completely agree.
If Hargrove is true to form she's managing the TN Lottery with the same greedy tactics she used in Georgia. Looks like it's coming back to bite her, hope it takes a much bigger chunk before it's over.
Like I said what goes around comes around.And I do hope she reads all of this that we all write.I would love to see her retire,she has not only my money but all of Tennessee people .We all across the united states work hard,not just us in Tennessee but every one.Do you think for a minute she cares if we have food to eat or gas in our cars or what we need for our families,,,,well $%^*) no she dont.I'm keeping my hard earned money,I dont know the way the rest of you work but most of the time I'm working 7 days a week,and it feels D%^*() M good to have my money for me.......CHERYL
That is my personal opinion why the lottery sales have come down. I'm sure the jackpots on Powerball have something to do with it as well., but mostly the gas prices, economy instability, etc., As far as confidence levels from the consumer, well, can you blame them? The computerized drawings? Remember, most people don't "trust" computers and the internet anyway. Oh, let me clarify that, most people I know. Not any of you here, of course. But throw that in the mix with seemingly fixed draws and bloopers like with the triples, and there you have it! No sales!
I too, feel that if the gas prices stay down the economy will pick back up. We have to suffer the last waves of the dominoe effect from the price hikes., then maybe we can get back to normal around this nation already.
Wow, another bad story from Tenn lotto. With errors like these people are loosing confidence in the lotto headquarter, not in themselves. Get real Tenn lotto if you want to make money you need to offer people a chance to win it, let the odds do the selection, not insiders. I have a feeling that this will happen few more times, at least once more before 2009. Investigation will take place eventually...those that walked away with great sums from this mess will soon be thinking about how not to drop the soap, rather than which super car to buy.
i meant to tell you guys this about pick 4.remember back a few years ago i was hitting the pick 4 three or four times a year? since the middle of 2007 until now i've played on paper and guess how many times i've hit since they went to RNG here in tennessee? 0 times. thats right not once.soooooo what i'm doing is keeping fingers crossed about arkansas and if those guys want to play fair and do ball draws i'll just take my business there.i honestly expected a small mistake by our lottery here every now and then but when i got up one morning and saw on here the headline in the news section about tennessee going to RNG i was hit with total shock.tennessee had one of the best lotteries in the nation before this idiot decided to she was going to RNG the lottery.and can you believe the reason was because she said the workers were complaining about setting the ball machines up every day,lol.they quoted that idiot rebecca paul saying that.if thats the case then those people should've been fired and replaced.heck i would've took the job myself and set 'em up.i'm counting on you arkansas.
p.s.... todd what do you think about me getting with the media in arkansas and showing these guys over there all the bad screwups tennessee has had by using computer draws.maybe spreading the word before hand could do some good.
The more people warning Arkansas about falling into the computerized drawing trap the better!
They need to hear early and often about how players do not like and do not trust computerized drawings.
If they want to kick off their lottery without another group of people attacking them (i.e., like the anti-gambling folks), they need to ensure that only mechanical ball drawings will be used.
• • • • • •
Arkansas legislators: When you write your lottery laws, please specify the following language:
The drawings for any online lottery ("lotto") games that consist of fewer than 10 chosen numbers per drawing will be conducted using a mechanical device in which both the selection of the drawing results and the means by which the numbers are selected can be directly and physically observed by a layman witness.
Shes right I would not buy a ticket if it was a win for 0nly a 100, million dollars
The Govt dont tax our lottery winnings in Canada,
The american Govt needs to let the American people keep more of thier money=GDP.
But they dont because that is what pays for Wars, Freedom,Superstructures, Superior technology,
Its Rebuilding the Nations, Notice I said Nations, 300 million people in united states,
so 1$=300 million thats if they all worked.
Given the unemployment rate this increases the cost per person.
A recession will alter the amount of money the average lotto player plays.
The Government needs to have a few 50 cent lotterys,
i totally agree with what all of you are saying. I do not trust the lottery here.
Prime example.....the last raffle ticket drawing that was held here only announced 2top prize winners and when i called the lottery office back in June to ask if the remaining 1mill top prizes were claimed, I was put on hold for 26mins!!! No one came back to the phone. I had to disconnect because I was on my lunch break at work.
I will admit that I play Lotto Plus every full moon but if its not hit by the end of this month then I'm gonna stop playin it also. The only game that I would faithfully play here is PB.
I don't even like the scratchers.....we have a $20 scratcher with a top prize of 350k but there is another scratcher with a top prize of 500k and its only $10.......where is the logic.
i am so ready for another lottery director.
If Paul-Hargrove is true to form she will likely be recruited by Arkansas to launch their lottery. Maybe that's what she was planning for before the consequences of her own ill conceived decisions came back to haunt her.
She's not going anywhere, since she married a politician and Bredesen even performed the ceremony. It's been oddly "hands off" the lottery since the legistlation was very quietly withdrawn to force them to go back to the balls. The papers, websites, the City Paper, TV, no one has printed a thing. How about this little tidbit...Paul-Hargrove very quietly just received a ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR BONUS for reaching $5B in sales before the lotterys five year anniversary. How many scholarships is that? And in this ecomony? On top of her salary and very generous bonus plan?
One thing I would to know, how much Tennessee has made on 111 and 666 because never once played.Enough to send 10 kids to Vanderbuilt,
Hey everyone go out and play 666.It would either break them if it came in or the payout would be $0.00
I'm soooo glad she's no longer in Georgia!!!! The NUTS here in Georgia paid her a lot of money and bonus when she left and Tennessee paid her even more money and now she's sticking it to the people of Tennessee while her pockets continue to overflow with money!!! When will somebody she her for what she really is???? Some people in Georgia were sad to see her leave, after we saw how things were going with the new lottery head, but we definitely are celebrating now!!! TENNESSEE KEEP HER, DON'T SEND HER BACK TO GEORGIA!!!
How cold is that?I'm sorry for what she did to georgia's people,So much I'm sorry for us here in Tennessee. WHY DONT SOMEONE STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND DO THE PROPER THING ABOUT WHAT SHE IS DOING TO ALL AMERICANS. HELLO!!!!
Funny how the Knoxville News Sentinel reported this, yet the Tennesseean (located in Nashville, where the Corporate HQ is) doesn't mention it at all. Someone has made it clear that it's "hands off the lottery" in Nashville.
Ah, politics and their strange bedfellows...
Wow, didn't know that. Thanks for letting us know.
Message to Hargrove from a TN resident,
I used to play the tnlottery daily but lost confidence after the fiasco last Aug/Sep 2007 and all of the repeats of the same numbers and constant mistakes and errors. Bring the "real balls back". I know for a fact that someone is tricking the machine or has interfered with the program. There is all kinds of hacking going on in corp america......do you think its not going on with the lottery? I tell you we can't even play a good hand of poker online anymore. Now, I just play on occassion, but I used to be a regular and win all the time. Since the lottery started in TN I have won several jackpots but none in the last 6-8 months. It was exciting to see the balls drop, but now I, and a whole lot of other hard working folk have no confidence in the lottery.
Tell me something.....who at the lottery office is a James Bond fan? I can't remember the last time I have seen 007 come in so many times in a 4 month span.......hint.. hint
Get my point?
Nice post, welcome to Lottery Post!
Sadly, the reaction by the lottery to comments such as yours is to quickly dismiss any such notion with a wave of the hand. They start talking about the locked rooms and security clearances and all the other CYA stuff that they use to prove to themselves that everything is just peachy.
In August 2007, we all got to see why that attitude is so wrong, and why so many people are fed up with them.
Within a week of the now-famous drawing "glitches", players were reporting a problem to the lottery. They were (rightly) stating that the numbers did not add up. Why no doubles?
Of course, the lottery said that they ran all kinds of tests and such, but you know what? If they really respected what the players were reporting, they would have dug deeper and found the problem right away.
Instead, the problem continued and continued for three weeks. All the while the reaction from the lottery was basically "the players don't know what they're talking about, it's fine."
In other states that use computerized drawings, the same thing has happened, and like in Tennessee, it was players who spotted the problem and informed the lottery.
In California, a problem with the computerized Daily Derby game went on for three months before a player finally convinced the lottery to check it out. In that case, a large percentage of tickets had a zero chance of winning a prize each and every drawing.
Can you imagine how you would feel if you loyally played that game every day, and then discovered after several months that every time you dilligently checked the numbers, hoping for a win, you never had a chance of winning?
Does anyone think that kind of error could exist with nobody noticing for three months -- or even a single day -- with a ball drawing? I think not.
Tnmeme5177, I hope you decide to stick around and hang out with your new lottery friends here!
I just noticed lotto plus is up to $10 million. It hasn't been won since March. (The 1st drawing) I guess because of poor ticket sales. There's no doubt in my mind if they would have kept ball drawings there would be a winner every month or so. It's a great game... The problem is the drawing and confidence in a lottery that is clearly in a downward spiral.
Wow! I'm a huge James Bond fan. (Could you guess?) That's where all of my numbers have been coming out, huh? I've said it once, and I'll say it again....KY is my kryptonite. Absolutely can not win anything in this stupid state. I play one time in TN, and win. I have played in Ky now for over 2 years, (almost three) and nothing. I won since living here, but only because I played in TN. I usually do win something if I play in TN.
So, cruddy or not, I guess I have to go back to TN to play. Thank you for pointing out the 007 thing. I play that a lot and am getting nothing here. In fact, I do great on the prediction board (because I can bet for nothing continuously) but in real life, I'm missing every p3 by exactly one number, no matter what I play. It feels good to hit on the prediction board, but not when every number I play in real life results in a big fat
I simply can not afford to play the numbers the way I play them on the prediction board. But I still love the challenge and it is a nice tool for testing different methods of picking numbers.
Go to the Knoxville News Sentinel website and read the entire article. She's blowing smoke up Bredesen's a$$...she doesn't want to admit the random number machine decision continues to impact sales, blaming Powerball for the drop in revenue doesn't fly, that game only significantly impacts sales once it's over $150M or so. Funny how they're going back and stating that they're claiming sales will be up versus last year...that because sales were DOWN last year because of the screw-ups and the random number machine put into play. Let's see a comparison from 2006 vs 2007 vs 2008.
The lottery didnt have anyone to test anything other than lottery software until AFTER the random number screw up. Whomever 'tested' that machine didn't test the expected results, they simply tested that it spit out 'random' numbers. Therefore, since there was no analysis of the output, they put it into operation and the programming error was found three weeks later. Emails to the company stated they did find doubles/triples, but that may have been true on the test machine, but not the production machine.
The fact is that the lottery officials already make too much money to 'rig' any of the games. Between six figure salaries, 15% or more bonuses AND (another fact that hasn't been made public) profit sharing included with their retirement accounts, there's already too much money on the line for them to risk it by fixing one of the games.