Is $100,000 in cost-savings worth the loss of midday drawing broadcasts?
TRENTON, N.J. — Beginning Friday, the New Jersey Lottery Commission will stop airing live drawings at 1 p.m. on the state's public television network in an effort to save money.
Only summaries of the results of the Pick 3 and Pick 4 lotteries will be shown on New Jersey Network at 1 p.m., the state Lottery Commission said today.
Video of the actual drawings will only be available on the commission's Web site.
The midday winning numbers will continue to be available within minutes of the drawing on Lottery Post's New Jersey Lottery Results page (www.lotterypost.com/results/nj).
The network estimates nearly 2 million viewers watch the lottery drawings each week.
"We are aware that a number of our players look forward to watching our midday drawings each day on NJN," said William T. Jourdain, the acting executive director of the state Lottery. "For that reason, we looked at alternatives that would enable us to provide video clips of our midday drawings — as we have in the past — while still enabling us to utilize the same procedures and safeguards we have employed for many years."
The move comes as departments across state government are trying to save money, both for the current budget and for the fiscal year that starts on July 1.
Last week, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services indicated New Jersey has a deficit of at least $1.2 billion in the current budget year that ends on June 30.
The $29.8 billion budget Corzine put forward in March for the new fiscal year could be short as much as $2 billion because of revenue losses tied to the bad economy, according to last week's analysis.
The decision to end airing the afternoon lottery drawings will save about $100,000 a year, Jourdain said.
"Those are saved dollars that will translate into increased support for our K-12 schools, our colleges, and our centers for the developmentally disabled," he said. "It's not just a case of a cost savings; it's an opportunity to augment existing efforts on behalf of our students, our veterans, and countless others throughout New Jersey's communities."
The drawings will continue to be conducted with the same machinery, just now at the lottery commission's headquarters, Jourdain said. The state will still follow the same integrity measures and third-party auditing to supervise and verify all results.
"Even though you may not be able to see the midday drawings on NJN, those drawings will still be recorded and will be made available on the (lottery commission's Web site) following the drawings," Jourdain said. "The video recording of drawings has been in place for years."
Corzine, meanwhile, said today he'll be announcing shortly how the current budget will be balanced before the end of June, which is a requirement of the state constitution.
"You'll hear this week, relatively early in the week," Corzine said. "We're close to coming out with what we'll propose."
The governor said he prepared a series of contingency plans to use as his guide to dealing with the budget deficit.
'It's not as if we haven't done contingency planning," he said. "The contingency plans are in place."
nO i don't like this idea. Its not fair for those who don't have internet access. There got to be a bias going on. People need to see h
I don't like this one bit either. I personally look forward to seeing the drawings for mm and pb. It's part of the fun ! Why would they want to save money in a main area of the fun part of the game?
I dont think they realize the games pay for themselves, they act as if the games cost them money. Now if you loose players/profits for the midday drawing because of this decision what have you saved. 100,000 per year doesnt sound like much for games that can generate billions
Right!
It's the same line of false reasoning that justifies lotteries moving to computerized drawings.
Anyone who does serious financial modeling knows that stuff like this is not a simple add-and-subtract exercise. Changes have rippling repercussions, and the failure to acknowledge and account for that is highly misleading.
The TV station (NJN) said that 2 million people watch the live drawings. Does the lottery seriously think that 2 million people will all have the same exact reaction of not changing their buying patterns based on the loss of live broadcasts?
This reminds me of something another member told me recently about a different state lottery. He said that an aide to the Governor in that state did not understand what was the big deal about watching ping pong ball drawings, and why they kept interrupting other shows for a few minutes when the draw took place (even if only showing a small caption of the results).
Now, this aid, who obviously has the Governor's ear, and thus has the ability to influence the Governor's thinking, has the potential to hurt the integrity of the lottery and/or impact sales by eliminating the live drawings in that state -- and the guy probably has zero knowledge about lottery players or lottery sales.
Why the heck are these singular politicians -- in this case a non-elected aid -- able to carry strong influence into a subject matter (the lottery) which they know nothing about? This stuff goes on all the time in different areas of government too, such as when some politician who knows nothing about education influences the curriculum standards in the state.
Enough of this already!
Boycott The NJ Midday Games: Join together in abstaining from Playing NJ Midday P3/P4 in protest of this action!
Todd, I think you have summed up in a nutshell what has frustrated most people about the government for as long there has been a government. IMO. Well, it certainly is one of mine.
Ill conceived idea. $100k 'saved' can not outweigh public confidence lost when draws are held out of view .... which equates to behind closed doors just like RNG drawings.
People really should boycott this and stay on it or everybody will be doing it.
I agree totally! They need to understand the seriousness of this action and how much they take for granted and its obvious the only language they understand is $$$. I don't intend to play in the midday anymore and I'm seriously thinking about the night draw as well with those irratic payouts.
Could it be that they really do know what they are doing but they are really just sneaky anti gambling advocates?
It is hard for me to beleive that if they consider the lottery revenue a good thing that they would knowingly P.O. the players.
Another reason to DUMP Corzineeee. What really needs to be done is to cut Government, not the very people who keep you there. I won't be playing the midday lottery, untill it's reinstated.
Everyone thought that Florio was a bad Governor, He was a saint compared to this Wedge....!
It B.S
I am a professional expert in advertisement and marketing I would like to suggest that people wake up and smell the coffee roasting. Key words are the KEY to selling remember that!
Them say what?
The move comes as departments across state government are trying to save money, both for the current budget and for the fiscal year that starts on July 1.
I say!
Declaring the reason for the cut to be for the budget is one of the oldest lies and escape goats in the world, it's a very old method that seems to work well. It always seem to work best to claim this as the reason.
Them say what?
"Those are saved dollars that will translate into increased support for our K-12 schools, our colleges, and our centers for the developmentally disabled," he said. "It's not just a case of a cost savings; it's an opportunity to augment existing efforts on behalf of our students, our veterans, and countless others throughout New Jersey's communities."
I say!
This is most likely a load of crap! Declaring the reason as "For the sake of the children" Has always worked well. And always will work, this is a very popular widely used method used by most scams, we've all seen the commercials to send in our money to save the starving children.
Them say what?
The network estimates nearly 2 million viewers watch the lottery drawings each week. We looked at alternatives that would enable us to provide video clips of our midday drawings — as we have in the past — while still enabling us to utilize the same procedures and safeguards we have employed for many years."
I say!
The idea behind this method of talk is never to save money but instead to shroud the drawing from the public in the form of a video (something that can be quickly, "very quickly" edited) instead of a live execution of the drawing itself and yet produce a safe and secure feeling in the people and keeping the public trust. Yet if you have done your homework, any avid lottery player knows with some research what is coming next; The video will soon be gone as well, because one day they Will say it too "cost money" to produce. A clear example of this would be Washington State who once had a live airing, then a video, then radio, and finally now only the newspaper and their website, which by the way the they had created right after they made a public announcent that they too had to cut the budget the "new website" cost over $30,000 to create as they also had to save money due to the "budget"
So I got it lets create a new website and spend $30,000 on it, since we're trying to save money. "But Frank I thought we were gonna spend that money on the "children", We'll lets just say we did and dont. mums the word! shhhh
Them say what? They say the decision to end airing the afternoon lottery drawings will save about $100,000 a year, Jourdain said.
I say!
Washington state said the same thing but then spent the money on a new website and other things and clearly NOT what "they said" it would go for. POOF money GONE! Greatest trick in the book! Saying it is for the budget sake and the children again works but is just a lie and a marketing scam.
Them say what?
"Even though you may not be able to see the midday drawings on NJN, those drawings will still be recorded and will be made available on the (lottery commission's Web site) following the drawings," Jourdain said. "The video recording of drawings has been in place for years."
I say
Again this statement is only to create trust from the people, and no other reason for this statement but to shroud what they are really up to. They do have their personal agenda you know? Right after Washington State pulled the plug on the live airing it took over 1 hour to put the video in place and upwards to 1 1/2 hours before they had the numbers available to the public by phone. And sometimes they didn't reveal the numbers for Saturdays drawing till Monday.
Them say what?
The drawings will continue to be conducted with the same machinery, just now at the lottery commission's headquarters, Jourdain said. The state will still follow the same integrity measures and third-party auditing to supervise and verify all results.
I say
The word "Integrity" is a very good word to use in marketing to create trust, you see it on many website that sell a product, "BUY WITH INTEGRITY!" its a marketing word used in sales to get ones credit card number or to instill trust.
Them say what?
The governor said he prepared a series of contingency plans to use as his guide to dealing with the budget deficit.
I say!
There's that word "budget" again. OK we believe you, you've convinced us all. go ahead pull the plug on the live drawing. Thank you.