The Texas Lottery has, for the first time in its history, sold more than $100 million in scratch ticket sales in just one week. From Dec. 23, 2018 to Dec. 29, 2018, scratch ticket sales totaled $100,776,586, shattering the old record of $99,679,358 achieved in March of 2018.
"This is a very special time for the Texas Lottery as we continue to experience unprecedented growth and we are especially thrilled to celebrate this tremendous record week of scratch ticket sales," said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. "Revenue generated from these games supports public education and veterans in Texas," said Grief.
The Texas Lottery has already generated $1.5 billion in scratch ticket sales thus far in FY 2019 and is on pace to shatter its previous annual scratch ticket sales record of $4.42 billion for FY 2018.
"Our scratch ticket sales have reached unprecedented levels during the current fiscal year, a testament to our strategic game planning and the extraordinary teamwork among our staff, vendors and retailers. As we continue to introduce fun and innovative scratch ticket games to our players, and our draw games continue to perform, we're on pace for another record-breaking year for total sales and revenue to the state." Grief said.
Scratchers tend to be the lottery industry's cash cow.
I know it is for N.C.. but we all keep buying them even though the amount of cards of any particular kind printed has increased 10 times what it was 10 years ago but the bs odds stay the same. I slowed down three years ago when it really started getting obvious. But I will brag on Virginia, a lot of N.C. folks buying theirs because, for some reason they hit better.
Congratulations to Gary Grief and the TX Lottery. They know how to keep the golden goose and the cash cow alive and well.
And some idiot politicians want to get rid of the Texas Lottery? Guess they use fuzzy math for their thinking.
On the plus side (LOL), Texas will never see a casino, plenty of them outside their states. Big problem is a long drive for many in the middle of the state.
Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery
The lottery executive director's name is Grief.
good grief!
The spike could possibly be because of a larger number of scratch-off Christmas gifts, simply because Texas players really like their games, or a combination of both.
Wow, Texans sure have a lot of disposable income.
Texas lottery sctratch off odds are horrible to say the least of course if your not paying out your profits will increase.
In most states, scratchers payout between $0.60 and $0.70 on the dollar, with the more expensive scratchers having better returns. They generally have better returns than draw games.
I randomly picked a $10 scratcher from the TX lotto website and it pays out $0.685 on the dollar. ( https://www.txlottery.org/export/sites/lottery/Games/Scratch_Offs/details.html_252704508.html )
That's about average or a little better than average from what I've observed of other states' scratchers offerings. Texas draw games' returns aren't as good as $0.685 on the dollar, that's for sure.
You are generally correct with the payouts on the scratch-offs vs draw games. The draw games are very top heavy and allocate most of the prize payouts to the jackpot prize. Scratch-offs allocate most of the prize payouts to lower tier prizes. It all depends upon which prize structure you like.
Fiscal year 2018 had $4.2 billion in scratch off sales.
How much of that was actually won by the scratch off players?
I love scratchers
A good reporter would have ALSO asked about how much was/has been paid out since that period. I would assume payouts would have been UP in that period. And was there a jackpot or other large payout?
Seems the state only cares about sales, but I guess that is expected.
On TLC's website there were 5 $1 million scratchoffs and 1 $5 million scratchoff claimed Jan 3rd and Jan 4th. You can click on any scratch game and see how many top prizes have been claimed. The lotteries DO want people to win. It's good for business. On the other hand, lotteries ARE a business, not a charity There HAS to be a profit made, or that business will not survive.
So, sales are important. Without sales, there is no profit, and there are no winners either.
Interesting the payouts are touted.
I was at the gas station a few days ago getting my Lotto America tickets.
As I was waiting, the gal in front of me was cashing in a bunch of scratchers.
She ended up with a total of $24.00 won.
Now, as this relates to both the payouts and money returned as prizes, there seems to be an aspect of the lottery industry's profit that is least discussed.
It has to do with the winnings.
Going back to this gal, most would think, if you won, you'd keep the winnings, but that's not what happened.
She then takes her winnings, and here's the lottery industry's non-promoted money maker, buys more scratchers.
I've seen this many times, in different stores, with different people.
Most of the time, if the winnings are below some value, the lottery player uses the winnings to purchase more scratchers or online tickets.
Seems to me and based on experience in both lotto and casino gambling, i.e. Black Jack, that if you continue to keep playing, you will eventually lose all your money, including the winnings.
Hence, the actual returns as payouts is not exactly the advertised percentage given the recycling of winnings.
It's the non-promoted recycling of winnings back in to the lottery's cash cow that really makes the money.
Likely, there's some threshold when players decide to keep their winnings.
For us, it's around $500.00; for some it may be different, but we can be sure there are large numbers of players that do recycle their winnings back in to the lottery industry's pocket; thus increasing their profits more than if everyone just kept the winnings.
You might be tempted to say the lottery industry pays out a fixed set of prizes and that nullifies the recycling, true, if it were the only game ever sold and never sold again.
However, scratchers and online ticket sales operate through a continuum of games and sales; a never ending stream of monies.
It works best for the lottery industry when those winnings come back and don't go out.
Forgive me for going off subject here.
Happy Anniversary to the KY lottery! Brand new horse themed logo and an outstanding website.
JADELottery,
I'm pretty sure that all lotteries are very well aware that smaller prizes just go towards more tickets.
///////////////////
Bleudog101,
Does the logo say
Kentucky, Fast Horses, Faster Women
like it does on the license plates the tobacco shops sell?
Not tat there's anything wrong with that!
Never been to a tobacco shop, first I heard of those plates.
Logo just a horses head/mane I believe is what it looks like, no words!
Thanks for the good laugh JADE lottery.
The philosophy behind the scratchers is, “at least I get something back.” Sign of the times.
So why didn't the reporter do that? Click on the games and find out what was claimed both during and after that time period mentioned. IMHO it is too much WORK for them to do that. It is easier to just take the info given to them and repeat it with minimum effort and get paid.
Also they could have simply inquired to the state what the numbers were, which would be the easiest way. Again to me its only 1/2 a story as they left off the most important part for a player reading it.
I don't know. Don't even care. Not that important. But, you may want to ask Todd. Maybe he can help you.
Your last comment was essentially the state only cares about sales. Well, of course they care about sales. My point is not about the reporter. My point is the state has to care about sales. But they also care that people win the prizes because that helps to sell tickets. If there are no sales, there will be no lottery for people to play.
No, it's because the population is 28.5 million. It's been increasing steadily for years, so this news is not a surprise.
The adult population is about 18 million, so this is an average of $5.40 in scratch-offs per adult in a week. Lots of people spend nothing, some people spend $10 or $20 a day, and then there's everyone in between. $5.40 average sounds about right.
This is an excellent point!
When I worked in a convenience store in Texas in the early 1990's, when the lottery first started, all they had was $1 scratchers. In the six months I worked there after the lottery started, every single person who redeemed a winning ticket, except one person, used the winnings to buy more scratchers.
I remember this one guy who bought 100 scratchers. He went out to his car and came back a little while later with the winners (totalling less than $100). He exchanged that for more scratchers. Rinse and repeat, and in about an hour, his $100 was gone. It's possible that one of those scratchers was a big winner though.
In a casino, there are two ways to measure the profitability of a game -- the house edge and the hold. The house edge is what percentage of your bet the house gets as a profit in one bet. The hold is the percentage of the chips you buy that the casino keeps (e.g. buy in $100, cash out $60, the hold would be 40% in that case).
For blackjack with decent rules, the house edge is only 0.6%. However, that is assuming you play basic strategy and don't play side bets, which nearly every single player fails to do (otherwise the casino would rip out the tables and install more slot machines). With poor strategy and side bets, the house edge that people actually achieve is about 5%.
Because the variance is quite low (almost 50% chance of winning your hand, and a 1 in 20 chance of blackjack which is 1.5 times bet), you can buy 20 times bet (e.g. $100 buy-in with $5 bets) and play way more than 20 hands before running out of money. As a result of the chips going back and forth between the player and the dealer, the house edge builds up to a hold of about 12 to 15%. Note the massive difference in those numbers... 0.6% vs 5% vs 12%!
If every player bought N*bet chips and played N hands (and no more), and then cash out whatever is won, then the hold would be equal to the house edge, but of course that's not what people do. The same is true of the lottery. If every player took the winnings, even just a dollar, total sales would be markedly lower despite the same initial bankroll.
For example, start with $20, buy 10 $2 scratchers, win a total of $14, take the $14 cash and go home, lottery sales = $20. But if you exchange the $14 in winning tickets for 7 more $2 scratchers, win $6, exchange that for 3 $2 scratchers, lose, total sales for the $20 bankroll is 20+14+6=40... twice as much!
What we don't know is how much money did people initially put down on scratchers that added up to a total of $100 million. In my previous post I calculated that the average is $5.40 per adult. But that includes winning tickets exchanged for more tickets. What's the average per adult in initial purchases? $3? $4? Hmmm....
Good point !!
Yep, see it all the time. I got one better. The store that my wife and I go to to sit and play Keno will have , I call them "pickers", come in there all the time to pick thru the scratchers. Meaning play the $10.00 and up ones until they get a winner then move on to the next and the next. I see this woman in her late 50's drop $300.00 everytime. I have seen her hit big once for a $1000 on a $30.00 scratcher, rest of the time giving her winnings back and buying more. N.C Lottery is making a killing off pickers. There are pickers in every state doing the same.
Tucker Black & reddog,
Thanks for the feedback.
It's our job to view this snit differently and stir up the snit storm, whenever possible.
Makes life interesting.
Well said TD!