Maryland Lottery raffle game sells fewer tickets than hoped

Comment #6

johnph77 — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:46:41 GMT

Agreed.

The way out of this situation is the way KY is currently conducting their raffle-type lottery, and I would expect more jurisdictions to adopt this method. They have not announced a drawing date, and the drawing will not be conducted until all tickets are sold. With adequate publicity this shouldn't be a problem and may increase sales as ticket availability becomes scarce. Who knows

Comment #5

KY Floyd — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:19:58 GMT

Including the serial numbers of unsold tickets in the drawing is fraud, and it would be possible that not a single prizes would be awarded. What would reduce the odds is awarding all of the prizes without selling all of the tickets. The only way to keep the same odds would be to award the same percentage of prizes at each level as the percentage of tickets sold. With only 2 $100,000 prizes the only way they could do that would be if they sold exactly 50% of the tickets and awarded half the pri... [ More ]

Comment #4

DoubleDown — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:33:57 GMT

Thanks for the explanation , JP77..

I didn't think it sounded right, I must have been too greedy....

DD

Comment #3

Todd — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:08:33 GMT

Honorable indeed!

They only waited one extra day, and awarded all prizes. WTG Maryland Lottery

Comment #2

johnph77 — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:02:22 GMT

The odds would change only if the numbers in the draw were limited to those tickets that were sold. If the drawing includes the serial numbers of the unsold tickets this would not be so.

Evidently MD is committed to awarding all prizes. Good for them, even with their advertising setbacks and woes. An honorable resolution.

gl

j

Comment #1

DoubleDown — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:00:50 GMT

As of this writing, it doesn't appear that South Carolina will sell out either. I hope they do as Maryland did -- go ahead with the draw next week....

It will increase the chances of a win...

Maryland Lottery raffle game sells fewer tickets than hoped

Lottery Post — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:36:48 GMT

Countdown to Millions, Maryland's raffle-like lottery, didn't sell as many tickets as lottery officials had hoped, and the drawing was delayed one day to sell more.

At $20 apiece, they were the most expensive tickets ever. The Maryland Lottery held its drawing Monday night for Countdown to Millions new game featuring the Maryland Lottery's best odds ever at winning $1 million.

The lottery sold about 325,000 tickets, short of the lottery's 420,000-ticket goal, said lottery spokeswoman Carol... [ More ]