Limited Editon Game : Win $1,000,000 A Year For Life

Reply #12

KY Floyd — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 04:19:13 GMT

That 11 cents isn't the cost per free ticket to replace the prize pool, it's the cost for *every* ticke sold. The state has to pay any prizes won by free tickets, so giving away a free ticket costs exactly as much as selling the ticket for $2, except that the state doesn't collect the $2. Each ticket, whether it was free or sold for $2 has an expected payout determined by the odds. For your game the payout is 53 cents onthe dollar for tickets that are sold, plus another 53 cents on the dollar th... [ More ]

Reply #11

JimmySand9 — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:49:45 GMT

A free ticket is only worth about 11 cents because the only thing free tickets cost is replacing the prize pool money. If it was a flat $1 cash prize, then yes it would be 60%.

Reply #10

KY Floyd — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:31:38 GMT

Did you account for the free tickets? For every 25,827,165 tickets should you should expect 2,934,905 to win free tickets. That's just over 11% of sales. adding that to your 53% and cutting back the amount required to pay the jackpot gets you pretty close to the 60% I come up with.

Reply #9

KY Floyd — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:25:29 GMT

If you quote him or do anything else to indicate that you've even looked at his repetitive drivel, never mind actually reading it, you'll only prove that he's been heard, or at least noticed. I don't think ignoring him will make him go away because he obviously has some sort of pathological obsession, but acknowledging anything will just add fuel to a pointless fire that just continues to smolder over the same scorched ground.

Reply #8

emilyg — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 17:35:43 GMT

cash only - please, please stop.

Reply #7

CASH Only — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 17:32:21 GMT

Don't bother with NY's $20 Lose for Life scratch. Or NY's $10 games for that matter.

BTW I'm glad that you no longer mention annuities in your signature.

Reply #6

rdc137 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:54:42 GMT

Interesting concept. Reminds me a little of the huge prize that New York is offering on its $20 Win for Life ticket.

Reply #5

JimmySand9 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:22:29 GMT

Well, I did calculate it, and it was 53% of sales (including the approximatly $15,000,000 in principal). And just made the cash option $10 mil for liability purposes. It could be $15,000,000 easily if the lottery wanted to take a small risk.

And no, I don't think the lottery really cares about setting anyone up for life. I was just using that as a slogan.

But it's a fair analysis, so I'm not hurt.

Reply #4

CASH Only — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 19:01:46 GMT

At least 13 years. Canada's cash options for lifetime games usually are for about 13 years.

Reply #3

Raven62 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:51:01 GMT

Good Analysis

Reply #2

KY Floyd — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:40:24 GMT

You don't really think any of the states care about setting someone up for life, do you? The lottery is only interested in a product that will sell. Of course I think plenty of people would be more than happy to put down $2 for a chance at a million bucks a year for life, but since the states are interested in what they get out of the lottery rather than what the players get I think the numbers would have to be changed a bit.

How much principal the state would need to pay the annual prize cou... [ More ]

Reply #1

CA LotteryGuy — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:28:24 GMT

CASH Only....how much should the cash option be in order to be worth playing

Limited Editon Game : Win $1,000,000 A Year For Life

JimmySand9 — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:53:29 GMT

For any state looking to really set someone up for life.

Price : $2

Pick 6 out of 54

Prize

Odds

Match 6

$1,000,000/year/life

(win or share)

1: 25,827,165

Match 5

$5,000

1 : 89,677.7

Match 4

$150

1 : 1,526.4

Match 3

$20

1 : 74.7

Match 2

Free Ticket

1 : 8.8

Overall Odds : 1 in 7.87

Top prize winners may opt for a cash-out option of $10,000,000.

If more than one person wins the top prize in a given drawing, then they shall share the t... [ More ]