How does scratch off lottery work?

Reply #32

GiveFive — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:54:31 GMT

Prior to joining LP, I realized that I could be playing a scratch-off game with no top prize available. Therefore I decided not to play them very much. I still play them every once in a while, but I'm careful which ones I buy when I do play.

It was after I joined LP that I learned about open packs of tickets returned to The NY Lottery from retailers going out of business being destroyed. That made me decide to buy even less often than I was.

It was the atricle about the returned open packs... [ More ]

Reply #31

jaggudada — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:49:19 GMT

Don't you think this whole scratch off lottery is farce with so many flaws. couldn't they make it so it is little more kosher? whether all tickets are printed and distributed question can be asked to lottery.

Reply #30

GiveFive — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:15:05 GMT

I received an answer ot my question of The NY State Lottery asking them if they knew the location of retailers possessing top tier prizes prior to the ticket being sold. Below is their response:

We do not know the location of our jackpot winning tickets until someone comes

forward to claim their ticket.

The distribution of books of instant tickets to New York Lottery retailers

statewide is a totally random process, and winning tickets are also randomly

distributed within the in... [ More ]

Reply #29

GiveFive — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:29:23 GMT

I read that post, and there's no doubt about it, players in NY can not get a very clear picture of what the situation is with regard to the number of unclaimed top prizes for scratch off's. The New York Lottery destroys opened books of scratch-off's returned to them by retailers that have gone out of business. Not good because a top prize ticket could be destroyed. (I do think the odds on that happening are relatively small, but it's certainly possible that it could happen.)

I've wondered if... [ More ]

Reply #28

JAP69 — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:34:18 GMT

Heres another article I found about scratch tickets and remaing prizes. This one concerns NY scratch tickets. This investigation was done by a Lottery Post member.

https://www.lotterypost.com/topic/179364

Reply #27

James1 — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:07:50 GMT

Technically, yes. But not all distributed tickets at any given time contain the 3 winning jackpot tickets. What usually happens is when a game is introduced there is a jackpot winner right away usually in the first few weeks. This is to draw incentive to the game. Then you could have a year go by until another jackpot is won. And the last jackpot gets won shortly before the game is cancelled and pulled from stores.

Reply #26

jaggudada — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:13:25 GMT

I'm interested in knowing the number of first few top(big) prizes a perticular scratch off game has. I can get prizes unclaimed on NY Lotto website but do not know where to get number of prizes when the game started.

In my opinion if a perticular game has several top prizes such as 3 X 1 million dollar prizes then wouldn't it be better to play in the begining assuming the lottery is truely random instead of playing when the unclaimed prize counter is 2 or 1

Reply #25

GiveFive — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:03:25 GMT

Gotcha.... Sounds right to me. Maybe I'll start playin scratch-off's a little more than I have been.

Reply #24

jaggudada — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:20:50 GMT

Let me try it different way.

I agree everything being random in both lotteries.

What I meant to say is this.

Let' say you weren't able to match 6 winning numbers, the chances are very high that you wouldn't be able to match 5 numbers either. I know someone else will be able to match 5 numbers for the 2nd prize, but you as an individual have less chance within the overall odds. Whereas with instant scratch off you have equal chance to win 1st prize, 2nd prize, 3rd prize depending up... [ More ]

Reply #23

GiveFive — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:17:19 GMT

I sent them the question. I'll post their answer here after I receive it. My guess is they dont know where the top prize winners are, but it is certainly possible to design a system so that the state lottery could know the exact location of all of the top prize winning tickets. I'm not sure the state lottery would want to know that information. If they dont know where the top prize tickets are, it's impossible for someone working for the lottery to commit fraud by revealing to somebody else wher... [ More ]

Reply #22

GiveFive — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:56:11 GMT

Sorry, but I dont think I understand your question.

To me, whether or it's an online game like Mega Millions or a scratch-off, everything is entirely random.

Perhaps you could clarify your question

Reply #21

jaggudada — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:45:54 GMT

The advantage of scratch off lottery over mega million type jackpot lottery is, in mega million lottery, for the top few high dollar value prizes you have to match 5 or 4 numbers from the 6 winning numbers meaning if your numbers are weird then chances of winning other prizes are not there. In nutshell, if you don't have six winning numbers, it's very less likely that you will have 5 winning numbers. Usually you are lucky to even match 3 numbers.

Whereas in instant lottery, for e.g. 2nd... [ More ]

Reply #20

JAP69 — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:04:49 GMT

So with all this info of bar codes and prize amounts to an individual ticket along with all the computerized tracking the lottery must know.

Reply #19

JAP69 — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:43:39 GMT

Is the lottery aware of the location of retailers that have in their inventory of tickets for sale a top prize winning scratch-off ticket prior to the ticket being sold?

Sounds good to me.

____________________________________________________________________________________

You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale... [ More ]

Reply #18

GiveFive — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:04:58 GMT

Nice find of info out on the web. I didnt read all of the document either, but it appeared to me that it was describing a patent for using a barcoding system to control inventory of lottery tickets that have been disbursed to retailers.

I'm thinking I might use the Ask The New York Lottery feature on NY's website and e-mail them a question. I suppose I could ask them if they know the retailers location of all top prize winners for all scratch off's prior to the tickets being being sold. I'm... [ More ]

Reply #17

JAP69 — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:44:03 GMT

Here is more info on scratchers.

I did not read it all but it looks like it goes into activation details of books and tickets. I thought I read each ticket has a unique bar code. Also the book of tickets has a bar code when issued to a retailer.

You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale.

http://www.freepatentsonline... [ More ]

Reply #16

GiveFive — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:00:39 GMT

While it is certainly possible for scratch-off tickets to be scanned at the time of sale, I dont think that's happening in The State of New York. I say that for two reasons.

Firstly, I *think* the barcoding on NY's scratch-off's is underneath the coating that has to be scratched off. (I could be wrong about that.)

Secondly, whenever I have bought a scratch-off, the store clerk tore the ticket off a roll that is in a plastic case, handed it to me, and then rung up the sale in the cash regi... [ More ]

Reply #15

JAP69 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:43:03 GMT

Here is some info on scratch ticket manufacturing and distribution. Seems like an informative article.

http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/instant-lottery-ticket

Reply #14

Jon D — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:17:16 GMT

I would agree on not playing any game with only 1 top prize remaining.

But I wonder what the best strategy is for other games? Just thinking about the complexities of the manufacturing and distribution of scratch cards:

Let's say a particular $5 game has 25 top prizes of $1,000,000 and a total of $75,000,000 in prizes both large and small. So they have at least around 30,000,000 cards manufactured to distribute. Where are the top prizes inserted?

If they were all in the front part, they... [ More ]

Reply #13

JAP69 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:13:13 GMT

It would seem to me that when scratch off tickets are made they are bar coded and the amount of prize for that ticket goes into a data base for record. When tickets are sold the ticket is activated with that bar code going into the states data base. The state could possibly know where the ticket was sold and the amount of prize before it is even cashed.

Seems like I read articles where unclaimed prize tickets were known where they were sold and the amount of the prize based on the states data... [ More ]

Reply #12

Jon D — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:56:25 GMT

Yeah, just perusing the NY scratch games, looks like there are many games with very few or only 1 prize left unclaimed.

Seems to be a different strategy by the NY lotto compared to the CA lotto. You have many more different games with fewer big top prizes each. CA has fewer games with more big top prizes each. And they show total claimed versus unclaimed so you can track progress.

With NY being the biggest lotto of any state, they probably have a good idea how to run a good lottery. That m... [ More ]

Reply #11

GiveFive — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:03:50 GMT

There are no NY scratch off games that first go on sale with only 1 top prize .

I believe what the original poster meant to say was sometimes there is only 1 top prize remaining to be claimed.

In a previous post in this thread, that same poster made a good point relative to a very low number of top prizes remaining unclaimed. If in fact there is 1 top prize unclaimed, that does not mean it has not been sold. Someone could have bought the ticket with the remaining top prize and lost it, or

Reply #10

Jon D — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 03:20:28 GMT

We don't have any Scratcher games in CA with only 1 top prize.

Which NY lotto game is that with only 1 top prize? I'd like to see what the specifics of that one are.

Reply #9

jaggudada — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:50:09 GMT

Sometimes there is only one top prize.

Reply #8

B$Rizzle — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:45:33 GMT

I agree, or only play games with the majority of the TOP PRIZES still remaining.

I wouldnt play a game that only has 1 top prize remaining.

Reply #7

GiveFive — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:13:26 GMT

It's impossible for The NY Lottery to know when a top prize winning scratch off ticket is sold. They only know one was sold the day that the person who bought it claims it.

You're correct, it is possible there could be several days or months between the day the ticket is sold, and the day the winner presents it for payment. The weekly report very definitely can be inaccurate.

Also, it will take a some time for the Lottery to inform all retailers that all top prizes have been claimed. The... [ More ]

Reply #6

jaggudada — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:36:40 GMT

From the time winning jackpot ticket is sold to the time it is claimed there can be several days to several months gap. Does lottery know right away when the winning ticket is sold? if not the lottery weekly report is not going to accurately reflect the unclaimed number.

Reply #5

GiveFive — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:55:00 GMT

If you go to The NY Lottery's Instant Games page on the NY Lottery's website, on the right hand side of the page is a green box with the words Top Prizes Report . Click on that green box and you will get The Instant Cash Games Unclaimed Top Prizes report that shows every instant scratch-off games top prize, and how many unclaimed prizes remain for that particular game.

When all of the top prizes for any scratch off game have been claimed, the lottery pulls all remaining tickets from circulati... [ More ]

Reply #4

B$Rizzle — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:17:09 GMT

First of, I have never seen a game with only 1 top prize on a scratch-off... AND typically when they do start selling to prize winners, they have already made well over their quota in revenue...The lottery isnt set up to lose revenue, they are always set up to gain revenue.

Listing top prizes and providing top prize info is public domain and available for anyone to request. Even though there are many players that check this info out for themselves to make determinations on which tickets

Reply #3

Jon D — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:11:13 GMT

In CA Lottery they do post the number of jackpots claimed in addition to the number of jackpots remaining. I see that on some other lottery sites like NY that only the remaining jackpots is posted.

I think is good to show both, full disclosure. It shows you how far along the jackpots are. An example here is one particular scratcher game has a total of 25 $2,000,000 jackpots available. 1 has been claimed, leaving 24 left out there.

Now the business and psychology of the scratch tickets kick... [ More ]

Reply #2

jaggudada — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:17:23 GMT

why would lottery tell you how many winning tickets have been sold and how many have been left? Let's say if the big prize winning ticket is sold on the 2nd day since the pool is distributed and if you make this information available people will quit buying and sales will go down. In this way lottery won't earn the revenues based on their assumptions and may go bankrupt.

Reply #1

B$Rizzle — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:18:08 GMT

In most states (if not all) a set # of scratch off tickets (pools) are printed and distributed throughout the state. The odds winning prizes remaining can be found online for your state. I am certain NY has one since it is a huge Lottery state.

For example, if there are 10 top prizes of $1Million, you should be able to go to NY's lottery website and see how many top prizes are remaining for a particular game. Many states unfortunately continue to sell ticket seven when there are no top p... [ More ]

How does scratch off lottery work?

jaggudada — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:14:28 GMT

In scratch off lottery there is no start and end date. Lottery prints out X number of tickets and distributes them. Winning ticket is pre-printed. So let's say if someone gets the jackpot ticket, how do we know the winning ticket is gone? so if you are playing for the top prize of 1 million, 2 million or 3 million, no point in buying a ticket if the top prize/s are already gone. unlike in jackpot games where there is start and end time and when the time ends, the new game begins and everybody st... [ More ]