End of game schedule / Top prizes not yet claimed

Reply #11

Romancandle — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:14:20 GMT

Ahhh the middle man. Very informative post- thanks again!

I was just trying to figure out how many retailers there might be in IL- best guess 5-10K. CA bigger market than IL.

IL has at least one scratcher with 7 mil odds- $20 ticket.

So once again, transparency is key as you indicated before. Without knowing the volume of sales for a particular game, in addition to exactly knowing when and where the jackpots were sold well, then you best have lady luck on your side.

Either way, I ll

Reply #10

Jon D — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:44:57 GMT

The main thing you're missing is the middle man: the distributor/vendor. They run everything. The state lottery guys don't have the expertise in house, it is contracted out to the distributor. Also, 1-in-7,000,000 odds are pretty extreme on scratch games, which are likely in the 1-in-1,000,000 ballpark, more or less.

You'd be surpised how many tickets they go through. Take California for instance. We got about 20,000 retailers. So if a game has 1-in-1,000,000 odds, and that batch is printed i... [ More ]

Reply #9

Romancandle — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 03:48:16 GMT

Thanks... another good explanation Jon D.

I've always been curious about how this works with scratchers and I think you're definitely in the ballpark on the process. Texas does post quite a bit of detailed information on the web with scratcher games.

Let's say there are 3 top prizes with 1 in 7,000,000 odds of hitting just one of them. Using your example of batches (3) that would be 21,000,000 tickets for just one scratcher game! That can't be right?

How much can retailers stock on thei... [ More ]

Reply #8

Jon D — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:18:36 GMT

No source for the information, just my own original research gathered over the years and from talking to people at the lottery. So you can take what I say with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if it makes sense. Nobody knows for sure unless they are on the inside and write a tell all, but so far I have not seen that.

I think you misinterpreted what I said earlier about the ticket batches. Yes, all the top prizes and other prizes are there in the original print order of tickets, and the... [ More ]

Reply #7

RedStang — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:21:41 GMT

Depends on the game. They won't let special occasion and holiday tickets go on a few years until all prizes are gone.

Reply #6

ScratchSmarter — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:34:17 GMT

Jon D thatnks for details.....just curious where is this info coming from?

If you're saying that all of the top prizes are not in the initial printing, then the odds are not being properly represented on the sites. The states are simply advertising PLANNED top prized....not all of the top prizes would be in circulation because they wouldn't all be actually printed yet.

Under this scenario, the states would never need to do a 're-print'...they would just continue to order new batches. Am I... [ More ]

Reply #5

redhot7 — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 04:13:10 GMT

I checked out California's Lottery page... holy smokes... nearly real time updates on remaining prizes!

One crucial information is missing. They do not say where the claimed tickets were bought. One could contact the lottery office for the information but it's too much hassle and the information is not updated daily.

Reply #4

Jon D — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:00:50 GMT

I checked out California's Lottery page... holy smokes... nearly real time updates on remaining prizes! Makes the IL Lottery page look as shady as our politicians

I think CA and IL are about tied for most despised state govt's. ;)

Yeah, don't take that from 'em! I've seen worse, like only weekly PDFs on top prizes. At least you have other top tier prizes, but still weekly PDFs publication of scratch remaining prizes is kinda lame compared to other states that have daily webpage updates of... [ More ]

Reply #3

Romancandle — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:53:08 GMT

Thanks Jon D- good explanation!

I second that motion on transparency... IL Games are run like a for profit corporation. I believe we're the first state to privatize management of the state lottery.

I checked out California's Lottery page... holy smokes... nearly real time updates on remaining prizes! Makes the IL Lottery page look as shady as our politicians

Hmmm, now why can't they do that in IL?

When you don't have accurate and timely data posted on remaining scratcher game prizes... [ More ]

Reply #2

Jon D — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:38:50 GMT

To clarify a few things, you are typically dealing a few different entities here:

1. Scratch ticket manufacturer, like Scientific Games

2. Scratch distributor/vendor, like GTECH, they provide the turnkey solution of machines support systems

3. Your state Lottery, which is just the lottery commission and various administrative people

The ticket manufacturer knows EXACTLY where the top prizes are. Yes, the initial order is printed in bulk, but in batches of tickets equal to the odds on... [ More ]

Reply #1

ScratchSmarter — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:59:18 GMT

If only 1 of the 5 top prizes were ever claimed, then the state REALLY made out with that game and the players really lost.

The state cannot force where the winning tickets are in the printing of the tickets. If they did, the word would get out that the entire game is corrupt and then no one would play. They have to stick with randomly printing and distributing the games to retailers.

All of the top prizes are randomly printed throughout the game's printing (which is all done at once... [ More ]

End of game schedule / Top prizes not yet claimed

Orome — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:44:38 GMT

So, despite knowing better I have begun playing scratchers on occasion. I have been looking at the state lotto website and paying careful attention to top prizes not yet won and end of game schedules. I noticed on one game in particular that ended not long ago and only 1 out of 5 top prizes were ever claimed.

My question is, how do a state lottery determine when to phase out games? Do they normally phase out games when there are still top prizes that have yet to be won? If so, what's to... [ More ]