TX Lotto players - Lottery Commission's sneaky rule change

Reply #17

Piaceri — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:15:04 GMT

Welcome to LP parkinds.

I like Texas Lotto, and yes play for the jackpot. No, I won't pay the extra $1 any more than once in a great while, which is the same I do with MM PB. Am I disappointed with the $250k increase? Yes. But the starting jackpot was bumped to $5m/$3.5m. Will I buy as many tickets now? Nope. Already slowed that down.

I bet I'm not the only one.

We'll just have to see how this goes. I'm guessing real slooooowwwwww.......

Reply #16

SkyLine69 — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:44:24 GMT

Welcome Park

Reply #15

RJOh — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:05:36 GMT

Lotteries has to adjust to their markets and with most states offering PB and MM, local games don't have to offer large jackpots to attract a following. Some players are happy to have a chance to win a $10-$20M jackpot with odds of 1:20M or better.

Reply #14

Lotto Geek — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:05:03 GMT

Actually, the $250,000 figure is the minimum roll, not the maximum. No lottery in their right mind would cap rollovers at such a low amount. Ohio capped their jackpots way back when, and their sales never recovered, even after they lifted the cap.

The last jackpot won was $4.5 million cash, but by my calculation there was only about $1.6 million in the jackpot pool. I can see why the lottery made the change, and why players are upset about it; the effective payout rate was a lot higher becaus... [ More ]

Reply #13

parkinds — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:42:44 GMT

But I play for the jackpot, not for small prizes. I'm glad you said that! I made exactly that point in an email to the Executive Director at the Texas Lottery. To me, focusing extra chances on small prizes is not a compelling reason to play (or spend an extra dollar). If I wanted to play for $10, $100 or even $10,000, I'd play the Daily 4, which has similar odds but slightly larger payouts. If they wanted to juice the game they should have offered something like an add a million option. Select t... [ More ]

Reply #12

rcbbuckeye — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:26:23 GMT

I see a trend with what TLC is doing here. They introduced a game called All or Nothing, which costs $2 to play and gives a player overall odds of 1 in 4.5.

They just changed Texas Lotto. A player can still play for $1 with overall odds of 1 in 71.1, or play $2 with overall odds of 1 in 7.9.

They are trying to increase revenue with $2 tickets, and at the same time have games with better overall odds.

Case in point... Saturday I played 30 numbers in 5 lines on Texas Lotto (6/54). I had 5... [ More ]

Reply #11

RJOh — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:34:07 GMT

Ohio had a similar problem with their Super Lotto game(6/49+1) a few years ago. When the game started out its jackpot was increased by $2M after each drawing. It was the most popular game in the area so there were many out of state players to support it and interest rates on annuities was good.

When they put a cap of $20M that one ticket could win, out of state players stop coming to Ohio to play. The cap only lasted six months but by the time it was removed surrounding states had added Powe... [ More ]

Reply #10

whiteballz — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:15:29 GMT

don't mess with Texas Lotto players

Reply #9

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:53:07 GMT

40.47% goes towards the prize pool. Been that amount for ages.

Reply #8

parkinds — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:29:37 GMT

Well, we can hope they may change. I think they will see a drop in ticket sales as players realize that jackpots are not climbing as high as they once were. The game will just not be as compelling. My understanding is that previously 50% of ticket sales went into the prize pool. So it seems that they were overfunding the prize pool if ticket sales normally ranged from 1.2 to 1.9 million per draw (after deducting expenses). I'm not sure what the percentage is now, but it must be less that 50.... [ More ]

Reply #7

bobby623 — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:19:00 GMT

parkinds

It's too late!

The proposals were made, hearings were held (no players attended) and documents have been signed into law!

No way will TLC ever step back and admit they made a mistake!

Maybe players will have more say when the current governor is sent out to pasture.

Everyone at TLC is beholden to Perry.

Until then, all we can do monitor the TLC website, read the advanced meeting agenda and read meeting minutes, keep track of

the proposed rule changes posted in the T... [ More ]

Reply #6

Astekblue — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:01:10 GMT

Welcome parkinds

Reply #5

hearsetrax — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:17:51 GMT

welcome to the asylum 4 lotto addicts , Parkinds

Reply #4

dallascowboyfan — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:13:35 GMT

Welcome to the LP parkinds

Reply #3

parkinds — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:07:11 GMT

RCBBUCKEYE - Understood. Instant Retirement is a term that depends on a lot of factors. Debt, taxes, interest rates, age. For me, $5 million, cash value is the magic number. At that point, my wife and I can live a relatively modest life without having to work or worry about money for our foreseeable lifespan. And that lifestyle doesn't have a Ferrari parked in the driveway. When the jackpot hits that number, I buy one ticket for every one million increase; $5 million cash value = 5 tickets, $30... [ More ]

Reply #2

noise-gate — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:42:37 GMT

Welcome parkinds

Reply #1

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:36:51 GMT

I read about this change in the commission meeting minutes. If I recall correctly, this was done because of the low interest rates, and frankly sales have not been sufficient to support rolls of a million dollars. Even with sales at 1.3 million, remember not all that money goes to the prize pool.

It is disappointing for the rolls to only be $250000, but, this game still provides retirement ability at much lower odds than MM or PB. Have you noticed how many times someone has hit a jackpot this... [ More ]

TX Lotto players - Lottery Commission's sneaky rule change

parkinds — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:19:02 GMT

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here. Sorry to get on a soapbox right away.

Texas Lotto players; On January 13, 2013, the Texas Lottery issued a News Release saying that effective April 14, 2013, they were adding an Extra feature to the game. This feature allows a player to pay an extra $1 per ticket and increase non-jackpot prizes. They also increased the annuity period from 25 to 30 years. What they didn't announce and you may have noticed now that two drawings have happened since... [ More ]