Using data to analyze and exploit scratch ticket distrubtion

Reply #12

eihli — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 03:13:43 GMT

This is a great point and something I can confirm. Percentage-wise, prizes over $600 lag behind prizes under $600. For example, that comes to about 6-8 percentage points for most California games. You can simply adjust prizes $600 down by that average and still have an accurate expected value calculation.

Reply #11

Shingos — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 14:48:08 GMT

Any chance you could do it for Minnesota

Reply #10

oate — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 08:16:21 GMT

That sounds like a nice tool for analyzing an in-progress scratchers game. One thing that might mess up your analysis is that claimed does not mean the same thing as purchased, as a CA lottery employee confirmed to me by email.

Prizes under $600 are typically claimed soon after purchase because you can get your money there in the store, whereas the $600+ prizes could be claimed quite a while after purchase because it takes time and effort to get to the claim center, and people generally don't... [ More ]

Reply #9

eihli — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 04:39:24 GMT

It depends on the state. Pennsylvania has a map where you can click on a country and see how much money has been paid out from that county. It also shows you the name of the person who claimed the prize.

One intention I've had is to see if there is a particular name winning more than their fair share of a particular game. I'd have to adjust for how common names are. They don't give people's full names. They'll give first name last initial. So I would need a way to determine, for example, that... [ More ]

Reply #8

QueenofNumbers — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 13:47:18 GMT

Hello

Is there anyway to tell what area the biggest prizes are like which jurisdiction has the biggest winner

Reply #7

eihli — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 16:05:12 GMT

Here's Michigan

Sorry about the formatting. I couldn't find a way to copy and paste that would retain the formatting.

Eric Ihli

Game Value Price

Millionaire's Club 101 $30

$4,000,000 Mega Bucks 85 $30

Holiday Dazzle 84 $10

$150,000,000 Payout 82 $30

Hit It Big 82 $20

Multiplier Spectacular 81 $20

Royal Millions 80 $30

Classic Black 80 $20

Deluxe 7's Playbook 80 $20

Money Money Money 79 $20

$4,000,000 Winner 79 $30

Hot Fortune 79 $20

Diamond Dazzler... [ More ]

Reply #6

nanken — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 00:50:44 GMT

In Michigan we can now scan our tickets using the lottery app on our cell phones. Can you help with some info on Michigan's instants? They do post for each game how many the game starts with and how many are left.

Reply #5

MszBacon — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 03:49:45 GMT

Hello Eihli,

Thank you for the information. Can you check the data and any information on Virginia, it would be greatly appreciated.

Reply #4

MsLottery — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 07:36:08 GMT

California's app now has the ability to scan scratcher and draw ticks. If the ticket is not a winner the 2nd chance drawing option automatically opens up. I love this new feature.

Reply #3

REDiDrifter — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 04:44:26 GMT

Thanks for that info soo sad...lol .

Reply #2

killerwill13 — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:17:08 GMT

You d need to call the FL lottery for an instant liability report.

Sadly Florida has no plans on any apps for scan ability

Reply #1

REDiDrifter — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 23:29:00 GMT

Hey eihli, your software sounds great very hard to find any of that information in the state of Florida. Couple questions what can you tell me about the Florida scratch Lotto games, remaining prizes lower-tier prizes also, that kind of stuff? Also I am wondering if you are able to write software that you can use to scan your scratch ticket barcode to see if there a winner or not for the state of Florida? I believe Texas is using some software like that they made an app for it but nothing like th... [ More ]

Using data to analyze and exploit scratch ticket distrubtion

eihli — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 16:55:20 GMT

What have you wanted to know about how prizes are distributed, claimed, etc?

I have a lot of data.

I need to know what questions to ask.

I've written some software to automatically get scratchoff data from state's websites each day. That tells me how many tickets are sold each day, how many grand prizes remain, etc...

One thing I was able to gleam from this data is an answer to the question of Are grand prizes weighted towards the end of a game?

I did this buy calculating the ave... [ More ]