After the double triple 0's were drawn in MO the other night. I sent this e-mail. The woman totally side-stepped the second question all together. I'm not done yet though. I'm sending a reply to the answer she sent getting a little more specific. Last year we had ball drawn games. I am going to ask her how much ticket sales have dropped off on the Pick 3 game since July of last year. I will have to have them exclude the midday drawing since it didn't exist last year but I sure they would try to add that money in if I didn't specify. Here is the original e-mail I sent.
My Message
How do you have boxed winners on a double triple evening?
30 boxed winners in the eve and 16 in the midday. Front Pair and Back
Pair have to be straights too. So where did the boxed winners come
from?
P.S. Also, I'm curious to see how much money the MO Lottery has lost since
going computerized, where would I find that information?
Missouri Lottery's response.
Dear Bryan,
Thank you for your interest in the Missouri Lottery and for taking the
time to e-mail us with your concerns and comments.
We appreciate you pointing out the technical error on our Web-site, our
Web-Master has corrected that. You are correct, you can only have a
straight with triple digits, not a box.
Pick 3 has a designed payout of 60%. Since computerized draws, the
payouts have been approximately 60%. This is how is it broken down.
The odds of winning on a straight wager are 1 in 1000. The straight
pays out $600. 600 divided by 1000 equals 60%.
The odds of winning on a 6-way box wager are 1 in 167. The 6-way box
wager pays out $100. 100 divided by 167 equals 59.88%.
The odds of winning on a 3-way box wager are 1 in 333. The 3-way box
wager pays out $200. 200 divided by 333 equals 60.06%.
The odds of winning on a front pair or back pair wager are 1 in 100.
The front pair/back pair pays out $60. 60 divided by 100 equals 60%.
The overall payout on Pick 3 usually comes in at a tenth of a percent
above or below 60% each year.
I hope you find this information helpful. Thanks again for your
interest in the Missouri Lottery.
Sincerely,
Linda Harvey
Customer Care Unit