Oklahoma United States
Member #45,969
September 1, 2006
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Quote: Originally posted by KeithK on Feb 6, 2009
I dont seem to be finding a whole lot of OK-specific things. The thing with Cash 5 is its only a $25K fixed jackpot (taxes paid) and it seems like the odds (1:376,992) are disproportinatly high to the jackpot amount, so I am not willing to hit this game like I do PB even if it was likely to be profitable for such a low payoff. Some states have Pick 5 games that offer much better payoffs at comparable odds, or at least they used to according to my memory. One would have to come up with a significant statisitcal advantage in order to beat this thing over the long haul. You figure that with the way they have the thing setup now, they plan to sell $15.07 worth of losing tickets for every $1 in jackpot paid out.
Along those same lines, it seems like money would be better spent trying to hit the Pick 3 (perhaps buying multiple identical tickets) to make it worth dealing with, where you have a 1:1000 chance of winning $500 betting straight. Or, in other words, they plan to sell $1 in losers for every $1 in jackpot. Could even, for that matter, play only front or back pairs at comparable odds.
Speaking of the Daily 3.... something odd happened the other day. We drew 0-0-0. How crazy is that? Moreover, how crazy are the 27 people who bet that straight.
The really annoying thing about Pick 3 in Oklahoma is they put every single wager on a seperate slip of paper, which makes checking stuff over a real pain in the backside. There is no way to get them to print five to a slip like the other games. Really annoying.
By putting each bet on it's own slip, they are actually helping you.....If, like you talked about, you played 0-0-0 "5" times straight and they are all on one slip, then you have a $2500 winner and a trip to Lottery HQ to claim your winnings (along with a form 1099-G). If they are on seperate slips, you now have "5" $500 winners which you can take to any lottery retailer and claim your winnings seperately, no questions asked. When OK started the Pick-3, they used to put up to 5-picks on each slip, but changed about 6 months into it after customer feedback. (One of the few times they've actually listened to us).