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Would you play a lottery where you pick your own price?

Sure I'd play it.

[ 24 ]

[ 70.6% ]

I prefer the dollar games.

[ 10 ]

[ 29.4% ]

Total valid votes

[ 34 ]

Discarded votes

[ 2 ]

BobP

Dump Water Florida
United States
Member #380
June 5, 2002
3,577 Posts
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Jul 1, 2009, 5:08 pm

What do you think about a lottery where the player decides the cost of the ticket and that determines the prize structure.

For example: Instead of paying a dollar a ticket for 6/49 to win $7 million, you could pay fifty cents per ticket for a chance to win $3.5 million? Ok, some states already do this, but how about penny tickets to win one hundredth of the prize? Instead of a $7 million prize the jackpot would pay $70 thousand on a penny play and the 3 number prize would be 5 cents instead of 5 dollars.

Our local casino has slots from penny and nickel on up, why not lotto games?

The customer walks up to the lottery terminal with a play slip marked for nickel tickets and the computer notes on the ticket the amount tendered per ticket to determine the payoffs if a prize is won.

I think this would make for a much more interesting game, especially for those of us who like to wheel a lot of tickets. What do you think? How could we make this happen?

BobP
RJOh

100

mid-Ohio
United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Jul 1, 2009, 5:30 pm

That's what you basically get when you join a pool that offer multi-able shares to players. I read somewhere someone had patten such a system to be offered by lotteries but the combinations would be picked randomly.

* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
ca-dreamin*

Chicago
United States
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February 8, 2009
889 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 12:12 am

This would be interesting but I wonder how it would effect the payouts?
TheGameGrl

A long and winding road
United States
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June 10, 2005
6,680 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 12:19 am

the percentage based on wager .

Personally I would love to see a Let em ride wager happen. For 50cents more you can ride out those number sequences for a period of one, two, three, four plays. Naturally each time that sequence hit , your little win would double. THe trick would be, how long you let it ride. I'd be afraid to go more then two plays long on the same ticket sequence. Cuz if you played three series and you broke the winning streak after two plays, your ticket would only get you a free ticket at best. (Btw- this is all hypothetical, no game exist like this that i am aware of...just like the idea!)

Count your smiles.
RJOh

100

mid-Ohio
United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 10:38 am

Some retailers complain about the 5% they get on a $1 ticket, do you really think they would be interested in selling tickets for a penny or a nickel?

* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Stack47

Kentucky
United States
Member #32,651
February 14, 2006
10,302 Posts
Offline

Jul 2, 2009, 12:36 pm

Quote: Originally posted by BobP on Jul 1, 2009
What do you think about a lottery where the player decides the cost of the ticket and that determines the prize structure.

For example: Instead of paying a dollar a ticket for 6/49 to win $7 million, you could pay fifty cents per ticket for a chance to win $3.5 million? Ok, some states already do this, but how about penny tickets to win one hundredth of the prize? Instead of a $7 million prize the jackpot would pay $70 thousand on a penny play and the 3 number prize would be 5 cents instead of 5 dollars.

Our local casino has slots from penny and nickel on up, why not lotto games?

The customer walks up to the lottery terminal with a play slip marked for nickel tickets and the computer notes on the ticket the amount tendered per ticket to determine the payoffs if a prize is won.

I think this would make for a much more interesting game, especially for those of us who like to wheel a lot of tickets. What do you think? How could we make this happen?

BobP

It could be an added twist to established games with fixed prizes like Pick-3 and Pick-4 where players could win $50 or $500 for a dime bet.

As for the higher jackpot games, penny or dime bets aren't going to increase the size of the jackpot that much. On the other hand if a penny player had the only winning ticket, they would collect 1% with the rest of the money rolling into the next jackpot as if nobody won. If you bought a dollar ticket, I bought a penny ticket and we both split a $7 million jackpot, I would get $35,000 and you would get the rest.

But after years of chasing jackpots and finally catching one only to cash for less than $30,000, one of those "Jinx of the Lottery" shows would be interviewing me from the local insane asylum.
RJOh

100

mid-Ohio
United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
Offline

Jul 2, 2009, 12:42 pm

Can you imagine going into a busy retailer with a bunch of tickets and asking the clerk to check them all because you think you might have a nickle winner among them.

* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
DelmarvaChick

Ohio
United States
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December 20, 2008
81 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 12:52 pm

They have something like this at race tracks. I've only been once, and do not know the system inside and out, but they have something called 10 cent superfectas and you win 10% of what the prize money would have been for a $1 bet. It sounds like it sucks, but I've seen (never won though) where the payout can be pretty sweet when longshots come in all over the place. The one I remember specifically a 10cent super would have paid $716 on an unknown horse race at what I would consider a not-so-famous track. Again, horse races are not something I frequent, and I only know of the Belmont, Preakness, Kentucky Derby and Breeder's Cup...so any races/tracks outside of those I know very very little about.

The payout to the store/company could still be a percentage of whatever the ticket amount was. It's all relative for the player and the store, doing bets this way would allow players to do more with their dollar....kinda like betting on sale. Maybe to encourage this type of betting stores could also get paid additional bonuses for reaching volume sale for such bets. Maybe they already get paid like this...I don't know

---

I re-read the post after I posted the above and decided to add this part. I didn't want to bump my post accidentally.

Maybe they could only allow such betting when the payout reaches an amount that is beneficial to both the retailer and the player so the retailer doesn't get messed over with the 5% comission fee.
pumpi76

Honduras
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August 29, 2005
4,715 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 2:33 pm

is a great idea, i thought about it too, but i think it will only be possible when online gaming is finally available...I've seen a website offer like 5 lotteries 1 of them cost 25 cents or 5 cents i cant remember but is parimutel...I am not allow to post the name here in this thread...

The Forex trades: 1.6 Trillion dollars EVERY day, that´s more than the GDP of the Carribbean Central America, COMBINED. Enough to feed every crook out there for centuries...To all Geniuses & Powers Countries of the World the Planet needs breakthroughs in all Medicine, Veterinary, Biology related fields, Psychology, Population Psychology/Sociology..They need to genetically ingeneer new plants species/types to give more variety of plants and thus have more resources for combating diseases¨
pumpi76

Honduras
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August 29, 2005
4,715 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 2:41 pm

like 5 years ago here in LP i suggested why don't they create a Powerball that cost 25 cents and people win 25% [1/4th] of the current jackpot of Powerball which back then was 12 million so 1/4 will be 3 million....But people thought it will overkill Pick5...I didn't think so...What i think it will do is it will suck up money from people and cause people to spend wisely...this will cause to be fewer beer and cigarettes and alcohol sales...But nobody listened....It will have been really good for the USA...And if is going to cost 25 cents i think they should let teenagers play it too if they so wish....

people think i say stuff because i want to say stuff....

what i like about it is that it will cause Americans to be wise about every minute penny they spend and be stingy...again nobody listened to me...

if pick3 or pick4 or Pick2 cost 25 cents the state will make more money than if it cost 1 dollar...

but for this they will have to create retailers whose sole jobs is to sell lottery tickets and nothing else...Which i think they should and i don't know why they don't....

Japan are you listening...

The Forex trades: 1.6 Trillion dollars EVERY day, that´s more than the GDP of the Carribbean Central America, COMBINED. Enough to feed every crook out there for centuries...To all Geniuses & Powers Countries of the World the Planet needs breakthroughs in all Medicine, Veterinary, Biology related fields, Psychology, Population Psychology/Sociology..They need to genetically ingeneer new plants species/types to give more variety of plants and thus have more resources for combating diseases¨
BobP

Dump Water Florida
United States
Member #380
June 5, 2002
3,577 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 5:45 pm

Ok, let's see now . . . complaints:

If you joint a lottery club with 99 other members you reduce the cost of each ticket to one cent and your prize share to 1%. Good point RJOh. The difference would be the ability to pick our own combinations, to play wheels of great size at very low cost.

What retailer would want to take one cent plays. Funny the clubs want that action, maybe there could be a minimum play amount, like one dollar worth of plays so they could make their usual commission. Sure it takes more time, but what is their cashier doing most of the time anyway?

Why does the casino have penny and nickel slots?

Why does the post office still sell one cent stamps?

Why do we still have pennies?

Good idea when and if lottery goes online. I agree, would save all the paper, ink/thermal paper, slips, racks, terminals and handling costs. Aside, the online Pick-3 sites can offer better everything vs the real lottery, yet the real lottery won't go online. Judging from the real lottery web sites, they don't have anyone smart enough to handle it. Going online would reduce retailer interest in offering lottery due to reduced sales and loss of retailers equals loss of sales to those without computers and online accounts.

How many people wouldn't play if they had to go out of their way to play, is lottery mainly an impulse sale?

You only win a jackpot once and a win on a one cent play would eat all your luck for life. I think your lucky fairy godmother would know you didn't cash in the big one. You don't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.

BobP
RJOh

100

mid-Ohio
United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 6:40 pm

What retailer would want to take one cent plays. Funny the clubs want that action, maybe there could be a minimum play amount, like one dollar worth of plays so they could make their usual commission. Sure it takes more time, but what is their cashier doing most of the time anyway?

Why does the casino have penny and nickel slots?

A slot machine doesn't care how much it gets paid to do a unit of work but people do. Processing 100 lines of numbers takes the same amount of effort at a penny each as a dollar each but one pays a nickel and the other pays five dollar. Do the math, a retailer will.

Why does the post office still sell one cent stamps?

Because you need one if you're still trying to use a 41¢ stamp.

Why do we still have pennies?

So you can still buy a hamburger for under $5 ($4.99)
It has been suggested that the penny be done away with because it costs more than a penny to make a penny to maintain the illusion that we are getting something cheaper when charged a penny less.

Besides, if a 100 or a 1000 line wheel could make money at a penny a line, it could make money at a dollar a line. This idea may have to wait until a totally self-service lottery machine comes on line and works.

* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
BobP

Dump Water Florida
United States
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June 5, 2002
3,577 Posts
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Jul 2, 2009, 11:41 pm

"Besides, if a 100 or a 1000 line wheel could make money at a penny a line, it could make money at a dollar a line." RJOh

Even if you could buy all the millions of combinations to guarantee a win the payoff would be roughly half the amount invested, except for some rollovers and then there's the risk of multiple winners.

Where it would get interesting, that hundred dollar LottoTrix wheel would be a dollar to play, that 120-160 line Ken Silver wheel would cost $1.20 to $1.60 to play, etc. For five bucks a draw you could try a heck of a lot of stuff we can only dream about or play on paper. BobP
four4me

MD
United States
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June 18, 2003
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Jul 2, 2009, 11:56 pm

I don't think penny play would work out well for the seller or the lottery the sellers work on a commission for every ticket the sell. Retailers commission is already say 5 cents a ticket what would they receive on a penny sale 1/10 of a percent and the line of customers at the counter could go around a block.

Big John says. You don't hit the number. The number hits you!!!!

I'm not Big John, I'm Four4me, Big John's a friend.
Raven62

25

New Jersey
United States
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June 28, 2005
180,983 Posts
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Jul 3, 2009, 8:06 am

Imagine That: The MM or PB is at $200M and you just finished cranking out your combinations (300).

Instead of costing you $300 to play all your combinations it would cost you $75 for a shot at 25% (50M) of the Jackpot.

Would the Lotteries go for this: Doubtful!

A mind once stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions!

Catch-22: A dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges: When the republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous.

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