It looks like we have had a few more top prize winners, but some games never seem to change. It appears that the game Big Win has had 2 $50,000 top prize winners turned in in the last three weeks. There was also 2 $35,000 top prize winners of Cashword 3. PIECES OF 8 sold the last 2 of the top $8,800 prizes, so that game should end soon, as all of the top prizes have been claimed. QUICK $100 has a top prize of $100, and has 38229 of 41043 top prizes claimed. 539 were claimed in this time period.
And what about Georgia Lottery Limited? On December 6, there had been 897 out of 912 top prizes of $500 awarded. Now it says that there are 1280 of 1809 top prizes paid out. How is there suddenly 897 more top prizes available? Is this some type of typo or other error, or has the lottery decided to print more tickets? How could there be 383 top prize winners of $500 in a 19 day period? After all, the top prize of $500 is odds of 1 in 4,800. That means that all things being equal, retailers must have sold 1,838,400 Georgia Lottery Limited tickets between December 5 and December 26. I seriously doubt that is the case, but what that means if it is correct is that the odds must have changed somehow. Come to think of it, I have seen a lot of those in the trash. Who knows.
The following instant games had 1 top prize claimed between December 6 and December 25: 10X THE MONEY, 2011 CASH CELEBRATION, BETTY BOOP HOLIDAY SURPRISE, BIG MONEY, GOLDEN GOAL, HOLIDAY GIFTS, JUNIOR JUMBO BUCKS, LUCKY HEARTS, RED HOT & WILD 7'S, SEASON'S GREETINGS and WPT WORLD POKER TOUR.
JINGLE JUMBO BUCKS, KINGS & QUEENS and LUCKY 7'S also sold 2 top prizes this period. That kind of irritates me because I have purchased 22 KINGS & QUEENS tickets, and have had only 2 winners. One for $40, and the other for $15! What gives? I know all about the odds being spread all over the ticket range, but 1 in 11 odds, when the odds are supposed to be 1 in 4.00. Something just ain't right here. One time I purchased the last 5 tickets out of a machine with no winners, 004-000, and this is a new game??? I have spent $110 on this game to lose $55. Oh well, I have kept half of the money I put in. Obviously I need to learn how to play this game, because it appears that a whole lot of other people know how. If i can just learn it like I learned Holiday Gifts, I should be able to do really good.
JUMBO BUCKS CLASSIC had 4 top prizes of $50,000 claimed. That leaves 93 out of 1526 top prizes unclaimed, or just about 6% of the top prizes remaining. Who thinks that GLC might be withholding some of these tickets, just to keep these old cash cows alive. Really, I have never won on Jr. Jumbo Bucks, I won $15 after buying a string of 20 tickets on Jumbo Bucks Classic, and I have won $25 on Giant Jumbo Bucks, but most of my wins on that game have been a free ticket. I have probably purchased at least 40 of them at $5 each.
What about Jumbo Jumbo Bucks, the $10 game with the best overall odds of any game in Georgia at 1 in 2.56? I have won a free ticket. And Millionaire Jumbo Bucks? I have won a free ticket, and $25 near the end and beginning of a roll. This is a $20 ticket. I have won $100 twice playing Jingle Jumbo bucks, $50 once, and $25 or less several times, but I have spent $710 on losing tickets for that game alone. I am actually pretty close to the break even point, or at least I used to be around the middle of the month. I will have to do a more detailed analysis later on.
With the possible exception of Jingle Jumbo Bucks, the Jumbo Bucks series needs to be killed, in my opinion. At the very least it should be closed out and started over, but that would mean that GLC would have to pay a whole lot more out, and I am sure they don't want to do that. After all, everyone knows someone who has won $500 on Jumbo Bucks Classic, but how long ago was it? That fond memory keeps people playing games that have become suddenly worthless, kind of like Holiday Gifts. I did really good at first, but then bang, just like a light switch, all the prizes were gone. Strings of 7 losers, only to be followed by a $15 winner! I do not know if all instant games are like this, but Holiday Gifts seemingly had no winners of a free ticket at first. Very soon after the free tickets started coming out, it was worthless. Maybe that will be my litmus test. When a free ticket comes out, I quit playing.