Thanks kap.
When I started playing regularly back in April of 2009, a Friday night JP was worth 100K+.... it has steadily been decling since then. Yeah, the lousy economy probably does have something to do with that, but I still believe lottery ticket sales see a surge during a bad economy. So, what happened??? Where did all the big T5 JP's go?
Compare it with the Sweet MIllion stats NY State posts on their lottery website. Sure, you see player interest spike when they have that buy 5 get 3 free promo (of which I think it's about time for another one) but then after the promo ends, the number of winners goes back down and remains constant. While most NY players dont like Sweet Million (the fools!) by looking at the number of winners you can easily see a "core group" of players are playing every draw. I'm in that core group. I could care less if there's no JP winner, or if the JP does not roll, or that the lower tier prizes absolutely stink. I love the fact that SM has the lowest odds you can find ANYWHERE to win one million dollars. (Well, the new ten dollar multistate million dollar raffle changed my thinking on that a bit, but the next raffle isnt until the Spring.)
I'll play T5 again, after this year ends and I stop doing my "new thing" with Sweet Million. (Tracking the number of times each number comes out during a calendar year) But it is kind of sad to see the T5 JP's getting smaller and smaller. And IF what The NY Lottery says is true, that "T5 is New Yorker's favorite game", then where did the moolah go fella's???