Hi !
I have been reading all the posts on the CA scratchers and have been doing some reading.
I think that the practices of most retailers hinders customers from winning. Almost every place I have gone to, has a clerk or owner that watches the sales and wins and losses on the tickets. Whether its a 7-11 or a reg liquor store, there are plenty of tickets that the retailer scratched themselves , most likely finding the larger winning tickets.
I was thrilled about the second chance draws and pulled tickets from the trash with the retailer permission.
At first I was confused when I found tickets that had not been scratched or the bar code revealed but just the serial number on the ticket all in sequencial order. I figured out that the only person that could do that was the retailer. So I got curious and wondered how many places in my local area did that...and not wanting to name names...as I am not sure it is okay to do that....in the hollywood area.vine and melrose all nearby places do this. As well as ventura blvd, toluca lake, burbank, glendale..
Even at 7-11, I saw clerks doing this.
Then last week there were no more losing ttckets and still arent any. I began to wonder and asked around. Apparently, the ca lottery put an announcement on the website for retailers to tell their customers of the second chance drawings and what has happened is the majority of retailers take the losing tickets and enter them in for themselves and family , friends etc.
Then I saw a promotional poster that said if you buy 2 $20 tickets you get a free tshirt....well I called around and found not one place that gave away tshirts.i believe the retailers kept them for themselves.
I thought the vending machines were okay...but discovered that after checking the packets of tickets the believed losers are put into the vending machines.
The first 9 and last nine tickets of the $10 and $20 packets were removed prior to being put Iin the vending machines.
I the consumer is led to believe that the odds are correctly stated and the same for everyone.
I do not believe this is so...given that the average good return on scratchers is 50%, if I factor in the retailers practices, I think the return drops to 30% or less, meaning the customer buys all the losers.
And now that the majority of retailers are collecting the losing tickets, it means they have a greater advantage of winning the second chance than the average player.
I confirmed this with a few places where I am friends with the clerks, and all said that the owners are collecting the losing tickets.
The odds printed on each ticket are a mistatement in my opinion because it is the odds if all tickets were distributed and available for purchase...the odds do not reflect that millions or thousands of tickets that are currently stored.
The only way the odds printed on the ticket tobe accurate would be if all tickets were distributed.
I think the only people really winning on scratchers are the retailers and the ca lottery.
The retailers get a commision on the sales and wins of tickets and these percentages allow them to search and scratch tickets for winners.
The ca lottery posted a note that they are developing a players reward program....I bet if the ca lottery checked how many retailers and their associates have entered the max ticket entrys in the second chance they would discover what I am saying is true.
One place on melrose by hudson, the man scratches his own tickets until he hits the big winner more than$50 and then sells the rest.
The machines at grocery stores have the tickets gone through by whomever sstocks them. And recently, the automatic dispensing ma hines have had a glitch where you put in $20 and get $10 worth of tickets and the machine keeps $10. It just disappears. Three machines in my areahad a sign on it..out of order because of this. I spoke with the manager at each placeand they all said the same thing.
All in all, the ca lottery website is focused on developing marketing techniques to convince the consumer they odss are fair and they have a fair chance of winning but the reality is not so. I think the people of ca need to know this...they are focused on developing more techniques to raise their revenues....
I have not seen any memos that hint at regulating the scratchers so that the odds are the same for everyone or that the players will win.
The lotteries argument that when a game ends and top prizes have not been claimed because the ca lottery claims that people threw out the winning top prizes. If this istrue, then it means that the retailers collecting the losing tickets will find these winners.
Something just does not add up when I consider all these facts. I conclude that I have more chance to lose bybuying scratchers than winning.
What do you think?