Just wow. I've seen some bad lottery raffles, but this takes the cake! The 10 $1,000 2nd tier prizes is lousy, but that pales in comparison to the lowest tier prize of $15. So one spends $10 on a special raffle ticket, and the Idaho Lottery thinks people are going to be excited to most likely win barely over break-even.
Prize Amount |
Number of Winners |
Odds |
$100,000 |
1 |
1:50,000 |
$1,000 |
10 |
1:5,000 |
$50 |
1,350 |
1:37 |
$15 |
5,500 |
1:9 |
Total: $260,000 Awarded out of $500,000 sales; 52% |
Total: 6,861 Winners out of 50,000 tickets |
Overall odds of winning any prize 1 in 7.29 |
The $50 prize should have been the lowest offered. Winning $50 on a $10 wager is a decent consolation prize verses winning a measly $15, which, while better than nothing, will leave many players unexcited and feeling ripped off. It's no wonder the tickets are selling at a glacial pace.
And, as already pointed out by Todd, the naming of the raffle is deceptive. Many posters in the Idaho Lottery Facebook comment section express confusion regarding the drawing date, and disbelief they have to wait a long, indeterminate time before there's actually a drawing. As of this moment, still over 14% left (7,000+ remaining), so it's going to be awhile...
Maybe by Labor Day players will finally see whether they won or lost. Some have likely already lost their ticket(s) and/or think the drawing already happened, and discarded them. All in all, the Idaho Lottery raffle is terrible. They need to restructure the next one, if they ever do it again, with better prize distribution, a clear drawing date, and overall prize structure that excites players without them feeling totally ripped off.