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The people who run state lottery games can and do make mistakes. Here's a story about an online game that The New York Lottery once offered that was a colossal failure and was eventually pulled by the NY Lottery.
The game was called Sweet Millions. It offered very low odds to win a million dollars and each and every top prize winner in all drawings collected one million dollars if they matched all six numbers. The bad thing about Sweet Millions was the lower tier prizes were awful. The game carried 18,000 to 1 odds to win a second place prize of $500. (NY was also offering at the same time as they offered Sweet Millions a Pick4 game with 10,000 to 1 odds where if you matched four numbers straight it paid $10,000) So with Sweet Millions it was very hard to win a lousy 500 bucks, and for the same price as Sweet Millions ticket ($1.00) you could play WIN4 with it's 10,000 to 1 odds and win ten grand! Players saw the stupidity of playing Sweet Millions and totally ignored the game. Another thing about Sweet Millions that players hated was the fact that very rarely did anybody win the top prize of a million bucks! It wasn't long before The NY Lottery discontinued Sweet Millions.
One thing players anywhere do not like is when there is rarely any jackpot winners, and that's exactly what's happening with the FF5 midday drawing. Today is Sunday - a day of the week when lottery ticket sales are traditionally low. It's about ten minutes after eight in the morning. So that means the ticket sales window for today's midday drawing is open as I type this post. Who thinks there will be a jackpot winner for today's midday drawing??? My guess is that there wont be one. Ticket sales even with that "buy a FF5 ticket from 6 AM to 1245 PM for a chance to win $25 instantly" will be very low which translates into no jackpot winner.
Maybe FF5 players will get lucky and The Florida Lottery will see what a dumb mistake they have made and pull the midday drawing. G5
Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Mar 26, 2023
The people who run state lottery games can and do make mistakes. Here's a story about an online game that The New York Lottery once offered that was a colossal failure and was eventually pulled by the NY Lottery.
The game was called Sweet Millions. It offered very low odds to win a million dollars and each and every top prize winner in all drawings collected one million dollars if they matched all six numbers. The bad thing about Sweet Millions was the lower tier prizes were awful. The game carried 18,000 to 1 odds to win a second place prize of $500. (NY was also offering at the same time as they offered Sweet Millions a Pick4 game with 10,000 to 1 odds where if you matched four numbers straight it paid $10,000) So with Sweet Millions it was very hard to win a lousy 500 bucks, and for the same price as Sweet Millions ticket ($1.00) you could play WIN4 with it's 10,000 to 1 odds and win ten grand! Players saw the stupidity of playing Sweet Millions and totally ignored the game. Another thing about Sweet Millions that players hated was the fact that very rarely did anybody win the top prize of a million bucks! It wasn't long before The NY Lottery discontinued Sweet Millions.
One thing players anywhere do not like is when there is rarely any jackpot winners, and that's exactly what's happening with the FF5 midday drawing. Today is Sunday - a day of the week when lottery ticket sales are traditionally low. It's about ten minutes after eight in the morning. So that means the ticket sales window for today's midday drawing is open as I type this post. Who thinks there will be a jackpot winner for today's midday drawing??? My guess is that there wont be one. Ticket sales even with that "buy a FF5 ticket from 6 AM to 1245 PM for a chance to win $25 instantly" will be very low which translates into no jackpot winner.
Maybe FF5 players will get lucky and The Florida Lottery will see what a dumb mistake they have made and pull the midday drawing. G5
If you're wondering why low ticket sales translates into no jackpot winner, it's due to what the people who run lottery's call "coverage".
In FF5 there are 376,992 possible and different combinations of five numbers. If they sold each and every one of those possible combo's that would be 100% coverage of all of the total possible combo's. That rarely ever happens.
To produce 50% coverage (hence a 50/50 chance of there being a jackpot winner) The Florida Lottery must sell 198,496 different combo's of five numbers.
If ticket sales are low, coverage will be low, and therefore there will most likely be more "uncovered" combo's than covered combo's. If the combo that matches all five numbers that were drawn is uncovered, then no jackpot winner.
The ticket sales window for the midday drawing has hours of the day in it that most people aren't out and about doing their daily thing which includes stopping in a convenience store to buy lottery tickets. But they are out and about after 1 PM, so they buy their tickets then, which will automatically puts them in the evening draw. More tickets sold, better coverage, and a very good chance there will be a jackpot winner of a nice jackpot. Makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it? G5
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Mar 26, 2023
The people who run state lottery games can and do make mistakes. Here's a story about an online game that The New York Lottery once offered that was a colossal failure and was eventually pulled by the NY Lottery.
The game was called Sweet Millions. It offered very low odds to win a million dollars and each and every top prize winner in all drawings collected one million dollars if they matched all six numbers. The bad thing about Sweet Millions was the lower tier prizes were awful. The game carried 18,000 to 1 odds to win a second place prize of $500. (NY was also offering at the same time as they offered Sweet Millions a Pick4 game with 10,000 to 1 odds where if you matched four numbers straight it paid $10,000) So with Sweet Millions it was very hard to win a lousy 500 bucks, and for the same price as Sweet Millions ticket ($1.00) you could play WIN4 with it's 10,000 to 1 odds and win ten grand! Players saw the stupidity of playing Sweet Millions and totally ignored the game. Another thing about Sweet Millions that players hated was the fact that very rarely did anybody win the top prize of a million bucks! It wasn't long before The NY Lottery discontinued Sweet Millions.
One thing players anywhere do not like is when there is rarely any jackpot winners, and that's exactly what's happening with the FF5 midday drawing. Today is Sunday - a day of the week when lottery ticket sales are traditionally low. It's about ten minutes after eight in the morning. So that means the ticket sales window for today's midday drawing is open as I type this post. Who thinks there will be a jackpot winner for today's midday drawing??? My guess is that there wont be one. Ticket sales even with that "buy a FF5 ticket from 6 AM to 1245 PM for a chance to win $25 instantly" will be very low which translates into no jackpot winner.
Maybe FF5 players will get lucky and The Florida Lottery will see what a dumb mistake they have made and pull the midday drawing. G5
I wonder why the FF5 ticket sales are low on Sundays as opposed to Saturdays?
Because we are still in the weekend and most people are not working on Sundays, it seems the ticket sales should be about the same in the weekend.
Florida - West Coast United States
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If I'm going to criticize the additional midday drawing, then I should offer what I think would be an improvement to the game.
Before I do that, I have one more criticism that I'd like to share. Ticket sales of FF5 are not what they once were (prior to adding the midday draw) so adding the midday was The Florida Lottery's response to try to attract more player interest in the game. I agree that ticket sales are down, I can remember jackpots in 2020 and 2021 being in the $230,000 to $235,000 range. (That was for Friday and Saturday drawings) Then COVID hit, and inflation skyrocketed. Players just don't have as much discretionary income (fun money) as the once did. Wouldn't they be a good reason why ticket sales are down?
One thing they could do is get rid of the rolldown and replace it with a rollover. Starting jackpots could be at $100,000. No winner, no problem. The next jackpot is $150,000 and grows until it's won. I have a hard time believing that would not attract more players. They could change the prize allocations of the winners pool too. Instead of 62% going to the top prize make it 50% and enhance the second and third place allocations. Maybe a second place prize of close to $750 might attract more players.... Although it's true that these changes would mean a change to the official rules which means the Florida State government would have to pass legislation enabling them, I still think they're a better idea than adding a drawing that the players could care less about. See, because the official rules say nothing about how many drawings per day can be held, they could add the midday without having to change the official rules and thus avoid having to have legislation passed to approve it. It was simply an easy way for them to change the game. Except it's a total flop. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by angelchick on Mar 26, 2023
I wonder why the FF5 ticket sales are low on Sundays as opposed to Saturdays?
Because we are still in the weekend and most people are not working on Sundays, it seems the ticket sales should be about the same in the weekend.
Really not sure why Sunday is the day of the week that the least amount of tickets are sold, but that's been the pattern for years. Same is true for other states lottery's. Sunday is the day players dont play all that much. It's just a matter of player behavior. G5
Florida - West Coast United States
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Here's another thing - but maybe it's a reason why the midday drawing is here to stay.
It cost The Florida Lottery big bucks to make this change. The drawing itself costs them money as there is the added expense of conducting the drawing. They had to change both the app and their website as a result of adding an extra drawing which cost them money. They have a new TV advertisement for the midday drawing, that aint cheap. They had to print all new playslips. The promotional signs and brochures that are in retail stores cost them some money too.
There are probably some other costs that I haven't thought of too. But there's no doubt they spent a good chunk of change on this.... G5
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Got a little curious about the size of FF5 payouts over the years, found this doozy for August 28. 2012. Winning numbers: 1 3 5 7 9. Number of winning tickets sold: 98 Number of those winning tickets claimed: none. Tickets were sold all over the state. Any thoughts?
The banquet you enjoy depends on what you bring to the table.
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Quote: Originally posted by Sum Buddy on Mar 26, 2023
Got a little curious about the size of FF5 payouts over the years, found this doozy for August 28. 2012. Winning numbers: 1 3 5 7 9. Number of winning tickets sold: 98 Number of those winning tickets claimed: none. Tickets were sold all over the state. Any thoughts?
This is very strange. I think it might've been a trial test from Eddie Tipton...lol.
Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by Sum Buddy on Mar 26, 2023
Got a little curious about the size of FF5 payouts over the years, found this doozy for August 28. 2012. Winning numbers: 1 3 5 7 9. Number of winning tickets sold: 98 Number of those winning tickets claimed: none. Tickets were sold all over the state. Any thoughts?
Gotta be some kind of test The Florida Lottery conducted. If it was real, at least one of the winners would have collected. G5
Florida - West Coast United States
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Well hush my mouth!
This morning I predicted there wouldn't be a winner for today's midday draw. One winer of $61,539.65.
But check this out ====> The jackpot winner got $61,539.65. 99 winners of $100 which is a total payout of $9,900.00. 2,619 winners of $10.50 which is a total payout of $27,499.50. Add all three payouts together and the total payout to all winners of a cash prize was $98,939.15.
2 X $98,939.15 = $197,878.30 which was the total take. That aint much of a take. They sold a total of 197,878 lines/combos which is 50% coverage. G5
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Have you ever heard somebody say "There's a reason for everything."
Have you ever wondered why when there is no jackpot winner the second place prize is always $555.00?
It's because FF5's official rules cap the second place prize at $555.
"The second prize pool shall be divided equally among the players matching four of five official winning numbers except that the maximum prize amount per winner shall be $555. Any funds in the second prize pool in excess of the second prize liability shall roll down and be added to the third prize pool. If there is no winner in the second prize category for a drawing, the second prize pool shall roll down and be added to the third prize pool.
Players can never receive more than $555 for matching four of the five winning numbers. G5
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Mar 26, 2023
Have you ever heard somebody say "There's a reason for everything."
Have you ever wondered why when there is no jackpot winner the second place prize is always $555.00?
It's because FF5's official rules cap the second place prize at $555.
"The second prize pool shall be divided equally among the players matching four of five official winning numbers except that the maximum prize amount per winner shall be $555. Any funds in the second prize pool in excess of the second prize liability shall roll down and be added to the third prize pool. If there is no winner in the second prize category for a drawing, the second prize pool shall roll down and be added to the third prize pool.
Players can never receive more than $555 for matching four of the five winning numbers. G5
I figured that had something to do with the retailer payout amount of $600, but they could have made the 4-number winner $599. I'd like to know why the retailer payout is so low. In PA, it's $2,500. Huge difference.
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I bought five draws with advance play each for the Evening draw and Midday. I was testing the play slips out to see what it would do. I marked "5" on the play slip but didn't choose a particular draw. Well the lottery gave me 5 consecutive draws for the Evening since it was the next available draw at $5.00. I thought it would give me the next 5 draws to cover both Midday and Evening. So i had to fill out another play slip to cover the Midday draw. Selected 5 draws on that one too for another $5.00. I ended up winning 3 free quick pics at the end of the week. I will mainly use advance play tickets to cover both draws as my budget allows. $5/8 at a time, here or there as my tickets end.
I surmise the $555 cap if more a marketing ploy on the Fantasy5 game name. Plus it caps the prize to not inundate the claims office with prizes over $600. A winner can easily go to a Publix or Winn-Dixie to cash under $600.
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Quote: Originally posted by MsBee18 on Mar 26, 2023
I bought five draws with advance play each for the Evening draw and Midday. I was testing the play slips out to see what it would do. I marked "5" on the play slip but didn't choose a particular draw. Well the lottery gave me 5 consecutive draws for the Evening since it was the next available draw at $5.00. I thought it would give me the next 5 draws to cover both Midday and Evening. So i had to fill out another play slip to cover the Midday draw. Selected 5 draws on that one too for another $5.00. I ended up winning 3 free quick pics at the end of the week. I will mainly use advance play tickets to cover both draws as my budget allows. $5/8 at a time, here or there as my tickets end.
I surmise the $555 cap if more a marketing ploy on the Fantasy5 game name. Plus it caps the prize to not inundate the claims office with prizes over $600. A winner can easily go to a Publix or Winn-Dixie to cash under $600.
I tested out a playslip by marking 'B' and got two tickets. One for the midday and one for the evening draw for that particular day. I would think if you had marked 'B' and advance play you'd have received a total of ten tickets - five for the midday and five for the evening draws. Cant see them putting both draws on the same ticket.
Never gave it a second worth of thought, but I bet you're right MsBee. 555 is definitely a marketing ploy on the name of the game.
And you're also correct that it helps to shift the workload out of regional district offices to the retailers. The thing about that is getting a small retailer to cash your $555 winner. Some of them will ask you to come back later saying they dont have enough cash on hand. At least you know you will get a check at a regional district office.
Another "No winner" and Rolldown for the evening draw last night. G5
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Want to see at just a glance the difference two drawings per day has made on ticket sales?
Check the number of Free Ticket won on The Florida Fantasy5 web page maintained by The Florida Lottery.
Every day prior to the change there were typically 75,000 to 85,000 Free Ticket won by the players. Yesterday there were a total of 75,000 for both draws, but 50,000 of them came from the evening draw. Twice as many tickets were sold for the evening draw as the midday. There's no new news in that, but the total of 75,000 shows there isn't any increase in the number of tickets sold each day. It's just one more indication that players are opting to skip the midday draw in favor of the evening.
And The Florida Lottery is well aware of the fact too that what they had hoped to do - increase ticket sales - IS NOT WORKING. I cant believe they didn't know what the players would do after the change was implemented. They aren't making any addition money and we're stuck with lower lower jackpots. Unbelieveabe. G5