My instant ticket rant.

Reply #6

NJJim — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 07:36:15 GMT

If I may join this rant, what drives me nuts is when the retailer of a high volume store has no interest in engaging in any conversation about anything regarding the games. Any games. Its not that is busy at the time, there is a noticeable disregard for the lottery buyer, wasting his/her money and thinking there is any better odds with any particular scratch game. I had asked if the 30 dollar scratcher offers any better odds at any bigger prizes than a two dollar one. I see guys buy multiple 20

Reply #5

oate — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 03:06:39 GMT

It could be that they plant the grand prize tickets in slow areas to revive interest. They might also as the same time plant several big winners in the same small area to whip up lotto fever. There's also the human element of favoritism. If you're a retailer who has a good relationship with your lottery account representative, maybe they'll pull some strings to make sure your store gets a roll with a grand prize winner when you otherwise would have been at the mercy of the whims of the distribut... [ More ]

Reply #4

Synbios — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 22:56:56 GMT

This is what I hate about scratchers. The odds really aren't what they claim. If you're buying from a roll blindly and it happens to have a jackpot, your odds of winning big are 1 in 20 rather than 1 in a million (20 tickets a roll here on $20's) If you're buying from a losing roll....your odds are...well, zero. We do have print and play games where the prizes are supposedly completely randomly generated based on the odds of the game....but the prizes suck compared to scratchers and they're not... [ More ]

Reply #3

Synbios — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 22:50:18 GMT

If the tickets are anything like here in VA the odds of winning over $1,000 even on our 30$ games are really astronomical. Like 1 65,000 is the best odds you'll see to win just $4,000 on a 30......only excpeption would be our 20$ cash party game where the jackpot is only $30,000, but there's 300 of them. odds are 16,320. It shouldn't be surprising at all that a particular store hasn't sold a huge winner given the realistic odds.

Then you have theories and speculation that say the printin... [ More ]

Reply #2

Rook — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 03:47:14 GMT

I just buy the absurdly big bingo style ones on occasion and then milk the entertainment out of them for days. Michigan currently has a $5 bingo scratcher that won't even fit in my over sized coat pockets due to having so many tedious panels, it's great. I've been grabbing a couple each week, sticking them to the fridge and doing one caller's card number every time I prepare a meal. The entertainment value of the other options was nothing much when considering the prices and odds. I go to the sa... [ More ]

Reply #1

dr65 — Mon, 31 Dec 2018 13:58:59 GMT

That goes to show you just how incredibly awful the odds are of finding a top prize or decent winner - $100k, $75k, $50k, $20k

They are out there but with 4/5 top prizes in print runs of millions, it's awfully hard.

I say right place, right time but the winning pack has to BE in YOUR own place.

And blah to the people who would say: One person has as much chance to win as another. No. They don't.

It all depends on what area the tickets go to. Some areas NEVER get top prizes.

Good l... [ More ]

My instant ticket rant.

fast eddie — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 23:25:35 GMT

I buy my tickets at a convenience store in the Chicagoland area. The store in the number one seller of tickets in that area and they have three Insty machines plus tickets behind the counter for sale. They order thousand and thousand of dollars worth of tickets every month. Here's the rub, this years biggest instant winner sold at the store 5k. Also the largest instant ticket winner sold at the store is 20k All those tickets week in week out and never a big winner at the store, so frustrating. A... [ More ]