Scrabble #1835 Reclaims the Top Spot

Crossword #3209's reign was short lived as it lost a Grand Prize last week thereby knocking it down two spots to the third ranking. There is now only an estimated 8% of the float left (2 million tickets) and , in my experience, being routinely pushed aside for its sister version of the game.

Meanwhile, our old friend Scrabble #1835 is back on top with one chance in a million to win the last Grand Prize of $75,000. Of particular note is the slow ascendance of Bingo Express #1823. Since I began this blog three years ago there has never been a $1 game that made it to the top. It's the two juicy Grand Prizes and the 750,000:1 odds that make it a good choice. With 18% of the float left out there you should be able to find them.

Top Rated Games

1. $3 Scrabble #1835 - Something about hen's teeth applies here. 
2. $1 Bingo Express #1823 - Best $1 you can spend. 
3. $3 Crossword #3209 - One Grand Prize left out there. 
4. $3 Super Bingo #3018 - The numbers say yes, the heart says no.
5. $3 Keno #1416 - Good choice and tickets should be plentiful.

Games to Avoid

1. $1 5X The Money #1838 - The inverse of Bingo Express
2. $1 Red Hot 50's #1827 - Pig in a poke. 
3. $5 500 Frenzy #1853 - 3 winners on this board. Who can argue with that?
4. $2 Fast 200's #1817 - If you like this kind of game, this is the choice. 
5. $5 Crystal 7's #1848 - The $77,777 Grand Prize allows this stinker to continue. 

Games to Play If All You Want Is The Grand Prize

1. 500 Frenzy
2. Red Hot 50's
3. Fast 200's
4. Cash Blast
5. Extreme

Games Devoid of Grand Prizes

• 5X The Money
• Crystal 7's
• Sweet Cash

Comings and Goings

Two new games were introduced this week:   $2 Golden 7's and everyone's favourite $3 More Lucky Lines. I have enjoyed reminiscing this past week with the posted comments about the history of this game. I'd almost forgotten how riled up the board was over those travesties. Jaydee made the scary point that because the game is complicated, perhaps one or more Grand Prize winners were not even aware that they won and tossed their tickets away. Perish the thought but we all know that it happens.

I rate Golden 7's 20th and More Lucky Lines 13th of the 29 games currently for sale. See the comments to last week's entry for more detailed commentary.

Personal Play

Jason Jones posted this past week indicating that he prefers playing games when they are newly for sale. He feels that he has better success that way. Well, that's what I did this week, along with Mic, buying 4 Diamond tickets. Two of the four tickets were winners returning my full $40 investment. I'll take it,

Post Script

Ryan indicated that we can look forward to a $30 ticket coming on-line at the end of November. Seeing how poorly $20 tickets sell, I'll find it interesting to see how this game does. Will any blog readers buy some? Let us know.

The OLG's labour issues are settling in for the long run. I visited Woodbine this past Sunday and there were no pickets at about 4:00 PM. I hope the workers stick together and manage to get this issue to the desk of the Premier.

I wonder if scratch ticket sales go up in the fall and winter. Last week, the OLG sold about 6 million tickets overall. There are about 100 million available for sale. I intend to track this for a bit.

Happy scratching.

Doug