Scrabble #1835 Strengthens Its Grip

The game of choice has reached the point of no man's land where the number of tickets left is diminishing slowly but they are hard to find. With 470,000 tickets left to be sold and 10,000 retailers, that only leaves, on average, 47 tickets per retailer - and we know that all such things are not equal. With low sales the OLG will be de-activating the game and that last remaining Grand Prize is destined to find it's way back to the OLG bottom line. Still, it remains in top spot and I'll be keeping my eyes open for them.

Top Rated Games

1. $3 Scrabble #1835 - like finding hen's teeth.
2. $1 Bingo Express #1823 - Rare to find a $1 game on the list.
3. $3 Crossword #3209 - Tough to Find with version 3210 also for sale.
4. $3 Keno #1416 - Likely the best game with plentiful ticket availability
5. $3 Cashingo #1847 - Nice to see it make the list. Previous version sank quickly.

Games to Avoid

1. $1 5X The Money #1838 - Horrible squared.
2. $5 Crystal 7's # 1848 - $77,777 versus $100,000 GP allows OLG to keep flogging them.
3. $2 10X The Money - Why did the two good versions of these games get de-activated?
4. $3 Sweet Cash #1852 - Stinker
5. $4 Cash For Life #1167 - Give us a new version of this ever popular game.

Vox Populi***

1. Fast 200's
2. 500 Frenzy
3. Red Hot 50's

***Note - Instead of rating these games with large numbers of small grand prizes in comparison to regular games, I have created a sub-category just for these sorts of games.

Games to Play If All You Want Is The Grand Prize

1. $10 Cash Blast
2. $10 Spectacular
3. $20 Extreme
4. $10 Diamond
5. $5   Wild Card

Games Devoid Of Grand Prizes

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

Comings and Goings

No games were retired over the past 10 days but three new ones were added bringing the total of games for sale to a very high thirty-two. There are presently 110 million tickets for sale across the province which is also very high. Looks like some staff at OLG have been burning the candle at both ends.

Coming on line were new versions of Bingo and Cross Tripler plus the old faithful Holiday Spectacular. The latter is a $10 game with a very small float of 1.3 million tickets. We're still a long way out from Christmas. With six $10 - $20 games currently for sale, the field is quite crowded. I expect the Inter-Provincial game Fortune to be pulled very soon.

Cross Tripler #1846 starts its life as the 7th rated game. That is very promising indeed. The new Bingo game is also rated well at 13th of the 32 games. That's a good start for a $3 game with a significant float size of almost 9 million tickets.

Post Script

I have been following the comment thread on prize distribution with interest. It's something that I have mentioned before. My thinking has been swayed by some of the comments over time but I continue to approach the possibility with an open mind.

The reasons why I'm not absolutely convinced that it could not be possible is the opaqueness of how the OLG protects its supplier contracts (not subject to Freedom of Information as release could jeopardize the financial interests of the Province of Ontario) and the Marketing value of ensuring that all parts of the province enjoy the joy of lottery wins. That said, for the commentators that claim that Ottawa is a wasteland - I agree with you!

The reasons why I think it unlikely have to do with the controversy that would ensue if such activity was to become public, and the glaring fact that the OLG has no incentive do to so. They are selling to a captive audience and are making $1.6 billion per year. Why mess with it? Further, we have testimony from one OLG insider that it is definitely not the case.

I agree that the data might be interesting to gather. To do so you would need to obtain OLG data on ticket sales by geographic area. I believe that the OLG uses Census Metropolitan Areas. You would have to compare the sale of instant tickets over time versus large prizes claimed over the same time. Given the small number of large prizes, I think that you might need six months of data, maybe more. And I would reduce the number of CMAs significantly to reduce margins of error. Maybe a GTA, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, and Others breakdown would suffice.

Another approach would be to simply compare the number of large prizes won in lotto games versus instant games on a GTA versus non-GTA basis. There is no fooling around with lotto games (except, apparently, in Serbia). Should we not therefore expect to see the same number of GTA winners in those games, percentage wise, as we do in Instant Games? Or are the buying habits of GTAers different from those not in the GTA? Maybe. It's an interesting subject to debate.

Thanks to the poster who really laid it on the line this past week with his $%#@* scam comments with respect to certain current games. Cracked me up.

It's voting time. May your candidate of choice be elected.


Doug