Cash For Life #1167's Reign Continues

It has been over two weeks since my last post and during that time Cash For Life #1167 has done nothing but improve its place on top of the current list of games.

Over the 18 days, an estimated 1.2 million tickets were sold without revealing the last remaining Grand Prize. Could it be in your Christmas stocking? Let the sugar plums dance. The rating for the game is heavily influenced by that last prize so if you're buying tickets for this game, ask the retailer for the most updated list of outstanding Grand Prizes as once that prize is gone - so is the game. There are presently 140 prizes left for the game valued at $100 or more. Those 140 prizes total $730,120. The one remaining Grand Prize is valued at $675,000 or over 90% of the remaining top prize cash.

Of the games that took a hit over the same 18 days, Wild Card lost all 3 of its remaining Grand Prizes and Polar Bear lost both of its Grand Prizes. Both of these games are to henceforth be avoided.

Top Rated Games

1. $4 Cash For Life #1167 - One big juicy prize left and 970,000 tickets to sell. 
2. $3 Crossword #3210 - High on all 3 scales but tickets are in short supply
3. $3 Keno #1416 - Still 18% of float left but has been identified for retirement. 
4. $3 Crossword #3212 - Its happy days when both versions of a game are recommended!
5. $10 Diamond #1781 - Best of the pricey games. 

Games to Avoid

1. $2 Polar Bear #1862 - Hope Santa doesn't leave you any of these suckers. 
2. $30 250 M Golden #1782 - tough game to evaluate given its cost and price values. 
3. $5 Wild Card #1854 - Wiped out over the course of the last two weeks. 
4. $3 More Lucky Lines #1829 - The Ghost of Christmas Past. 
5. $2 Golden 7's #1824 - A long run ahead and nowhere to go but up.

Games with Plentiful and Small Grand Prizes

1. $5 500 Frenzy
2. $1 Red Hot 50's

Games To Play If All You Want Is The Grand Prize

1. Cash For Life #1167
2. Diamond
3. Spectacular
4. Extreme
5. $250 M Golden

Games Devoid of Grand Prizes

• Polar Bear
• Wild Card
• More Lucky Lines

Comings and Goings

Super Bingo #3018 and Fast 200's were both retired over the past two weeks. Super Bingo had rated well and left with one Grand Prize of $50,000 outstanding and just under 1 million tickets. Fast 200's was the top rated game of its ilk and left with 823 of its $200 Grand Prizes outstanding.

New to the collection is Scrabble #1861. This is a 3 million ticket game with odds of 2,300:1 to win a prize of $100 or more. It enters play rated 13th of the 29 games currently for sale.

There are presently 112 million tickets for sale which is a bit high. I expect that we will see that number dip substantively in the week after Christmas. The game with the highest remaining float is Cash For Life 1171 with almost 15 million tickets available for sale. And we mustn't forget those million $2 off coupons floating around thanks to the Gift Pack.

Personal Play

Eleven Cash For Life tickets contained one winner of $4. Bah humbug!

Post Script

Sad to report that OLG workers at the Rideau Carlton Racetrack in Ottawa have been locked out by their employer http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/6200590-rideau-carleton-raceway-slots-workers-locked-out-amid-labour-dispute/ . The issues seem to be financial and include pensions as the OLG prepares to shed these employees as part of their "modernization". I'm hopeful that the matter can be resolved soon given that we have seen similar OLG situations resolved elsewhere.

Here's an article from a statistics professor in BC who wants us to know that buying Scratch and Win tickets for Christmas is a mugs game:  http://globalnews.ca/news/2405668/statistics-professor-wants-consumers-to-scratch-lotteries-off-your-christmas-shopping-list/ . I have news for the professor - we already know and we play regardless, because its fun!

I bought my daughter (fully functioning young adult) two Cash For Life tickets as a pre-Christmas gift. She does not gamble in any way but she was excited to get them. She messaged me the next day to announce that one of the tickets was worth $6!. I realized that, to me, the tickets represented a cost of $8. To her, it was $6 of free money and she had fun winning it. There is a contrast buried somewhere inside there that cannot be captured by the good professor's regression formulae.

Here is a juicy tidbit for all the posters who are believers in conspiracy theories: https://news.worldcasinodirectory.com/add-kansas-to-4-other-states-where-lottery-prizes-may-have-been-fixed-19603 .  It couldn't possibly happen in Canada, could it?

My next post will be the first post of 2016 and will be published on New Year's Day. I wish all visitors to this blog a very Merry Christmas and to all the people who work at the OLG so that we can have fun responsibly playing these "sucker" games, thanks for all that you do.


Doug