Bejeweled Returns to Top Spot

Neither Bejeweled nor Instant Millions lost a top prize this past week but Bejeweled strengthened its position as the recommended game by selling more tickets. You presently have one chance in 120,000 to win one of the four $250,000 top prizes left to claim. Instant Millions continues as the strong second choice. You have one chance in 700,000 to win one of the two $1 Million top prizes. Bejeweled is a better play for smaller prizes with one in every 5.13 tickets being worth more than the $10 cost of the ticket. Instant Millions has a poor rating in this area of one in every 7.45 tickets. Just under 30% of the Bejeweled ticket float remains to be claimed which means that you should not have any trouble finding tickets.



Best Games to Win the Top Prize
$1 - $2 Games - Pick 3
$3 Games - Scrabble #1730
$4 - $5 Games - Instant Millions
$10 - $20 Games - Bejeweled

Best Games to Win a Prize Greater than the Cost of the Ticket
$1 - $2 Games - Pick 3
$3 Games - Bonus Keno
$4 - $5 Games - Cross Tripler #1743
$10 - $20 Games - $200 Million

Best Overall Rated Games

1. Bejeweled
2. Instant Millions
3. Scrabble
4. Wild 10s
5. $200 Million

Games to Avoid

• Tetris
• CFL Blowout

Comings and Goings

Two new games were introduced over the course of the past week. Each one is quite different from the other. $10 Wild 10s is a game like Pick 3 and Fast 100 where the idea is to provide a greater number of smaller Top Prizes. This is the first time I have seen this approach used in a $10 game. The Top Prize is only $10,000 for your $10 investment however there are 150 top prizes to be won. The game then scrimps on secondary large prizes by offering only 30 - $1000 prizes and 135 - $500 prizes. In total, 97.6% of the prizes of $1000 or more are awarded to the Top Prize winners and 16.5% of the total prize pool is reserved for winners of $1000 or more, which is a high rating. What are you giving up? The prospect of a large prize.

The other new game is $3 Texas Hold'em Poker. I expect this game to be popular given its premise, much like Tetris has proven to be. This game has a more standard breakdown of prizes with 66% of the total prize money for prizes of $1000 or more going to the three Top Prize winners of $75,000 each. The prizes distributed to the winners of $1000 or more prizes represents 6.7% of the total prize payouts. In other words, it is a more democratic game and I rate it as the third best $3 game to play behind Super Bingo and Mahjong, at this point in time.

Personal Play

I am unable to explain why I fail to follow what I have learned to be the only way for me to play. Every time I deviate from the plan it results in punishment. This past week I bought 4 Bejeweled tickets with the result of one $10 winner - a loss of $30. Instead of taking my punishment and moving on I purchased a fifth ticket while out of town. It was a loser. I then bought a $5 ticket in another game - you guessed it...loser! I need to stick to what I know works best for me. Others have differing approaches and if it works for you, great. My cash rate is now down to 40% and my total return on investment has dipped to 85%.

The punishment for my lack of discipline is to cut back to two tickets this week. I know that if I acknowledge my sins and apply my own corrective action, that lady luck will forgive me.

Here is a link to a story that recently ran in the Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/02/04/toronto_man_cracked_the_code_to_scratchlottery_tickets.html?app=noRedirect
The problem was inherent with the Scrabble and Crossword games. In those games you can see the numbers or letters and you scratch them when they match the numbers or letters on the top. The tickets are made by contractors and they follow some sort of algorithm in their production. As you can see, there was a flaw in the program. Good on the OLG for acting quickly but it just goes to show you that we should not take everything we are told as the gospel truth.

Happy Scratching.

Doug