Wild 10s - For The Time Being

Wild 10s surrendered ten of its Grand Prize winners last week while selling 50,000 tickets. There are 77 Grand prizes left to be claimed and 594,000 tickets left to sell. Your chances to win one are one in 7,700.

I have been thrown a curve ball by the OLG. Every time I devise a mathematical system to determine what the best game is to play, they come out with a game that exploits my method. This time it is Double Cash For Life. The game only began this week but it already computes as a top game. Further explanation to follow.

I am considering tweaking my system. Before doing so, I'd be interested to hear from any readers as to what you look for in a game. I know what a bad game looks like but the best game can be difficult to define - different tastes and all. Do you want large Grand Prizes, many Grand Prizes, lots of middle prizes, lots of smaller prizes, most winning tickets? For me, the Grand Prize is important but if that was all, I should be buying 649 tickets where a large part of every draw goes to the winner. Other winners fight over the scraps. Instant Games are more democratic and ostensibly more fun to play. So drop me a line, I'd be interested to hear of personal preferences.

Best Overall Rated Games

1. Wild 10s
2. Double Cash For Life - 1162
3. $200 Million
4. Pick 3
5. Cleopatra

Games to Avoid

• Quest for Gold Crossword
• Tetris
• Cash for Life - 1159

Note: Be very careful with the Cash for Life games. Game #1162 is new and a good choice. Game #1159 has no Grand Prizes left! Check with the retailer if you get to the store and forget which is which. Or you can check on your mobile at www.scratchodds.com .

$1 - $2 Game Update

Pick 3 continues to be a good game. If you don't like the tiny $500 Grand Prize, then $2 Silver Gold is the next best game in this group.

$3 Game Update

Texas Hold'Em is the best pick in this area. Your odds to win one of the two remaining $75,000 Grand Prizes are 1:390,000, down from 1:852,000 when the game began.

$4 - $5 Games

Double Cash For Life springs from the gate as a good choice here. Of the games that have been selling for some time, Cleopatra or Jacks are Wild are both good games.

$10 - $20 Games

Putting Wild 10s to the side, $200 Million still has seven $2 Million Grand Prizes to be claimed. Sales of this game are poor. The OLG (this is actually an inter-provincial game) are learning that we Canadians have trouble slapping down $20 for a ticket.

Comings and Goings

Each game available for sale has its own particular character. Double Cash for Life was introduced this week. It is a game that is rich on the top end with 4 Grand Prizes of $2000/week for life and at the bottom end where there are many prizes of $4, $6, $8, $10, and $12. The prize distribution for anything else is very poor. So if you're hoping to snag a middling prize, chances are that you will be disappointed. Here is the prize distribution. I have indicated the same percentage breakdown for last week's new game (20X Lucky) in parentheses.

Grand Prize - 14.7% (4.3%)
Prizes between $100 and the Grand Prize - .9% (2.4%)
Prizes Greater than Ticket Cost and <$100 - 40.4% (51.1%)
Prizes for the Cost of the Ticket - 9.8% (9.2%)
OLG Profit - 30.2% (33%)

You will note that the percentages do not tally up for Cash for Life. I suspect that there is an error on the detail sheet and that the OLG profit percentage should be higher. That number is higher the cheaper the game but this game is listed with a player return rate equivalent to $10 and $20 Games.

We say good bye this week to the venerable Bejeweled. This was the recommended game for several weeks this year. During that time I purchased 31 tickets, cashed 14 of them for a total of $300. Not bad. The OLG sold this game longer than it should have, according to their own policies, but I'm going to assume that they had a defensible reason for doing so.

Personal Play

Four Wild 10s tickets contained one winner for the grand total of $10. Grrrr. I guess it is better than being shut out, but not much better. I now stand at a cash rate of 38% and a total Return on Investment of 78%. I'm trending down and need a boost soon.

Happy Canada Day to all.

Doug