Prestige Dominates

During my absence,Prestige continued to assert its authority over the rest of the field. The game is a dominant choice with 11 of its 12 Grand Prizes remaining to be claimed and 30% of the ticket float sold. The game provides 10.6 cents out of every dollar to the Grand Prize winners which is the best for existing games and 50% of total game revenue is returned to prizes of less than $100. This is the second best game from that perspective. I'm going to have to come up with lots of titles for future blog posts as this game is going to remain on top for some time to come. My only complaint about this game is that the tickets are too long! They're hard to fit into any sort of pocket. Pretty lame complaint, no?

Best Rated Games

1. Prestige 71%
2. Fast 200's 36%
3. Cash Blast 43%
4. Cash For Life 35%
5. $200 Million 61%

Games to Avoid

1. Keno 1410 21%
2. 20X Lucky 15%
3. Horseshoes 14%
4. Crossword 3203 28%
5. Cross Express 33%

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200's continues to be highly rated. It is the clear choice in this area and a good choice overall.

$3 Game Update

There has been nothing worth playing in this area for some time but Cashingo is beginning to look good and one of our readers did have a $500 cash already on this game.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Cash For Life is a good choice and Money Multiplier can also be played.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Prestige is dominant. Reader Trinitron also likes $200 Million due to it's high rate of winners at 1 for every 3 tickets. No argument there.

Comings and Goings

While I was away the OLG was busy getting rid of five games. Two of them were games with no grand Prizes left to claim and two others were games that were rated as being poor choices so I have nothing to gripe about. Scrabble 1754 was one of the games and I have been whining about that one for some time. Interestingly, Bingo 3009 was retired while Bingo 3008 was not. The former game was only introduced in early July and had two thirds of its float left. Bingo 3008 has been on sale since late January and has 17% of its float left. How does one explain that decision? A call to the OLG call center provided the answer: A number of the tickets had been voided and were being used for demonstration purposes by the OLG. Those voided tickets somehow were sent out to retailers. Once the OLG learned about the problem, the game was cancelled. Anyone with a winning Bingo 3009 ticket is able to cash it.

Super Bingo 3013 was introduced recently. It is a jumbo game with over 10 million tickets available. I'm not crazy about the game as only 3.3% of total revenue is returned to winners of $100 or more. That is very poor. There are lots of prizes of less than $100 but I would like to see more going into the grand prizes of which there are 10, each worth $50,000. That's 10 out of 10 million tickets.

Personal Play

Four Prestige tickets contained one $10 winner. Sucks. My overall results are now down to where one would expect after starting the year well. I feel that I'm due for some better luck.

I'll write about the US games next time. I lost on all tickets with the exception of a free ticket on a $1 game. My foray into Powerball also yielded nothing but it is hard to turn your back on a $216 Million jackpot. That's crazy stuff!

Good to be back.

Doug

Prestige Looks Best

I'm heading off to the USA tomorrow and will miss my next scheduled blog update. I will not be doing a complete update for another two weeks.

A quick glance at the OLG site tells me that Prestige is certain to continue its reign as the recommended game.

I offer thanks to the posters who leave messages on the site. I encourage visitors to read them as they are just as useful as anything I might have to say. Ryan reports that he is having trouble finding Keno 1412 at his local seller. However, there are lots of Keno 1410 tickets for sale. That is the difference between night and day. I fail to understand why the OLG thinks that people who buy $3 tickets don't care about their investment. Its insulting and players like Ryan highlight that point. He was the lucky winner of $500 in Cashingo last week. There are only 184 of those prizes offered in the game so hats off to him.

Lloyd reports zero luck with either Prestige or Cash Blast. He is going back to $3 games where he had more luck. I know how he feels. In my personal play this week I went 0 for 5 Prestige tickets. That stings.

Patrick had better luck than either of us but still nothing to brag about. I think it goes without saying, but I will, that the absolute best strategy is to keep your money in your pocket. Any game where the house collects 30% - 40% is going to run you into the poor house if you get too serious. The idea is to play a bit, play smart, and hope to get lucky. Oh, and to avoid buying games that we should all be avoiding.

For this weeks entry I am providing a chart of all the games that are currently for sale and have been for sale for at least one month. They are ranked by the estimated average ticket sales over the past month. Many factors affect this number such as the size of the float, percentage of tickets left to sell, the quantity supplied by the OLG to sellers, cost of ticket, and the attractiveness of the game.

Game                            Quantity (000)
Crossword 3203              216
Prestige                            66
Cash For Life                    50
Crossword  Tripler            40
Frogger                            36
Bingo 3008                       33
Bingo 3009                       30
Classic White                    26
$200 Million                      25
Money Multiplier               25
Crossword 3200                21
Horseshoes                       21
Wild 8s                            20
Cross Express                   18
Cherry Triple                    17
Fast 200s                          17
Bonus Keno                      15
Cash Blast                         15
Cherry Jubilee                   11
Keno 1410                        11
Black Jack Tripler              11
20x Lucky                        10
Poker Multiplier                  4
Scrabble                            4
More Lucky Lines              3

Horseshoes, Keno 1410, More Lucky Lines, Scrabble, and 20x Lucky are the games for which all the grand prizes have been claimed. This flies in the face of the OLG's claim that games that sell less are retired. If this is so, then why are they continuing to flog these tickets. Why was Instant Millions canceled with higher daily sales? I have absolute faith in the integrity of the OLG, post Ombudsman's report, but I think that they can tend towards not putting the interest of the player first. It's the natural tendency of any bureaucracy.

I'll be picking up Instant Games from as many states as I can as I refuel while heading down the I75 to Florida. I'll report back on what I find in the next update. If they're anything like I found in New York, we're lucky to be playing in Canada.

Best.


Doug

Prestige is Poised to Rule a Long Time

I thank reader Trinitron for pointing out that I had erred in my calculations. Prestige was the top rated game, as indicated, but it was not as dominant as I had suggested. The game continues its progression this week as it failed to surrender any of its Grand Prizes once again. Eleven of the twelve original Grand Prizes remain and almost 1/4 of the ticket float has been sold. The game is rated to be substantially ahead of the second rated game (Cash Blast) and with 11 Grand Prizes left, it will continue on top even if two or three of the Grand Prizes are revealed. You have 1 chance in a million to win a Grand Prize of $1 million for your ten dollar investment. In Cash Blast you have one chance in 272,000 to win a Grand Prize of $250,000 for the same $10. If its simply the best chance to snag a Grand Prize, then Cash Blast is your game. I'm sticking with Prestige.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige 76%
2. Cash Blast 57%
3. Fast 200s 46%
4. $200 Million 63%
5. Wild 8s 15%

Games to Avoid

1. Keno 1410 25%
2. Horse Shoes 20%
3. More Lucky Lines 17%
4. 20x Lucky 17%
5. Scrabble 5%

Note - percentage numbers are the estimated % of the game's float that remains to be sold. Once a game falls below 20%, tickets will begin to become harder to find.

The OLG has fallen into its old ways once again. Each of the five games on the "Games to Avoid" list has exhausted its respective Grand Prizes. Scrabble is particularly abhorrent given the length of time that its tickets have been sold while being in this state. Thank goodness that it is unlikely that your local seller will even have any tickets for sale with a scant 5% of its float left to sell. Now that Keno 1412 has been launched we should see the end of Keno 1410. If you're buying the new game, be careful not to buy the old one.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Wild8s and Fast 200s remain well rated. I would recommend buying some of each as it is not common that these games reach the top five.

$3 Game Update

Two new games were introduced this week. There is hope that one or both may develop into a good choice in time.

$4 - $5 Game Update

The best two games are Cash for Life and Money Multiplier.

$10 - $20 Games

No change this week - anything other than Classic White will do just fine.

Comings and Goings 

Two new games were introduced this week: Cashingo and Keno 1412. Cashingo has already coughed up a Grand Prize making Keno 1412 the better of the two. I like the structure of each game. The prize structure for each is a pyramid with fewer prizes in every value as the prize size increases. Players instinctively think that this must be true but it is not. Cashingo returns 5.7% of its revenue to winners of $100 or more versus 4.5% in Keno. Keno also has a category high 14.3% of its revenue returned to players who win their $3 back. Your chances to win a Grand Prize are presently 1.1 million:1 in Cashingo and 833,000:1 in Keno 1412. The difference is attributable to the fact that Cashingo has surrendered one its 3- $75,000 Grand Prizes. All six $50,000 Grand Prizes remain in Keno 1412.

Personal Play

Four Prestige tickets included three winners totaling $55. I'll take it! I now sit at a cash rate of 38% and a return on investment of 74%.

I received some junk mail this past week (who knows how these things happen) encouraging me to play scratch and win tickets on-line at an off-shore location. Who would do such a crazy thing? As much as I have problems with the OLG and their "Modernization Plan", at least I know that the Government of Ontario stands behind them and they are transparent about their Instant Games. The dreaded slot machines are an altogether different story but I won't go there...

Bonne action de grâce à tous et toutes.
(Happy Thanksgiving to one and all)
Doug

Prestige Presses Its Advantage

Prestige sold an estimated whopping 2 million tickets last week without losing a single Grand Prize! Eleven of the twelve Grand Prizes remain to be claimed after selling one third of the ticket float. Your chances of winning one now stand at 830,000:1 versus the 1.2 million:1 that existed at the outset of the game.

I know that this game is expensive at $10/ticket but it is by far and away the best game to play at this time. Almost 12 cents of every dollar spent on the game is returned to the Grand Prize winners and this number is the best that is currently available. At the same time, the game has a high percentage of winners and a high percentage of winners that pay more that the cost of the ticket. The game is strong in every respect.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige 63%
2. Cash Blast 63%
3. Fast 200's 50%
4. $200 Million 63%
5. Cherry Jubilee 40%

Games to Avoid

1. Horse Shoes 52%
2. More Lucky 19%
3. Scrabble #1754 5%
4. Blackjack Tripler 17%
5. Bingo #3008 30%

Note: Percentage figures indicate the estimated percentage of the float left to be sold.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Cherry Jubilee and Fast 200's are both good choices to play. It's unusual for an inexpensive game to rate highly given the higher take out in these games.

$3 Game Update

It's tough to recommend any game in this area. Crossword #3200 is better than Crossword #3203 and Bingo #3009 is better than Bingo #3008. Don't be fooled.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Black Pearls, Money Multiplier, and Cash for Life are all reasonable choices in this area.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Just avoid Classic White. Each of the other three is a good choice.

Comings and Goings

Crossword Tripler #1755 was added this week. The game is very similar to the other Crossword Triple #1743 game that is also for sale. I'm not crazy about the game as the 3.6 cents per dollar of revenue dedicated to Grand Prizes is low for $5 games and the 13.6% of revenue returned to players who "win" back the cost of the ticket is high. The float for the game is over 8 million tickets so it will be around for a while. The earlier version of the game was launched back in April and there is still 1.5 million tickets left to sell in that game. If you must play this game, play the new version.

Personal Play

Three Prestige Tickets contained one winner of $20. That is about par for the course. Norm in Mississauga purchased one Prestige ticket for his "friend". It was a $50 winner. He cashed the ticket and bought one more - it was worth $20. I know it's not a huge win but nicely done nonetheless.

I received an interesting message this past week from a visitor to the blog. She had taken the time to write the OLG complaining about the manner is which it retires games. The letter she got in response was interesting in that I'd be curious to know if the author actually believes what she is saying. I respect the OLG for the fact that they take the time to respond but their explanations for their decisions do not hold water. It is my view that the criteria for canceling games should be entirely objective. The letter they sent states clearly that there can be judgement in their decisions. Whenever the OLG applies discretion, their priority should be the interest of the players. Sadly, it often is the interest of the OLG. How else does one explain why games with Grand Prizes unclaimed are routinely canceled while games with not only no Grand Prizes but also no Second Prizes and in one case no Third Prizes continue to be offered for sale. It's a case of player beware but it can't hurt to write to them as this individual has done.


Doug