Prestige Continues to Dominate

Prestige's rating increased this past week as 3% of its float was sold and nary a Grand Prize was revealed. To date, only 1 of the 12 Grand Prizes has been revealed and 32% of the tickets have been sold. We should have expected to have seen 4 of the prizes claimed by now which puts us three to the good. This is a significant imbalance that makes the game a top pick. The game also offers a very high 50.0 % of its projected revenue returned to players winning more than the $10 cost of the ticket and less than $100. This is a strong number that yields one winner of more than the cost of the ticket from every 4.80 tickets sold. If you can scrounge up the $10, this is the game to play.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige (68%)
2. Fast 200s (32%)
3. $200 Million (60%)
4. Money Multiplier (43%)
5. Cash For Life 1161 (100%)

Games to Avoid

1. Cash for Life 1162 (31%)
2. Keno 1410 (19%)
3. 20x Lucky (15%)
4. Horse Shoes (13%)
5. Crossword 3203 (19%)

Note: It is treacherous at present as three of the worst five games have co-existing sister versions for sale at the same time. Be careful not to play the poor version.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200s is a top choice. Of the rest, Wild 8s is playable.

$3 Game Update

This has been a wasteland for games of late. Things are beginning to turn over as of late. Frogger 1757 is the best choice of the $3 games, followed by Cashingo.

$4 - $5 Games

Money Multiplier is the best choice but a new Cash For Life has been initiated at it already ranks as the second best game in this group. If you play it, be careful to play game 1161 and not 1162. There are no Grand Prizes left for 1162.

$10 - $20 Games

Prestige is the clear choice in this area.

Comings and Goings

The holidays are upon us. Four new games were launched last week in recognition of Christmas stockings everywhere: $1 Peppermint, $2 Stock Stuff, $3 Holly Jolly, and $5 Jack Frost. The OLG also introduced a new Cash For Life and Crossword 3202. That's a lot of new action. Of all the new games, Cash For Life begins with the best rating, followed by Jack Frost.

Crossword 3200 was retired from play with 1 Grand Prize and only 4% of its tickets left to be sold. That is the lowest such figure I have seen so I can't fault the OLG for retiring the game with the single Grand Prize left outstanding. Who knows, maybe it has been purchased and is just waiting to be scratched.

Personal Play

Three Prestige tickets contained two winners totaling $40. Not enough to bump any of my numbers up significantly. I continue to cash at a higher than expected rate but I can't seem to snag anything other than little prizes. My return on investment to date this year is 72%.

I was in Tim Horton's on the weekend. Beside me was an elderly lady who was carefully scratching her Horse Shoes ticket. After she was finished she passed it to her daughter who double checked to be sure that it was a loser. They even read to rules on the reverse side of the ticket. Hats off to the pair of them. As players, we must be in control of how we are playing. To ignore those considerations is the first step in allowing for potential chicanery by others. I didn't have the heart to tell the two ladies that Horse Shoes is a terrible choice. None of its Grand Prizes were left to be won. I think that they would have been too upset by that little nugget.

In my next blog posting I'm going to dig into Lotto Max but before I do that I'd like to provide readers with a mini analysis, written by Peter Gross, as part of his bi-monthly editor's column in "Down The Stretch" newspaper that covers activity on the horse racing circuit (www.downthestretchnewspaper.com):

"Have you tried the 'new' Lotto 649, which promises 'more ways to win'? One of the new ways to win is to have 2 out of 6 numbers plus the bonus. The odds are 1 in 81.2 of doing that. The OLG pays you $5 on a $3 ticket. At the track we call that 3 to 5...and don't get me going on about 3 of 6. Used to be you paid $1 for a 649 ticket and if you got 3 of 6 you were paid $10. Now if you get 3 of 6 on a $3 ticket you get... $10."

Good points by Peter. These games are essentially "Winner Takes All" propositions. We Instant Games players are much more democratic than that. Sure, the prospect of the big win is enticing but we need to have fun while we're playing as well as have the chance to win a Grand Prize, albeit a smaller one.

I hope all readers had the opportunity to reflect upon the lives cut short and the families left in mourning on this important day. The British Expeditionary Force lost 64,000 men on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st 1916. Reflect on that for a minute.

This will be a short week as you can look for the next update before the coming weekend.

Doug