Money Multiplier Takes Over Top Spot

Prestige, continuing to be hampered by low sales, has surrendered the top spot to Money Multiplier which sold 3% of its float this past week with out surrendering a top prize. The game presently returns $.103 of every dollar to the remaining grand prize winners (3rd best) and has the best remaining top prizes, as compared to when the game started, of any game. The only problem is that only 25% of the games float remains to be sold. I'm having trouble finding tickets.

Best Rated Games

1. Money Multiplier (25%)
2. Prestige (64%)
3. Frogger (15%)
4. Classic White (9%)
5. $200 Million (56%)

Note: I am advising against Frogger and Classic White as many of each games best secondary prizes have all been claimed.

Games to Avoid

1. Cash Blast (23%)
2. Cashingo (11%)
3. Crossword 3203 (7%)
4. Monopoly (80%)
5. Peppermint (82%)

Note: Cash Blast should have been retired according to the OLG's own policy. Lets see how long it takes for them to do so.

$1 - $2 Game Update

As from Fast 200's, Cross Xpress, Cherry Jubilee, and Stock Stuff are all reasonable choices.

$3 Game Update

Holly Jolly is the best rated game in this area, once Frogger is discounted.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Money Multiplier rates too highly for me to recommend any other games.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Avoid Cash Blast and Instant Gift Pack. The remaining three games are all good.

Comings and Goings

$5 Cash In was introduced this past week. It's a good game. 8.2% of the total revenue goes to winners of $100 or more. The 7 Grand Prizes of $100,000 appeals to me. Your chances to win one are 354,000:1 at present.

Personal Play

I bought two $200 Million tickets this past week and both were winners: total winnings = $60. My Year to date figures barely budged.

An interesting comment from Trinitron on last weeks blog informed us that Lotto Max was an interesting investment with the 50 supplementary $1 million prizes. Your odds to win one were only 500,000:1. Pretty good. I note that after looking at the results that fully 30 of those 50 prizes were not won. It's a tough game.

My last entry for the year 2013 will come as close to the end of the year as possible. It will benchmark me for the beginning of 2014. Merry Christmas!

Doug

It's Still Prestige - Unfortunately

Prestige continued with its slow sales but did not reveal a Grand Prize. As a result, it  has edged further up the rating system. Money Multiplier has continued to close and is now very close to Prestige in the ratings. Prestige currently offers one chance in 940,000 to win $1 Million for your $10 investment. By comparison, Money Multiplier offers one chance in 216,000 to win $100,000 for your $5 investment. It's a tough call.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige (64%)
2. Money Multiplier (28%)
3. Frogger (15%)
4. Classic White (9%)
5. $200 Million (56%)

Even though Frogger and Classic White are on this list, I would recommend avoiding these games as the secondary prizes are hollowed out. Frogger has none of its $10,000 second prizes available. You can either get the one $75,000 or the $500 third prize. Classic White has none of the $100,000, $50,000, nor $10,000 prizes left. You can either win the one $500,000 outstanding grand prize or the next best prize of $1000. Not a good proposition for your $10.

Games to Avoid

1. Cash Blast (23%)
2. Cashingo (13%)
3. Crossword 3203 (7%)
4. Crossword 3202 (16%)
5. Peppermint (88%)

Comings and Goings

Praise the heavens - Keno 1410 is no more! After an entire year of being on the market, during most of which it was a game to avoid, the OLG has finally decided to retire the 17% of the float that remained. Thank goodness I don't have to rail about the game anymore. Cross Tripler 1743 also met its end over the course of the past week. It had one Grand Prize left at the time of its demise but I had it rated as only a middling game.

No new games were introduced.

Personal Play

I got sick of beating my head exclusively against the Prestige wall. I bought one Prestige ticket and 4 Money Multipliers. The result was one $5 win for Money Multiplier. Annoying. I am now very close to my expected financial result and slightly ahead in the cash rate.

Readers have been messaging me that they have been having success with $200 Million. It is a well rated game and its cash rate is excellent but, as reader Jay points out, it is much harder to buy a single $20 - $200 Million ticket than it is to buy 2 - $10 Prestige tickets. It's true! Some psychology major should study why that is. It defies logic but there is no denying that it is the case. Next week I'm switching to $200 Million to see if I can switch things up.

Ryan has messaged me about a seller near him that was well stocked in Crossword 3203, Horseshoes, Cash Blast, Cash For Life 1662 and a few Prestige tickets. My goodness! With the exception of Prestige, those are all terrible choices. It almost makes me think that the great OLG brain in the sky has been asking sellers to actively flog those losers. I hate thinking that way.

Given that it is the Christmas Season, is it incumbent upon well informed players to advise the unsuspecting  buyer as to avoid the bad games? Maybe, but I can tell you that I have done that twice and each time the benefactor of my advice looked at me like I had horns growing out of my head.

Here's hoping that the Holiday Season brings you good luck.


Doug

Prestige Still #1 - But Not By Much

Welcome to the 100th edition of this blog. I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. If you have any suggestions for how it could be improved, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Prestige remains a highly rated game but Money Multiplier is quickly closing the gap. It would not take much for the two games to reverse positions. Prestige currently is returning $.10 of every dollar spent on the game to the ten Grand Prizes left to be claimed. Your chances to snag one is just under 1 million:1. This is second only to Fast 200s that returns $.12 to its 951 unclaimed Grand Prizes of $200 each. Money Multiplier returns $.085 of every dollar to the Grand Prize winners.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige (66%)
2. Money Multiplier (30%)
3. Frogger (15%)
4. Classic White (9%)
5. $200 Million (56%)

Games to Avoid

1. Cash Blast (24%)
2. Keno 1410 (17%)
3. Cashingo (14%)
4. Crossword 3203 (8%)
5. Monopoly (94%)

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200s is a strong choice but I can understand folks who are turned off by the $200 Grand Prize. The next best game in this group is Stock Stuff.

$3 Game Update

Cashingo has become a public menace. Its a dog for which all 3 of the $25,000 second prizes have also been claimed. At present, the most you can win is $508, and there are only 18 of them. Fast 200s looks awfully good by comparison. The best game here is Frogger but be careful as only one Grand Prize remains in this game. Check with your retailer before you buy.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Money Multiplier is the best game by a significant margin, in this area. If you dislike the game for some reason, then choose freely among the other games - they are all about the same.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Cash Blast joined the "dog" list this week when its last grand Prize was claimed. Instant Gift Pack is also rated as being a poor choice given the small Grand Prize for the game ($50,000) and the small number of Grand Prizes (6). For $10, I would expect more.

Comings and Goings

Cash For Life 1162 and Bingo 3008 were retired this past week. Cash For Life was a dog of a game and Bingo 3008 had been milked to its maximum by the OLG. May they both rest in peace.

A new version of Monopoly was launched this week and immediately went to the bottom of the list due to one of it's three $75,000 prizes being claimed right away. The game will be popular but resist the temptation faithful readers - there are better choices out there.

I mentioned last week that the $10 Instant Gift Pack was launched. Players get a pouch of tickets and a voucher to get a free ticket in the 20 million ticket jumbo Crossword game. The game provides you with good odds to win a Grand Prize of 260,000:1 but you really have to pay a lot for that privilege. The game is good insofar as your likelihood to win a prize and any prize greater than the cost of the ticket, but I cannot recommend the game. If your goal is to open the packet and put a ticket in the Christmas stockings of your family members, then go ahead - you get lots of tickets for the money.

Personal Play

Four Prestige tickets contained two winners worth $30. Barely a blip to my bottom line for the year. This week I'm going to search for some Money Multiplier tickets and maybe get one Prestige ticket. I'm not winning at the game and I need a change.

Congratulations to Vic who picked up an orphan $200 Million ticket that was worth $75 this week. I'd take it. I have been watching the OLG ads for this game closely this past week. Boy do they go out of their way to avoid telling you that the ticket costs $20.

I received an interesting comment from Jay in Scarborough this week. He is vexed about the splash that the OLG made this week when it found the rightful owner of a $50 Million Lotto Max ticket that had been unclaimed for a year. He maintains that the rules require the winner to produce the ticket and that had the money not been claimed then it would have been added to future draws therefore representing more opportunity for him to win. 

The OLG Brochure on claiming large prizes can be found here http://www.olg.ca/assets/documents/responsible_gaming/howto_check_claim_prizes.pdf .

He may have a point but we need to remember the history of the OLG insofar as rightful winners is concerned. A new era began for them post Ombudsman's Report http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/Resources/Reports/A-Game-of-Trust.aspx . They have come a long way since this report was issued and I applaud them for completing what amounted to a culture change in their organization. That takes leadership. Regrettably for them, it does not stop me from criticizing them when I think it appropriate. As for Jay - I think that he needs a little more seasonal spirit.

Good luck to all.

Doug

Prestige Weakens But Remains the Choice

A lucky player in Welland won one of Prestige's Grand Prizes last week. Another one was claimed since the last time I updated my data for this posting. The cumulative effect of the two wins will be to bring Prestige down to the territory of the other top games currently for sale. Players can now feel that any of the top five games are good choices. As of November 27th, the game with the largest imbalance of Grand Prizes to tickets sold is Frogger. But be careful - it only has one Grand Prize left to claim.

Top Rated Games

1. Prestige (66%)
2. Money Multiplier (33%)
3. $200 Million (33%)
4. Classic White (10%)
5. Fast 200s (26%)

Note: Have you seen the ads on TV for $200 Million? Lots of information on what you can win but nary a mention of the $20 cost of the ticket. This game is being sold nationally and sales are lagging (see below). Further, the game has been in the marketplace since early April. It's curious that the OLG would decide to push an old game for which the public has demonstrated resistance.

Games to Avoid

1. Cash For Life 1162 (30%)
2. Crossword 3203 (10%)
3. Cashingo (16%)
4. Keno 1410 (17%)
5. Bingo 3008 (14%)

Note: Percentage numbers represent the estimated amount of the ticket float left to be sold. Once the number is less than 20%, tickets become more difficult to find.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200s remains a strong choice in this area. Note that the Grand Prize for this game is only $200 but there are over 1000 of them left to be claimed.

$3 Game Update

Frogger is the best choice. This is a tricky area as most players prefer $3 games yet 4 of the 5 games to avoid are also $3 games. Be careful if you're purchasing $3 games.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Money Multiplier is becoming a better and better choice every week. Four - $100,000 prizes remain to be claimed.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Three of the top five rated games come from this area and the lowest rated game, Cash Blast, is not a bad choice either. If you're willing to pay $10 for a ticket, play whatever game tickles your fancy.

Comings and Goings

The OLG did us a favour by deleting Horseshoes this past week. It was a lame duck. Wild 8s was also retired with one of its Grand Prizes left to claim. It was the second rated $1 - $2 game at the time of its demise. That's annoying.

The OLG introduced its annual "Gift Pack" game this past week. It is a $10 play with several smaller games included. I haven't rated the game yet as those clever marketers at OLG have structured the game such that if any ticket in the envelope wins a small prize, there will be other winners included. The minimum total win is the $10 cost of the pack. I like that. There is also a free ticket for another game included. I don't like that as it stretches my limited mathematical evaluation model.

Personal Play

Six Prestige tickets contained one winner of $20. Not good. There are only four weeks of play left for this year. I am presently right about where I should be, in terms of results, and that is not good. I need some luck.

Thanks again to the folks that post comments on the blog. There is an excellent post by Trinitron on last week's update that describes what our actual chances of winning are in terms that humans can understand. Reading it helped me to not feel bad about my inability to hit a decent score. Go give it a read.

Game Sales

The following is a listing of all games for sale, as of November 27th, and the estimated number of ticket sales for that game over the course of the past month. The percentage is the percentage of the original float that was sold over the period measured.

Game	Tickets (000's)	% of Float
SuperBingo	2115	20
Cross Tripler 1755	1269	15
Cashingo	711	27
Prestige	643	4
Cash For Life 1162	513	5
$200 Million	480	3
Black Pearls	470	18
Money Multiplier	463	15
Keno 1412	460	9
Classic White	449	6
Crossword 3203	366	10
Cross Express	356	11
Fast 200s	329	10
Cherry Tripler	317	10
Bingo 3008	272	3
Frogger	267	11
Cash Blast	226	16
Cross Tripler 1743	196	2
Black Jack Tripler	187	7
Cherry Jubilee	185	6
Keno 1410	165	3

Comments: Keep in mind that Classic White, Prestige, and $200 Million are all being sold Interprovincially. In terms of percentage of their float, the sales for all of those games are low. I am also at a loss to explain why Keno 1410 continues to be sold. The OLG has a blind spot when it comes to this game when you consider that it has been for sale for all of 2013, all the Grand Prizes have been claimed, and it is the worst seller of all games. Pull the plug on this dog, I say.

Doug