More Lucky Lines #1776 Continues to Rule to Roost

Another week goes by, 80 thousand tickets sold, and still all three Grand Prizes and all four second prizes remain to be claimed for this game.  An estimated 20% of the float remains outstanding making your chances of winning one of the Grand Prizes a juicy 197,000:1. Posters have indicated that a scarcity for the game is beginning to set in. That makes sense. I know that several people have indicated that they are fed up with the game. So am I. But, I can't get off the bandwagon. The odds against none of the top seven prizes being claimed in the first 80% of tickets sold is very low. Too low. Maybe the poster who suggested that winners must have lost their winning tickets is on to something. It's all very strange. But, unlikely things do happen. If they didn't, no one would ever buy a ticket to begin with.

Top Rated Games

1. $3 More Lucky Lines (20% of float left, +/- 3%)
2. $5 Money Multiplier (14%, +/- 2%)
3. $10 Prestige (27%, +/- 7%)
4. $10 Turbo Cash (45%, +/- 2%)
5. $20 Extraordinary (87%, +/- 4%)

Games to Avoid

1. $3 Tetris - worst game by far. 
2. $1 Lucky Lines - Lost one grand prize from within first 5% of tickets sold.
3. $3 CrossWord - 1.8 million to one to win $50,000. A stinker. 
4. $5 Win Take All - Five of seven grand prizes claimed in first half of ticket float. 
5. $3 Cashingo - Three of four grand prizes claimed. 1.4 million to one to win $75,000. 

$1 - $2 Game Update

Good times are over in this area. The Red Hot 50's game is the only reasonable choice.

$3 Game Update

The top game is by far the best choice. Still, if you must, Bingo #3014 is the next best.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Avoid Win Take All and Sapphire 7s. Money Multiplier is a good choice.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Avoid Classic Gold and Cadillac.

Comings and Goings

Our friends at the OLG finally withdrew Cash For Life Family #1165. It was our game of choice for some time then deteriorated into the game to avoid. It departed with no Grand Prizes and 8% of its float left to sell.

New on the scene is $5 Black Pearls #1795 and $2 Royal 7's #1790. We have seen Black Pearls before. Its earlier version was retired last September. It is very light in prizes between $100 and less than the Grand prize. It's above average in small prizes so it may become a good choice for those who like lots of small winners.

Royal 7's has lots of different prize amounts which is unusual for a $2 game. Its prize structure for prizes from $100 up to the Grand Prize is the best for games currently for sale in the $1-$2 area. The trade-off is in the area of lower prizes. This game could improve in the ratings if no Grand Prizes are claimed early on in the game.

Personal Play

Ten More Lucky Lines tickets included five winners totaling $44. That makes two weeks in a row that I have kept my head above water. Of course, any prize of $100 or more continues to escape my reach but I am showing a return of 86% on this game to date which is very good. My overall return rate this year is 69% and that is also a bit better than I should have expected. I hope that does not portend a string of bad luck.

Meanderings

Thanks to the posters who commented this week. You know, If I was to actually win a Grand Prize in More Lucky Lines I'd feel badly for Darth. The poor guy is scouring the province and pounding away with purpose. If anyone deserves some good luck, it's him.

Two posters also indicated that they thought that they had losing tickets in the recommended games but upon verification they turned out to be winners. That is very easy to do in this game so please please please never toss a loser without confirming with the ticket checker machine that it is indeed a loser.

Also of note is the number of folks playing Poker Lotto. They seem to like the game and have had some success.They recommend playing only when the jackpot gets up towards $150,000. It is currently $75,000 so I think that I'll watch for a while.


Best to all.


Doug

More Lucky Lines #1776 Is Becoming a Freak

A wild week on the blog with Darth Vader roaming all over South Western Ontario scooping up entire packages of More Lucky Lines. When all the posters results were tabulated, readers purchased 461 tickets and obtained a return of 61.2% on their investment. The almost predictable oddity was that the poster who snagged the largest prize ($58) was the one who purchased the fewest number of tickets! The larger the number of tickets purchased, the more the results should trend towards the 60% figure for this game (excluding any prizes of $100 or more).

Even after our limited damage to the float, 23% (+/- 3%) of the float, or 672,000 tickets are left to be sold. All three of the Grand Prizes remain outstanding and, even more peculiarly, all four second prizes of $5000 are also outstanding. Very strange. But, as one poster indicated, when this sort of thing happens, they tend to go all at once. The tickets should begin to become somewhat scarce at this point so you may have to shop around. One poster also indicated that a new More Lucky Lines (yellow tickets) is now available for sale. The game is not listed on the web site but if that is the case please be diligent when buying.

Top Rated Games

1. More Lucky Lines #1776 (23% of float left +/- 3%)
2. 20X Lucky #1789 (14% +/- 3%)
3. Money Multiplier #1769 (17% +/- 2%)
4. Prestige #1741(28% +/- 7%)
5. Extraordinary #1742 (88% +/- 4%)

Games to Avoid

1. $4 Cash for Life #1165 - Game should be canceled by OLG policy. Horrible choice.
2. $3 Tetris #1793 - Devoid of Grand Prizes, 15% of float left. Retire this game!
3. $3 Cashingo #1801 - 3 of 4 Grand Prizes claimed; half of float left to sell.
4. $3 Crossword #3205 - 1 chance in 10 million to win a $50,000 prize
5. $1 Lucky Lines #1770 - Grand Prize or $50; nothing in between.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Nothing much going on here. Red Hot 50's is OK but its grand prize is only $50.

$3 Game Update

Have to play the recommended game although some posters may be sick and tired of scratching these tickets. Plus, it's easy to mess up and not realize that your ticket is a winner. As a poster reminds us all, always check your tickets. Bingo #3014 is the next best $3 game, if you must.

$4 - $5 Game Update

20X Lucky and Money Multiplier are both good choices.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Neither of Cadillac nor Classic Gold is worth your money.

Comings and Goings

$10 Cash for Life Family was retired this week with 1 Grand Prize left to claim. The $1 and $2 versions of this game were retired earlier. Each of those games also had one Grand Prize left when they were retired. There is but one of the original four games that is left for sale. You guessed it --- the one with no Grand Prizes. Come on OLG!

Personal Play

Like other posters, my 10 More Lucky Lines tickets return $21. I am loathe to admit this but an impulse buy of three Sapphire 7 tickets hit for $31 bringing me into profit status for the week. A lack of discipline should be punished by the gods, not rewarded.

Meanderings

I have received a couple of messages from readers that merit replies. I'll be working on those replies this week.

After two years of writing this blog, the number of people visiting the pages is growing. Thanks to all for reading. I also "Tweet" the link to the blog. You can follow me @Usockem. Re-tweeting it would be appreciated.

Saratoga opens tomorrow. If any of you are traveling through upstate New York between now and Labour Day, make the time to visit Saratoga Springs and spend a day at the track. It's not like any race track that you have ever seen before.


Doug

More Lucky Lines #1776 Maintains Its Position

Two weeks after taking over the top spot, More Lucky Lines remains the choice. The game features all three of its Grand Prizes of $75,000 being unclaimed with 27% (+/- 3%) of its float left to sell. Your odds of hitting a grand prize are one in 265,000. That is the second best chance of all games currently for sale.

I have some concern about the game as poster Darth Vader has been playing this game steadily and not receiving the rate of return that he should. I find that to be very odd. Suspicious, in fact. This game returns 2.5% of total revenue to the Grand Prize winners, 2.6% to secondary prize winners, 46.5% to winners of less than $100, and 13.5% to winners of $3 prizes. So, even if Darth does not get a prize of $100 or more he should be returning 60% of his investment if the sample size is large enough. From reading his posts, it should be. My personal play on the game has also failed to meet the 60% standard. I'm going to total up his numbers, do a little math, and report back. It's always amazing to me how often strings of bad luck afflict players and how rarely those same people are visited by good luck. Still, the game remains the game of choice.

Top Rated Games

1. More Lucky Lines #1776 (27% of float left +/- 3%)
2. Cash For Life #1161 (39%, +/- 3%)
3. 20X Lucky #1789 (15%, +/- 3%)
4. Prestige #1741 (28%, +/- 7%)
5. Red Hot 50s (22%, +/- 1%)

Games to Avoid

1. $4 Cash For Life #1165  (1-6th prize remaining, most you can win is $500!)
2. $3 Tetris #1793 (All Grand Prizes and Second Prizes are gone)
3. $1 Bingo Express #1753 (1 Grand Prize left and 800,000 tickets)
4. $1 Lucky Lines #1770 (New Game and already on the "avoid" list)
5. $3 Crossword #3205 (1.4 million to 1 to win $50,000. No thank-you)

$1-$2 Game Update

Red Hot 50s is playable but the top prize is only $50. All the others are poor.

$3 Game Update

More Lucky Lines towers above the rest.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Not one, not two, but three Cash For Life games on sale simultaneously. How about canceling the sucker game #1165 OLG?

$10 - $20 Game Update

Prestige and Extraordinary are playable. For the cost, both games should be extraordinary - but they're not.

Comings and Goings

I missed a week so there is some activity to report: three new games have been added, three have been retired.

Hitting the dustbin were Aces and 8s, Keno #1412, and $200 Million. $200 Million was an inter-provincial game that had been on sale for 15 months. It was the benefactor of marketing campaigns by the lottery corporations. Still, after 15 months only 60% of the float ended up being sold. At the time of its demise, there were 4 - $2 million prizes outstanding. Over the course of the past two months, there were only 500,000 of its tickets sold across Canada. Meanwhile, Bingo #3014 sold over six times as many tickets in Ontario alone. It's safe to say that scratch ticket players in Canada have a price resistance point and it is somewhat less than $20 per ticket.

Both Aces and 8s and Keno had one Grand Prize left to claim and 10-15% of their respective ticket floats left to sell. An argument could be made why they were retired but there remains games for sale that are worse choices than any of the three that were retired. Much worse, in fact.

New on the scene are:

$1 Lucky Lines Express 1.3, 0.0 , 46.0, 12.6, 40.0
$3 Scrabble 2.4, 3.4, 50.6, 12.9, 35.0.
$4 Bonus Cash For Life 9.5, 3.2, 46.3, 10.2, 30.1.

(revenue breakdown is: Grand Prizes, Prizes $100 or more but less than Grand Prize, prizes less than $100 and more than cost of ticket, prizes worth the cost of the ticket, OLG profit). You will note that the Scrabble numbers do not add up to 100. I'll be calling the OLG about that little problem.

Lucky Lines Express is your typical lousy $1 game. Scrabble is acceptable and we know that everyone loves to play these games, me included. Cash For Life always rates well due to the 9.5% of revenue that goes to the five Grand Prize winners. You pay for that in the lower prize area where only 56.5% of revenue is returned to players. The game is also light on secondary prizes but you can't get everything in one game. With any luck we may be playing this game in the future.

Personal Play

Thirteen More Lucky Lines tickets contained 5 winners totaling $20. That places me right with Darth Vader. I had the right to expect more. My year to date results are presently a cash rate of 32% and a return on investment of 63%. Nothing terrible but, like Eugenie Bouchard, I expect to win.

Meanderings

Thanks to Darth Vader for posting information as to Grand Prizes claimed yesterday. My analysis was as of Monday. You need to keep up to date and should always check with the seller to make sure that grand prizes for the game you are about to play have not been recently claimed. For the two weeks between blog postings (I know, I was lazy - sorry), Grand Prizes were claimed for the following: Blazings 7s, Crazy 8s, Cashingo, Keno, Crosstripler, Money Multiplier, Sapphire 7s, and Win Take All. It pays to be sure before you buy.


My condolences to all Brazil supporters. That was brutal.


Doug