Wednesday 26 November 2014

Bonus Cash For Life #1168 Continues to Rule

The top rated game continues to click along with four of its five Grand Prizes left outstanding and 39 % of its float (+/- 3%) left to sell. This game offers prizes akin to a $10 game for $4. One caution is that nine of its ten $100,000 second prizes have already been claimed. Apart from one unclaimed $10,000 prize, the next available prize level is $1,500. $.177 of every dollar spent on the game goes to the remaining Grand Prize winners which is the highest for any game currently for sale.

Your likelihood to win any prize and any prize greater than the cost of the ticket is competitive with other games in the $3 - $5 price range but for some reason commentators have experienced poor results with the game. Some to the point of taking a pause in their play. I think that's a good decision. As soon as playing is not fun and feels a little compulsive, it's time for a time out.

 BONUS CASH FOR LIFE

Top Rated Games 


  1. $4 Bonus Cash For Life #1168 - good game at a good price.
  2. $10 Spectacular #1816 - top five prizes all remain. Tickets selling fast.
  3. $10 Fortune #1779 - Slow selling game. Favourable prize distribution.
  4. $10 Wild 10's #1785 - 17% of float remains. Tickets about to become harder to find. 
  5. $20 Extraordinary #1742 - game has good numbers but $20 a ticket!!!???


Games to Avoid


  1. $5 Jacks Are Wild #1787 - one prize left above $1500. Who is asleep at the switch?
  2. $3 More Lucky Lines #1794 - keep disrespecting your customers, OLG.
  3. $2 Royal 7's #1790 - only one GP left. Prize is small for  $2 game. 37% of float remains. 
  4. $1 Lucky Lines #1770 - please send this game to OLG heaven.
  5. $5 Cash In #1807 - only 1 of 7 GP left and a third of the float left to sell.


$1 - $2 Game Update

Cash Cow, Holiday Cashout and Cash For Life are all reasonable choices.

$3 Game Update

Keno #1414 and Horseshoes are the top two choices.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Bonus Cash for Life is the preferred choice.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Any game other than Cadillac Riches. More on the new Holiday Gift Pack follows.

Comings and Goings


Crazy 8's was retired this past week. 19% of its float was left and all of its Grand Prizes had been claimed.

$10 Holiday Gift pack was introduced this past week. It is a game that my evaluation method has some trouble with as it offers a "free" $2 Cash For Life ticket voucher in each pack. Players should know that the prize for every winning "pack" is at least $10. If one of the tickets has a lower prize value then at least one other ticket in the "pack" is also a winner. The good news is that the game contains an excellent number of winning tickets and winners worth more than $10. The 9.5% of revenue that is awarded to winners of at least $100 and less than the Grand Prize is the best of any game currently for sale. Cadillac Riches is second by this measure. The bad news is that the prize distribution for winners of more than $10 and less than $100 is poor. Only Cadillac Riches is worse. The other disappointing feature is the measly $50,000 Grand Prize, of which there are six. Only $.016 of every dollar spent on the game goes to the Grand Prize winners. That is $1 Lucky Lines territory!

The bottom line is that, without taking into account the free $2 Cash For Life ticket, the game is the lowest rated of any $10 - $20 game. But, that $2 ticket is not worthless. if you assume an average return of $1.28 on each ticket, the overall game fares much better but I have a hard time quantifying that feature. Lastly, there are lots of prizes and lots of tickets so if you want to split them up for Christmas Stockings, I can fully understand your thinking. Remember: if one person wins a small prize chances are another will as well.

Personal Play


My troubled play with Bonus Cash For Life took an upbeat this week just as others was going in the opposite direction. Twelve tickets contained five winners totaling $44. I was actually ahead until the last two tickets! My overall cash rate is 31% and my ROI stands at 61%.


In Conclusion


A big shout out to Shelley who bagged a $1020 winning ticket on $3 Holly Jolly. It could not happen to a more positive and enthusiastic player. That is the highest reported win this year. Congratulations Shelley!

Here is an interesting article from the National Post: http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/19/b-c-lottery-pulls-dragon-fever-slot-machine-after-it-dishes-out-100000-prize-due-to-malfunction/

It amuses me how the BC Lottery describes their action as a "good will gesture". That implies that she really did not deserve the winnings. We human beings are programmed to look for patterns. Darth has his suspicions about the placement of winning tickets inside packages. This sort of story reminds us that all forms of gambling, whether in casinos or not, are susceptible to quirks. When those quirks take place we get to peak behind the curtain, if only for a minute.

A commentator asked me about the lump sum payments for the Cash For Life games. Specifically, can you include them in a will. I'm going to research that this week. I suspect that the term "Cash For Life" is a trademarked expression and not meant to be taken literally.

Enjoy your week. It's good scratching weather.


Doug


 


Wednesday 19 November 2014

Fruit Explosion Finished - Bonus Cash For Life #1168 Takes Over

The vain pursuit of the last Fruit Explosion Grand Prize has ended with it most likely belonging to the OLG itself. For those who have squirreled some away ( a friend has eight that he intends to scratch on Christmas morning), the last recorded chances for you were 182,000:1.

The new top choice is Bonus Cash For Life #1168. The game offers four of its five initial Grand Prizes of $675,000 after selling almost 60% of its float. The Cash For Life games are top heavy and my evaluation system rewards that fact. Your chances to win any prize larger than the cost of the ticket are 1:6.74 which is pretty good for the $4-$5 group of games. The advantage this game offers is that the "Bonus" comes in the form of a higher overall return to players than the cost of the ticket would indicate. In general, $5 games return 66-67% of the games revenue to the winners. Bonus Cash For Life returns 69.9% which is equivalent to the $10 - $20 games. Barring the loss of more than one Grand Prize, this game is poised to rule the ratings for several weeks.

BONUS CASH FOR LIFE


Top Rated Games


  1. $4 Bonus Cash For Life #1168 - Strong top pick,
  2. $10 Spectacular #1816 - small float, tickets selling well,
  3. $10 Fortune #1779 - jumbo inter-provincial game, good chance to cash. 
  4. $10 Wild 10's #1785 - game winding down, still 25 $10,000 prizes left.
  5. $20 Extraordinary #1742 - 7 , $3 games or one of these, very slow seller.


Games to Avoid


  1. $5 Jacks Are Wild #1787 - all three top prize categories gone - we're waiting OLG!
  2. $3 More Lucky Lines #1794 - OLG has sold 40% of float AFTER all GP's claimed!
  3. $2 Crazy 8's #1765 - All 5 Grand Prizes claimed. 
  4. $1 Lucky Lines #1770 - please make this game stop. It sucks.
  5. $5 Cash In #1807 - terrible chance to win more than the cost of the ticket.


$1 - $2 Game Update

Cash Cow and Holiday Cashout are the top two choices.

$3 Game Update

With Fruit Explosion gone, Keno #1414 (not the new #1415) is the pick here.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Stick to the top rated game, Bonus Cash For Life #1168.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Here's an arguable statement - all the games here are playable with the exception of Cadillac Riches. (see the comment section for anticipated rebuttals)

Comings and Goings


Fruit Explosion, Scrabble #1799, and Crossword #3205 were all retired this past week. We were pleased to see the end of Scrabble and Crossword.

Newly launched were Crossword #3207 and 20X Lucky #1808. I'm not a fan of the Crossword games as the low Grand Prize structure of 10 - $50,000 prizes in a float of 20 million tickets is disappointing. Still, the game offers the best return percentage of all games for prizes greater than the price of the ticket and less than $100.  And I have to admit the game is fun to play.

20X Lucky offers a poor chance to cash any ticket (1:4.21) for a $5 ticket but what you get in return is a lower number of $5 winners. I was moaning about this last week so I guess that I have to like the game. Let's see how it develops.

Personal Play


Brutal! 6 Merry Money tickets included a single $5 winner. 2 Spectacular tickets returned 1 - $10 winner. 2 Bonus Cash For Life ticket returned zero. I am now at a cash rate of 30% and an ROI of 59%. Each number is a low for the year to date.

Posters report bad results on Bonus Cash For Life. That has been my experience as well. I have cashed 3 of 24 tickets for a whopping total of $20. Regardless, I am going to concentrate my play on this game this week.

In Conclusion

Received an invitation to visit the soon-t-be-launched www.playolg.ca site this morning. From the e-mail, "Blackjack, Roulette, Slots anda wholed lot more. PlayOLG provides a safe and fun enviroment where you can play your favourite games at your leisure. Plus, for the first time in Ontario, you will be able to legally purchase LOTTO MAX, LOTTO 6/49 and ENCORE online."

Gambling "at my leisure". I thought that I was already doing that. This is scary stuff for some poor souls.

Doug











Monday 10 November 2014

Fruit Explosion #1803 - One Last Gasp

I am as surprised as anyone that Fruit Explosion remains on the outstanding prize list seeing how far we are past its deactivation date. But it remains there and two commentators have posted that they found tickets on their travels. Your chances to win the last remaining Grand Prize of $75,000 are now 192,000:1. This is the lowest of any game for sale ( Wild 10's excluded). Thirteen cents of every dollar spent on the game will go to that lucky winner (if there ever is one). At the outset of the game, only 2.9 cents of every dollar was directed to Grand Prizes. Your chance to win any prize greater than the cost of the ticket is 1:6.81 tickets which is not great. 12.9% of the game's revenue is returned to winners of the cost of the ticket. That reduces your chances to win a prize of any sort to 1:3.84 tickets, which is very good. The trouble is, I don't consider winning my $3 back as winning. I'd be happier if the OLG was to convert all of those $3 winners to more $5 winners. Let me know if you agree by posting a comment.

 FRUIT EXPLOSION


Top Rated Games


  1. $3 Fruit Explosion #1803 - going, going, ......
  2. $4 Bonus CFL #1168 - heir apparant - all 5 big Grand Prizes left and half of float sold. 
  3. $10 Fortune #1779 - 10 million dollar Grand Prizes and a high cash rate
  4. $10 Wild 10's #1785 - reader's cousin just won a $10k Grand Prize - 28 left to claim.
  5. $10 Spectacular #1816 - began sale today. Small float. Small Grand Prize of $250,000. 


Games to Avoid


  1. $3 Crossword #3205 - largest remaining prize is $100. Only 4% of float left. Lame. 
  2. $3 Scrabble #1799 - All top 4 prize levels gone. 7% of float left. Also lame.
  3. $5 Jacks Are Wild #1787 - Top two prize categories gone. What are you waiting for, OLG?
  4. $2 Crazy 8's #1765 - All five Grand Prizes claimed. 
  5. $3 More Lucky Lines #1794 - Still flogging this game. Sold a million tickets since last Grand Prize was claimed. 


Comings and Goings


How does one know that Christmas is approaching? The OLG introduces its suite of Holiday games. Stuff those stockings with scratch tickets folks. No games were retired. Here is the rundown on new games. Please see CL66's comments on these games for a detailed breakdown of prizes.

$2 Holiday Cashout #1812 - Not a bad $2 game. Your chances to win one of the three Grand Prizes is 1:850,000 which is the poorest for the $1 - $2 group of games. But, the percentage of revenue return to $2 winners is only 8.1% which is the lowest for any game currently for sale. As a result, the 47% of revenue returned to winners of more than $2 and less than $100 is very good.

$3  Holly Jolly Tripler #1815 - The 4.7% of revenue returned to winners of $100 or more is good for a $3 game. Otherwise, not much to recommend at the moment.

$5 Merry Money Multiplier #1814 - A welcome addition to the $5 group of games. 7 - $100,000 Grand Prizes combined with a good cash rate gives this game potential. May buy a few this week just to see how I like it.

$10 Holiday Spectacular #1816 - The game begins play with an overall rating of being the 5th best game for sale. Pretty darned good, I'd say. The low Grand Prize of $250,000 for a $10 game is offset by the low ticket float of 840,000 tickets. In addition to the 1:280,000 chance to win a Grand Prize, 3.9% of the revenue goes to winners of at least $100 and less than the Grand Prize. This is 4th overall. Cadillac leads in this category but a poster informed us that you may get more than you bargained for in that game as the car ain't exactly free. The overall cash rate of 1:3.30 is third best overall.

$3 Instant Keno #1415 - Not much to recommend here. A ticket float of 5 million with only 5 Grand Prizes of only $50,000 each is enough to turn me off right away. The best aspect of the game is 50.1 % of revenue returned to winners of more than $3 and less than $100. I recommend its sister game #1414 if you really have to have a Keno ticket.

In summary, the Holiday Games are good choices with the exception of the $3 edition.


$1 - $2 Game Update

The new $2 Cash For Life is the best choice here. The $67,500 Grand Prize for a $2 game is appealing.

$3 Game Update

Aside from the rare Fruit Explosion tickets, Keno #1414 and Horseshoes are the next best choices.

$5 Game Update

If you don't like Bonus Cash For Life, Black Pearls and Merry Money are the next best.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Fortune, Spectacular, and Wild 10's are all good choices.


Personal Play 

None. My pursuit of Fruit Explosion tickets was ultimately fruitless. Moving on, starting this week.


Meanderings

Heard a guest on the radio this morning from Carlton University whose class is testing the upcoming OLG online gaming site. I have to accept that buying 649 and Lotto Max or Pro-Line online is not a bad idea but I am not a fan of on-line Poker or on-line Slot Machines. They have the potential to create far too much damage to people's lives. On the plus side, at least players will know that the games are on the up-and-up unlike current offshore sites. The odds may suck but you're not being literally robbed.

This article also caught my attention: http://bit.ly/11c0Izm . The main plank of the OLG's Modernization Plan is to privatize parts of its operation. The private operator will invest in the network and thereby increase sales. The OLG will then receive a smaller cut of a much bigger pie that will overall return more money to the Provincial Treasury than is presently the case. I'm not convinced that this will be the outcome and the above article may indicate why.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month takes place tomorrow. I'll be thinking about my Great Uncle Charlie.


Doug