Diamond 7's Rule - Get Em Now

With an estimated 12% of the float remaining, this game is becoming difficult to find. Posters report finding pockets of tickets but with the de-activation date now two weeks past, its becoming slim pickens. Only an estimated 20,000 tickets were sold last week leaving 370,000 either in the distribution warehouse or in a batch that will never be printed. The game has two of its seven Grand Prizes left to claim. Twenty-one percent of the money allocated to prizes of $107 or more is left to be claimed versus 12% of the float. The positive ratio of 1.71 is the best of any game currently for sale and your odds of snagging a Grand Prize of 185,000:1 are the best of any game outside the new Fast 200's.  This game is a clear choice but it's time is limited. The OLG is about to credit those two Grand Prizes to their column very soon.

Top Rated Games

1. $5 Diamond 7's #1822 - The clear choice.
2. $3 QFG Crossword #3208 - Good numbers but the 2 million:1 to win $50,000 leaves me cold. 
3. $5 Cross Tripler #1810 - Well rated on both scales. CL66 won $100 on the game last week. 
4. $3 Keno #1416 - A game with potential but still early. 
5. $3 Bingo #3016 - Prefer this game to the two $3 games rated ahead of it. 

Games to Avoid

1. $4 DBL Cash For Life #1170 - If you like this game, buy Lotto Max instead. 
2. $2 Fast 200's #1817 - If you don't mind $200 Grand Prizes, go for it. 
3. $2 Blackjack #1804 - Has been a dog for two months. Sales are a trickle. Bye bye, 
4. $2 Cash For Life #1169 - Very bad on both rating scales. 
5. $10 Bejeweled #1786 - Trying to climb out of the dog house. 

Best Games If You Only Want A Grand Prize

1. $2 Fast 200's - Yeah, but the Grand Prize is only $200 and the low prize churn is the worst. 
2. $4 DBL Cash For Life - 4 million:1 to win the GP, but its a doozy. 
3. $10 Bejeweled - Low prize churn is poor. 
4. $5 Diamond 7's - sitting in the sweet spot.
5. $20 Extraordinary - over a year old and more than 50% of the float remains!

Games With No Grand Prizes Left

• $3 Words With Friends
• $3 Wheel of Fortune
• $3 Crossword 
• $3 Cashingo
• $2 Black Jack

Comings and Goings

Fast 200's was introduced this week. These types of games play havoc with my rating system. The game has 3791 Grand Prizes of $200. One has to get down to $10 prizes to find a category that has more prizes than the Grand Prize. 12.5% of the revenue of the game goes to the Grand Prize winners which is more than even the Double Cash For Life game. The trade off is the low prize area where only 34% of the game's revenue is returned to people who win more than the cost of the ticket and less than $100. That is the worst such number by 10%!

No games were retired this week.

Personal Play

Managed to find a trove of Diamond 7's. Only bought eight hoping that some would be left for this week. Won on three of them for a total of $31. Not bad. Fingers crossed that some remain today.

In Conclusion

Today's gripe is with this story in the Sault Star.

http://www.saultstar.com/2015/05/12/more-jobs-available-at-olg .

The local MPP, David Orazietti, is heralding the addition of two senior positions to the OLG corporate office in the Sault. I'm sure that Mr. Orazietti is a fine representative and I am a big supporter of Government distributing its operations whenever possible. I believe firmly that the OLG benefits from having a part of its operation located in the Sault. People who grow up there have an opportunity to stay in their community and the OLG is able to attract high quality staff who are likely to remain in their positions for extended periods of time. The OLG loves to trumpet the trickle down benefits of slot places and casinos in communities. Those benefits are questionable at best but there is no denying that the OLG jobs do provide that benefit.

What Mr. Orazietta fails to address (he is understandably compromised) is that there are, as of the 3rd Quarter 2014/15, 274 people who work at the Casino in the Sault. Those 274 people earn, on average, $50,000 per annum. Those are also important jobs for the Sault --- far more important than the two Sunshine List positions being added to the community. When the OLG sells the existing casino to a private operator, that company will only be contractually required to maintain those positions for one year. After that, those people can expect to have their positions and their salary level threatened. Mr. Orazietti should be concerned.

Good Luck to all.

Doug