Prestige Returns to the Top

Cash Blast’s reign on top was short lived after it coughed up two of its five Grand Prizes this past week. The incurred damage reduced the game to the #4 spot, leaving Prestige standing head and shoulders above all other games currently for sale. Prestige is an Interprovincial Game and has only surrendered 1 of its $1,000,000 Grand Prizes after selling an estimated 20% of its float. The game has a balanced prize distribution with 8.2% of revenue going to Grand Prize winners, 2.2% going to winners of $100 or more but less than the Grand Prize, 50% going to winners of less than $100 and more than the cost of the ticket, 9.6% going to people who got their money back, and 30% going to the OLG and, according to them, your local hospital. Your chance to win any prize more than the cost of the ticket is one in every 4.80 tickets – that’s very good. Lastly, and I know that this is ridiculous, I like the scratchability of the ticket – nice and smooth.

Top Rated Games

1. 1.       Prestige (79%)
2. 2.       Fast 200’s (54%)
3. 3.       $200 Million (64%)
4. 4.       Cash Blast (71%)
5. 5.       Cherry Jubilee (42%)

Games to Avoid

1. 1.       More Lucky Lines (19%)
2. 2.       Scrabble #1754 (6%)
3. 3.       Black Jack Tripler (46%)
4. 4.       Bingo #3008 (35%)
5. 5.       Frogger (59%)

$1 - $2 Game Update

These are good days for players who like inexpensive games. Fast 200’s is a top game and all the other games are reasonable choices. That is not always the case for these games.

$3 Games

It’s treacherous in this area. Four of the five lowest rated games are $3 Games. The best choice in this group is Horse Shoes.

$4 - $5 Games

Black Pearls is a new game and is the top rated game in this group. Avoid Black Jack Tripler and Poker Multiplier.

$10 - $20 Games

Avoid Classic White. Although Wild 10’s has been retired, if you can find any loose tickets, they are a good choice. Otherwise, Prestige is the stand out choice.

Comings and Goings

Wild 10’s and Super Bingo were retired this week. Wild 10’s was a playable game over a period of several weeks. I purchased 34 of them, cashing on 10 for a total return of $180. A disappointing result, to be sure. I did not have occasion to play Super Bingo. Wild 10’s had 20 of its 150 - $10,000 Grand Prizes and 15% of its float left to sell. Super Bingo had 1 of its 10 - $50,000 Grand Prizes left and 6% of its float.

Black Pearls is a $5 game that was introduced this past week. The game rates well right off the bat within its group of games. It is light on its intermediate prizes with only .6% of its total revenue going to those winners. In fact, there are only 9 prizes greater than $105 and that is not good for a $5 game. It also returns 10.7% of its revenue to people who win their money back. That is also high. Still, the 7 $100,000 Grand Prizes is good. The odds against winning one are presently 360,000:1 and that is excellent.

Personal Play

I have a system that has some flexibility and some boundaries. I know from experience that if I venture outside of my established boundaries bad things happen. I played 2-Cash Blast and 2-20X Lucky tickets last week. I cashed on one of each for a measly total of $25. Early this week I was at the Grocery Store when I saw that they had two orphan Wild 10 tickets left. My system does not permit me to buy tickets mid week. Too much could have happened since I last updated the blog. Nevertheless, I bought the tickets and paid the expected price by getting skunked. Just another lesson in a lifetime of them.

Best of Luck to all readers.

Doug

Cash Blast #1752 Blasts Into Top Spot

Cash Blast has wrestled the top spot away from Prestige although both games are eminently playable. Prestige has yet to surrender a Grand Prize of $1,000,000 and it was the top pick last week which makes it tough to understand how it could have slipped in the ratings. The answer is that Cash Blast has also not surrendered a Grand Prize and it is selling its float at a quicker rate than Prestige. Cash Blast was only released 10 days or so ago and has already sold 20% of its float. Prestige has sold 17% of its float but has been selling since early August.

Cash Blast returns $.11 of each ticket to its Grand Prize winners. This is a very high number. Your current chance to win a Grand Prize is 224,000:1, down from the 285,600:1 when the game began.

Top Rated Games

1. Cash Blast
2. Prestige
3. Fast 200's
4. 20X Lucky
5. $200 Million

Games to Avoid

1. Scrabble #1754
2. More Lucky Lines
3. Blackjack Tripler
4. Bingo #3008
5. Frogger

I will save my breath on Scrabble. This game should have been put to bed long ago. By every measure the OLG should have retired it, but instead they continue to push the tickets. Be aware!

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200's is a top pick and Cherry Jubilee is also not a bad choice.

$3 Game Update

If you must, Super Bingo #3012 is the best choice.

$4 - $5 Game Update

20X Lucky is the only good choice in this category.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Avoid Classic White. Otherwise, the other games are all good choices.

Comings and Goings

No changes to report this week. Lets hope that Scrabble and More Lucky Lines are both torpedoed over the course of the coming seven days.

Personal Play

Two Cash Blast and two 20X Lucky returned 2 winners and $35. That is my first profitable week in some time. My cash rate is 37% and my return on investment is 74%.


Doug

Prestige #1741 Takes Over Top Spot

I apologize for the delay in posting this update. I was in New York City last week attending, among other things, the US Open. It is a spectacular event.

During my absence, the OLG got to doing quite a bit of housekeeping. Five games were retired and three new games introduced. It must be a new school year. Sadly, two of the preferred games were retired (Texas Hold'Em and Cleopatra). The good news is that one of the new games (Cash Blast) enters the market as the second rated game.

The new game of choice is Prestige. This is an Inter-Provincial game with a ticket float in excess of 14 million tickets. A poster had previously asked the open-ended question of when the first of the 12 available $1,000,000 was going to be won and where. Well, for those who thought later rather than sooner, you were right. All 12 prizes remain outstanding after an estimated 10% of the float having been sold. The prize distribution for the game is average for $10-$20 games insofar as grand prizes is concerned. The prizes less than the grand prize and at least $100 are low. This is compensated by the number of winners of less than $100 and more than the price of the ticket. The chances to win any prize more than the cost of the ticket are third best of all games currently offered for sale. Despite this, Shelley has reported that she bought 18 Prestige tickets only winning back half of her investment. Be careful out there!

Top Rated Games

1. $100 Million Prestige (90%)
2. Cash Blast (90%)
3. 20X Lucky (29%)
4. Wild 10s (16%)
5. Fast 200's (63%)

% figures represent the estimated precentage of the original float left to be sold

Games to Avoid

1. More Lucky Lines (21%)
2. Scrabble #1754 (8%)
3. Bingo #3008 (37%)
4. Keno #1410 (32%)
5. Bonus Keno #1413 (22%)

Players need to be very careful with the $3 games. They are the games in highest demand yet all five of the games to avoid are $3 games. Keep your wits about you if you're buying those tickets. Trinitron00 has posted his concerns about Scrabble #1754. I agree with him.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200's is the best game in this area and one of the top overall rated games. Good value for $2.

$3 Games

It's a minefield! There is nothing really to recommend but if you are determined, Super Bingo #3012 is the best choice.

$4 - $5 Games

20X Lucky stands out in this area.

$10 - $20 Games

Stay away from Classic White. Otherwise, all the other games are acceptable choices.

Comings and Goings

Jacks are Wild, Cleopatra, Texas Hold'Em, Silver Gold, and Pick 3 were all retired. Each game had less than 20% of its float left to sell and readers were having trouble finding some of the tickets. This is common when the available tickets get down to that area. My question is that there are four other games with less than 20% of their tickets left that continue to be sold. Scrabble #1754 is the most glaring example of a game that should be buried. Why is the OLG so inconsistent about this?

Cherry Tripler ($1), Frogger ($3), and Cash Blast ($10) have all come online for sale. Cherry Tripler does offer some prizes for less than the grand prize and at least $100, which is good. On the down side, there is a high proportion of tickets worth the $1 you paid for them. Cashing for $1 seems like a waste of time. Triniton00 reports that he does not like Frogger due to the 35% takeout. That number is about standard for $3 games. The game does suffer from a high level of $3 winning tickets. Your chance to win more than $3 in this game is the second worst of any game currently for sale. Cash Blast is an interesting game and has already sold 140,000 tickets without revealing a Grand Prize winner. Another week like the last one could move this game up to top spot.

Personal Play

Three 20X Lucky tickets returned one winner of $20 and 4 Texas Hold'Em tickets returned nothing. I am now sitting at a 37% cash rate and a 73% return on investment.

Hats off to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic!

Doug

Texas Hold'Em is Top Rated - But You Can Fold Your Hand

Texas Hold'Em remains the top rated game but I have some serious concerns about it. The game is coming out on top as 1 of its 3 Grand Prizes of $75,000 remains to be claimed from an estimated 14% of its original float. That means that there are 360,000 tickets left to sell. The problem is that the secondary top prizes for the game have been hollowed out. All 5 trips to the World Poker Tournament (I would have taken the cash equivalent) have been claimed; only 2 of 18 $1000 Prizes are left to be claimed, and only 5 of 37 $515 prizes are left to be claimed. I also agree with the reader who expressed his dislike for the game based on getting his four of a kind hand(s) being beaten by the dealer's straight flushes.

And we have the ongoing problem with supply as the tickets are becoming hard to find. I find the reports from posters interesting as Wild 10s, Silver Gold, Cleopatra, and some other games are in some sort of limbo as they continue to appear on the OLG site yet retailers are being asked to return unsold tickets. Is this some process whereby the OLG tries to scoop back any unsold Grand Prizes before they retire the game? Why not let retailers sell whatever quantity they have on hand? What they appear to be doing is a good business decision for the OLG but not a good one for players.

Top Rated Games

1. Texas Hold'Em (14%)
2. Prestige (93%)
3. Cleopatra (17%)
4. Wild 10s (17%)
5. Fast 200s (70%)

Games to Avoid

1. Scrabble #1754 (12%)
2. More Lucky Lines (24%)
3. Bingo #3008 (38%)
4. Bonus Keno (25%)
5. Keno (33%)

I have included the estimated size of the ticket float remaining to be sold for each game. I came across a young woman sitting on a bench this week who had bought two tickets - a Horse Shoes ticket and a Scrabble ticket. I asked her how she made out. "Two Losers" was the reply. I wonder if she would have bought that Scrabble ticket if she knew that there were no Grand Prizes left to be claimed, no $25,000 second prizes left to be claimed, no $15,000 third prizes left to be claimed, no $10,000 fourth prizes left to be claimed, and one out of seven $5,000 fifth prizes left. And yet the OLG continues to sell this game whereas Instant Millions was retired with......, oh well, you know my rant so I won't bore you again.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200s and Pick 3 remain the best choices here.

$3 Game Update

Lots of games to avoid in this area. Apart from Texas Hold'Em, Super Bingo and Bingo #3009 are OK.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Cleopatra is good but scarce. 20X Lucky is a good choice.

$10 - $20 Game Update

All the games in this area are playable.

Comings and Goings

The Interprovincial Lottery Corporation retired Extravaganza this past week. Two of the initial 14 - $1 million prizes were left to be claimed from the almost 3 million tickets left to be sold. This game had begun to be sold in 2012 and was long in the tooth. I think that the OLG has trouble selling $10 and $20 tickets when there are too many of those games for sale at the same time. Extravaganza was not the worst game to play, but it was not among the best. This decision should help the sale of Prestige and Classic White tickets. I only hope that Wild 10's has not been retired as it is currently the best game in this group.

Money Multiplier #1748 was introduced this week. This game has more prizes of $100 or more but less than the $100,000 Grand Prize than any other $5 Game. Those prizes come at the expense of the prizes of less than $100 but more than $5. Overall, your chances to win any prize and to win any prize more than the cost of the ticket are third out the eight $5 games currently for sale. It will be an interesting game to watch.

Personal Play

A smorgasbord of tickets including Texas Hold'Em, Scrabble, and Wild 10's produced a small loss for the week. I now stand at a 38% cash rate and a 73% return on investment. As usual, I need a $100 win to give my results a boost. Is that too much to ask?

I normally restrict all comments on this blog to the subject of Scratch and Win tickets. I have, however, undertaken to a friend to inform you of his NFL Survivor Pool that will get underway next week. It costs $10 to enter and he normally has about 1000 entries. A portion of the entry fees are directed to Variety Village which is the only reason why I am doing this. If you want more information, you can email him at poolmaster55@rogers.com. I can offer you the absolute assurance that he is trustworthy. There, my promise is fulfilled.

May Lady Luck be with you this week.

Doug

Texas Hold'Em Barely Holds on to Top Spot

It gives me great pleasure to announce that one of the readers of this blog was the lucky winner of $75,000 in the current Scrabble game! Lloyd purchased his ticket near Coxwell and Queen in the east end of Toronto. Lloyd has answered one of the questions I have in that the OLG recorded his win as being in East York (a former borough of Toronto before amalgamation). That's where Lloyd and his wife live. I always wondered if the winners list indicates where the ticket was bought or where the winner resides. Now I know. This is Lloyd's second win of $1000 or more. That means two visits to OLG headquarters. Not too shabby!

Lloyd reports that he will be spending $5000 on some new furniture with the rest going into savings. I think that $75,000 is the perfect amount to win. It's enough to pay bills, take a trip, buy some new things, make an RRSP and a TFSA contribution and have lots left over! But it's not enough to change your life or adversely affect your relationships with family and friends. So Hats Off to Lloyd! We should all be inspired by the knowledge that winning is indeed possible. Lloyd's Scrabble game still has a Grand Prize left to claim and only an estimated 15% of its tickets left to sell. Your chances to win it are a measly 500,000:1 so lets go find it!

Texas Hold'Em barely holds on to the top spot this week. One Grand Prize remains outstanding with approximately 380,000 tickets left to sell. Your problem will be to find any tickets. My local seller tells me that Texas Hold'Em and a couple of the other games on the "Best Of" list have "expired" and he has returned tickets to OLG headquarters. I think that he's wrong about the "expired" bit but I suspect that OLG has asked retailers to return unsold tickets in advance of canceling the game. It's my old bugaboo and I intend to bleat on about the subject in future entries. But not this week given Lloyd's big win.

Top Rated Games

1. Texas Hold'Em
2. Silver Gold
3. Prestige
4. Scrabble
5. Wild 10's*

* Wild 10's has had a run of winners over the past few weeks lowering its playability rating. Twenty-five $10,000 prizes remain to be claimed from 240,000 tickets.

Games to Avoid

1. Bingo #3008
2. Bonus Keno 
3. Keno
4. Horse Shoes
5. Poker Multiplier

$1 - $2 Game Update

Silver Gold is a good game but tickets will be hard to find. Fast 200s is a good second choice.

$3 Game Update

The four lowest rated games, at the moment, are all $3 games. Be careful as these games are among the most popular.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Cleopatra is the top rated game in this area. A reader has indicated that he dislikes the game due to his 0 for 8 ticket run when the game was first launched. I've yet to win with the game too so I'll be treading lightly, if at all.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Prestige and Wild10s are both playable.

Comings and Goings

No action to report although if my sellers are any indication, the retirement of at least two of the top 5 rated games is imminent. Grrrrr.

Personal Play

Eight Silver Gold tickets included 3 winners totaling $14. Two Cleopatra tickets returned bupkis! My overall numbers are stuck at 38% cash rate and 72% return on investment. I need just a touch of Lloyd's luck.

Enjoy your week.


Doug

Texas Hold'Em Reaches the Top Spot

I have tweaked my evaluation method to include a factor for the imbalance between the chances of winning a Grand Prize at the outset of the game and the current chances. The goal is to identify games where the odds are tilting towards today's player. The rating system is now the product of the current Grand Prize imbalance and the old game evaluation method. I'll write more about this another time.

Based on the new method, Texas Hold'Em is the new top rated game. This game currently has 1 Grand Prize left and 15% of its float left to sell. The game started with 3 Grand Prizes of $75,000. As of today, $.063 of remaining revenue will go to the lucky purchaser of the outstanding Grand Prize. This is fifth best of the current games. The current imbalance for the remaining Grand Prize is second only to Silver Gold.

Wild 10s continues to be well rated. This game, along with Fast 200s, is based upon a greater number of Grand Prizes of lesser value relative to the cost of the ticket. For this reason it is much more unlikely that an imbalance of outstanding Grand Prizes will be created as sales for the game continues.

Top Rated Games

1. Texas Hold'Em
2. Silver Gold
3. Wild 10s
4. Prestige
5. Cleopatra

Worst Games

1. Bingo #3008
2. Bonus Keno #1413
3. Keno #1410
4. Poker Multiplier
5. Cross Express

Note - There are currently no games for sale for which all of the Grand Prizes have been claimed. If you like Bingo, be careful to buy game #3009 and not #3008.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Silver Gold is a good play with 2 of its 4 initial Grand Prizes currently outstanding and only 20% of its tickets left to sell. Fast 200s provides $.125 of total remaining revenue to the Grand Prize winners. That is the best number of any game currently offered for sale.

$3 Game Update

Texas Hold'Em is the top rated game. Scrabble #1754 is also a good choice.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Cleopatra has 2 outstanding Grand Prizes of $100,000 from the 7 original prizes included in the game. An estimated 18% of its float remains to be sold.

$10 - $20 Games

Wild 10s and Prestige are both playable games. One has 29 - $10,000 Grand Prizes left while the other has 12 - $1,000,000 outstanding. Seems a clear choice for the latter game (Prestige), no? Well, there are an estimated 260,000 Wild 10 tickets left to be sold whereas there are over 14 million Prestige tickets left to be sold. It comes down to personal preference.

Comings and Goings

A new Crossword game was introduced this week (#3203). There are now two Crossword games on the market. I recommend the earlier game (#3200). It has 5 of its 16 Grand Prizes left to be claimed after selling 80% of its tickets. The two games are otherwise very similar in terms of prize distribution.

Personal Play

I offer my thanks to readers who have posted comments to the blog of their experiences. Their opinions of the games vary wildly and all are valid. Trinitron had good success with Wild 10s while Bo Booboo calls the game "useless". I tip my hat to players who are checking the OLG website and making conscious decisions as to what games they are playing. That is what this blog is about.

I played 4 Prestige tickets last week. Two were winners returning $30. As a result, my year-to-date stats barely budged.

I included a tease in last week's blog concerning very good news for a reader. Well, given that this entry simply catches me up to date and is already filled with information, I'm going to ask you to wait until next week where I can give the news the headline treatment it merits.


Doug

Wild 10s Getting Long in the Tooth But Remains the Choice

After more than two weeks since the last update, Wild 10s has retained its top spot. With 34 Grand Prizes left to claim, your chances to win one are one in 8,200 while your chances to win $100 or more are one in 330. Both of these numbers are currently the best available. The downside of the game is that an estimated 20% of the float remains to be sold and readers of this blog have been reporting that the tickets are scarce in their respective part of the province. That is certainly the case in Ottawa.

Prestige is a new game that looks like it may become the heir apparent to Wild 10s. More about the game follows below. This game has $12 million available to Grand Prize winners from 15 million tickets. By comparison, Wild 10s presently has $340,000 left in Grand Prizes from 280,000 tickets.

Best Overall Rated Games

1. Wild 10s
2. Prestige
3. $200 Million
4. Fast 200s
5. Extravaganza

Games to Avoid

• None.

*Kudos to the OLG for finally getting rid of QFG Crossword. They milked that game for all it was worth well after the Grand Prizes had all been claimed.

$1 - $2 Game Update

Fast 200's is a good game in this area. The maximum prize is only $200 but there are over 3,000 of them to be won.

$3 Game Update

Scrabble #1754 is the best choice in this group. Texas Hold'Em is a good second choice.

$4 - $5 Game Update

Cleopatra remains the best choice although every game in this group is OK with the sole exception of Poker Multiplier.

$10 - $20 Game Update

Classic White is the poorest game in this area and for some reason my local retailer is always suggesting that I buy those tickets. Did you get a memo from OLG Headquarters?

Comings and Goings

QFC Crossword and Cash Cow were both retired over the past two weeks. QFG Crossword had been devoid of Grand Prizes since mid-June and 95% of the float was ultimately sold. Contrast that to Instant Millions that was retired some time ago and you can see that the OLG is inconsistent in its decision making about how long games remain on the market. Cash Cow had 2 of its 5 Grand Prizes left to be sold and 22% of its float left to be sold. It was pushed aside for Cross Express but what about those two unclaimed prizes?

Two new games were introduced recently. Horseshoes is a $3 game with the usual prize distribution for $3 games. The 3- $75,000 Grand Prizes represent 2.9% of the revenue. The available prizes for less than $75,000 and at least $100 are lower than average with a higher level of $3 winners in exchange. Overall, it does not compare favourably with other $3 games, at least not at this point in time.

The $10 Prestige game is another Interprovincial Game. Its prize distribution is good. The 12 - $1 million prizes represent 8.2% of the revenue and your chances to win any prize are 1 in 3.28 tickets which is second only to $200 million in the high end group. The number of tickets worth the $10 cost of the ticket is relatively low  at 9.6% of total revenue. Wild 10s, by comparison, returns 12% of its revenue to $10 winners. A reader who jumped on Prestige early bought 11 tickets winning only $20. Not a good initial endorsement.

Personal Play

Thanks to the scarcity of Wild 10s, I purchased 3 - $200 Million tickets. They contained 1 - $20 winner. While stopping for gas I extended my budget when the seller had 2- Wild 10s left to sell. They were both winners returning $45.

I'm now sitting at 72% Return on Investment and a 39% cash rate.

There was lots to talk about this week after my absence but I have some very exciting news to share with you in the next update. It is the kind of news that provides players everywhere with first hand hope. Stay tuned for the Friday update.

Doug