F-ing Scratch Offs a rip off!!

I often wondered about this. For some reason I always buy the Break The Bank scratch off. What a waste.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4578036.html

Lottery can become a game of no chance

Agency defends policy of selling scratch-off tickets, even after all top prizes are claimed

By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau


AUSTIN — There are long odds and there are impossible odds.

The Texas Lottery Commission is striking it rich selling impossible odds.

In some cases, the lottery is selling scratch-off tickets where virtually all of the prize money has already been claimed.

So anyone spending $5 on a Deal or No Deal scratch-off Friday might entertain hopes of winning the $1 million top prize advertised on the ticket.

But it'd be pure fantasy.

All three of the top prizes have been claimed. So have all four of the $100,000 prizes. And all 10 of the $50,000 prizes. They've been gone since Dec. 9.

"It's an unfair game," said Dawn Nettles, an unofficial, unpaid watchdog of the lottery commission.

In fact, of the 52 $10,000 prizes that were offered for that game, only one remained unclaimed Friday. Taken as a whole, more than 96 percent of the prizes and 99 percent of the money for Deal or No Deal is no longer available — yet the game continues to be sold statewide.

"It's deceptive," said Gerald Busald, a mathematics professor at San Antonio College who also monitors the commission's practices. "Just because someone will buy it doesn't mean it's morally right for them to sell it."

The lottery's loophole comes in a one-sentence disclaimer printed on the back of each ticket that says: A scratch-off game may continue to be sold even when all the top prizes have been claimed.

"Our mission is to generate revenue for the state of Texas and if games are still profitable, they'll continue to be sold. For a lot of the games, there are significant prizes, second- and third-tier prizes," said agency spokesman Robert Heith.

Heith said the agency has no set formula for deciding when to close games. One rule of thumb is to close them when 80 to 90 percent of the prize money has been awarded.

But the Houston Chronicle found that upward of 90 percent of the prizes had been claimed in nine of the 75 or so scratch-off games on sale Friday.

Players plunking down $5 for the $50,000 PayDay had no way of winning $50,000, as four of the top prizes had already been claimed. They couldn't win any of the 14 prizes of $50,000, either. More than 98 percent of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh-level prizes were claimed. The $10 and $5 prizes were virtually all gone too.

Anyone who put $2 down on one version of the Break the Bank scratch-off had virtually no chance of breaking the bank. None of the 24 prizes of $30,000 could be won Friday; of the remaining prizes, more than 97 percent were claimed.

A player in Corpus Christi sued over the practice three years ago. The result was a settlement, the specifics of which lottery officials said they could not immediately produce Friday, adding it was their contractors who were sued. But the lottery and its primary contractor are now making some information public about what kind of prize money is still available in each game.

But getting that information out is sometimes a crap shoot.

Details not easy to find
The agency keeps up-to-date data several clicks into its Web site, telling players what's sold and what hasn't. Current data is supposed to be posted by the lottery vendor at stores where tickets are sold. (Our newspaper visited two stores within a mile of the commission's headquarters in Austin. The first had a 2-month-old notice by the lottery terminal; the second store had a 3-week-old notice).

Putting nail to scratch-off at one of those East Austin stores was Odell Powell, a 69-year-old retired laborer. He doesn't bother reading the fine print.

"I don't keep count what I lose or what I spend," he said, puffing on a cigarette. "You're not going to win on everything. If you don't want to lose, keep your money."

Powell is a regular at the RS Food, said store clerk Rick Bark. He said a lot of his customers have no idea that they're putting money on games that are virtually impossible to win.

"They're just scratching for fun," Bark said.

At a recent meeting, the agency's chairman, James Cox Jr., defended selling tickets whose prizes are all but claimed, calling the procedures surrounding the sale "sound."

The commission has a lot riding on the success of scratch-offs, which cost anywhere from $1 to $30. They are the agency's cash cow, generating $2.8 billion in sales last year, which accounted for nearly 76 percent of its ticket sales. Sales of Lotto Texas, by contrast, fell 21 percent between 2005 and 2006.

The issue of selling all-but-worthless tickets isn't likely to go away. A $50 scratch-off game is in the works, Heith said.

San Antonio Express-News researcher Julie Domel contributed to this report.

 

Here's where you can go to see if the prizes have already been won:

http://www.txlottery.org/export/sites/default/Games/Scratch_Offs/index.html_574687816.html

 

According to the Chron article: Anyone who put $2 down on one version of the Break the Bank scratch-off had virtually no chance of breaking the bank. None of the 24 prizes of $30,000 could be won Friday; of the remaining prizes, more than 97 percent were claimed.

But I went to the lottery web site and it showed only 1 of 12 $30,000 prizes has been claimed. So how do we know if the others have been bought, but not claimed? The Chronicle said NONE of the 24 $30,000 prizes could be won, yet the web site shows that only 12 prizes are available.

 

I don't go to a store in search of scratch offs. If I'm there and buying a Dew or something I'll get one on a whim. For some reason I've always stuck to Break the Bank. My bank is broken.

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4676916.html

Lottery changes may hike scratch-off odds
Officials will pull tickets when top prizes for the games are claimed

By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Lottery players: Your odds of winning a scratch-off game may have just improved.

Texas Lottery officials announced Friday they will order all scratch-off tickets pulled as soon as the games' top-tier prizes have been claimed.

The move comes just a month after a Houston Chronicle story highlighted the fact that the agency continued to sell games long after players had virtually no chance of winning the significant prizes advertised.

Agency spokesman Bobby Heith said "public concern" about the games had prompted the decision.

"I don't know that the public has lost faith, but it goes to us wanting to reassure it that our games are the best in the land," Heith said.

Lottery watchdog Gerald Busald hailed the move.

"I'm thrilled. This is one of the things they were adamant about not doing," said Busald, a mathematics professor at San Antonio College who brought the issue to the attention of the agency's commissioners at a public hearing in January.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said: "No longer is the public going to be spending money on a fixed game."

Patrick said the agency agreed to do what it likely would have been forced to do.

"I don't think the agency would have made the decision on their own," he said.

Patrick said he met with agency officials a month ago and demanded they change their policy on pulling games, and he filed Senate Bill 1200 that would do as much to show them he meant business.

Heith said that from now on, the agency would immediately notify retailers when a game's top-tier prizes have been claimed, asking them to discontinue selling the tickets.

A notice received by one retailer Friday read, in part: "Game Close Announcement. The Following Game Has Had All Of Its Top Level Games Claimed. Stop Selling This Game Immediately."

Company has 45 days
GTECH, the company that delivers tickets to the retailers, would be granted 45 days to physically remove the tickets from all 16,000-plus stores. Lottery officials were looking at the feasibility of cutting that time, Heith said.

The games also will be reviewed weekly, not monthly, as has been the policy until now. And beginning in late April, players will be able to request from retailers a status report on about half of the 75 to 80 games.

The change comes just weeks before lottery officials plan to introduce a $50 scratch-off game.

Heith said it was not yet clear what impact pulling tickets earlier would have on revenue.

"We're definitely going to keep an eye on it," Heith said.

Scratch-off tickets, also known as instant tickets, which now sell for between $1 and $30, have become the agency's winning ticket. They generated $2.8 billion in sales last year and accounted for nearly 76 percent of its ticket sales.

Last month, the Chronicle looked at the 75 or so scratch-offs selling in stores around the state and discovered that upward of 90 percent of prizes in nine of the games had already been claimed.

Patrick said despite Friday's development, he will continue to push his bill.

"I want to be sure it is law, just in case," he said.