Lotto Max: Why Only 49 Maxmillions Drawings?

Introduction
The most attractive aspect of the Lotto Max game is the MAXMILLIONS feature which is triggered when the Jackpot pool exceeds the C$50 million cap. For each million above that level, a separate Maxmillions number is drawn, thus giving multiple players the opportunity to win (or share) additional C$1M prizes as well. Therefore, it is no wonder that Canadian lottery players flocked to the game the past few weeks. With the advertised prizes of:

C$50 Million + 55 Maxmillions

for the June 25, 2010 drawing, tickets were selling at an unprecedented pace.

However, you can imagine the disappointment players experienced when only 49 MAXMILLIONS results were posted.

What happened to the remaining 6 

advertised Maxmillions numbers?

This post examines this question and attempts to provide answers to the bewildered population.

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Why Disappointment?
When a product is advertised, the purchasing public expects the seller to truthful in the product description and trusts that the product will be delivered as described. The advertised June 25th Lotto Max prize offerings were C$50M + 55 Maxmillions. However, only 49 Maxmillions were delivered. That's a difference of C$6 million and represents a large amount of money.

Additionally, the missing 6 Maxmillions numbers represented the opportunity for 6 more players to win a million dollars. By not delivering as advertised, opportunities were lost and dreams denied.

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Money Was Available for 55 Maxmillions on June 25th
The table below summarizes the Lotto Max money raised and paid out during the previous cycle. As shown, the advertised jackpot began at C$10M on April 30th and continued to grow until the C$50M cap was reached on June 4th. Thereafter, the jackpot remained constant and estimated Maxmillions offerings appeared from June 11th onward. Below that are: the 7/7 jackpot prize carry over amounts; the current drawing 7/7 prize pool; and the 6/7+bonus prize pools. These three rows are added together to determine the actual amount of money available to be paid out in that drawing. From the cash available, jackpot and the net Maxmillions payouts are deducted, thus determining the 7/7 money pool to be carried forward to the next drawing.

Table LM-1: Lotto Max Cash Raised and Paid
	Drawing	4/30	5/7	5/14	5/21	5/28	6/4	6/11	6/18	6/25	7/2
Advertised	Jackpot	10.0	15.0	20.0	30.0	40.0	50.0	50.0	50.0	50.0	30.0
	Maxmillions	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	20.0	45.0	55.0	0.0
Carry Over	Jackpot	10.0	15.7	21.3	27.9	36.0	46.0	62.8	72.0	75.9	31.1
	7/7 Pool	5.7	5.6	6.3	8.1	10.0	17.8	24.3	33.9	34.2	n/a
	6/7+Bonus	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	n/a
Cash	Available	15.7	21.3	27.9	36.0	46.0	63.8	87.0	105.9	110.1	n/a
Paid	Jackpot	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	50.0	n/a
Offered	MaxMillions	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	5.0	27.0	45.0	49.0	0.0
Not Paid	MaxMillions	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	4.0	12.0	15.0	20.0	0.0
Carry Over	to Next Dwg	15.7	21.3	27.9	36.0	46.0	62.8	72.0	75.9	31.1	n/a

As shown, there was C$110.1 million available for Jackpot and Maxmillions winnings in the June 25th drawing. This amount exceeded the advertised C$50M+55 Maximillions by over C$5 million.

However, the Lotto Max organization reduced the Maxmillions drawings by C$6 million, even though money was available. This does not seem like a rational decision since it had previously increased the Maxmillions offerings in the June 4th and 11th (shown in red).

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Why was the Maxmillions Reduced?
Realizing that Lotto Max had money to payout the additional C$6 Maxmillions, we have theorized 4 possible reasons:

1. Computer Error: The Lotto Max Game Conditions state: "and ILC will cause, immediately after the Main Draw, at least as many series of seven numbers (being seven different numbers) to be drawn at random from among all numbers from 1 to 49 (each such series of seven numbers is a "Special Series") as there are tranches of $1,000,000 in ..."  Perhaps this statement was misunderstood and the program that selects the Maxmillions drawings was erroneously written to stop at 49 drawings.
2. Duplicate Numbers Selected: Continuing on the above quote, perhaps 55 Maxmillions drawings were generated, but 6 of those resulted in duplicate numbers, and were therefore rejected.
3. Inflate Jackpot for Next Drawing: Lotto Max tickets sell when the jackpot is higher. By reducing the number of Maxmillions offerings, the additional C$6 million was intentionally used to help begin the next drawing sequence at C$30 million.
4. Estimation Error: The Lotto Max organization has tried to explain that all jackpot offerings are estimates. When revenue does not perform as projected, the estimates need to be revised upward or downward. After a review the Table above, it seems unlikely that irrational estimates were forecast.

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Conclusion
Having summarized the past 9 jackpot drawings, and understanding the results, we remain convinced that Lotto Max should have delivered the full 55 MAXMILLIONS drawings as advertised throughout the week prior to the June 25th drawing. Not delivering as advertised, players may become reluctant to spend C$5 for a ticket because they have lost confidence in the Lotto Max organization.

However, we do not believe that Lotto Max acted maliciously, nor did it attempt to retain income as a hidden profit. All money collected has been allocated back to the players, but not in the sequence as expected.

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Reference
All information derived in this article were obtained from the Canadian Lottery sites:

• ILC Lotto Max Game Conditions
• How to Play Lotto Max 

Maxmillions Discrepancy to be Described Tomorrow.

Like many people, we have wondered why there were only 49 Maxmillions drawings in the last Lotto Max drawing when 55 were advertised. To help understand this discrepancy, we evaluated the all payout results since April 30th, when the jackpot offering began at C$10 million.

What we discovered is that all monies have been reallocated back to the players, but not as expected using the Official Lotto Max Game Conditions.

At present, we anticipate publishing our results on this blog tomorrow. In it we will explain how the jackpot has grown in comparison to the written rules.

We have observed a few instances of apparent prize payout misappropriations which we cannot explain. Similiarly, we theorized why the Maxmillions drawing stopped at 49 and why the next Jackpot offering is set at $30 million.

As you can understand, we are cautious in summarizing the past 9 drawing sequences. Thus, it is important to verify our results once again prior to distributing our conclusions.

Lotto Max Hysteria Continues

There was no Lotto Max $50 million jackpot winner in last week's drawing, so this Friday's June 25th Lotto Max jackpot is $50 million plus $55 Maxmillions.

That means 56 possible new millionaires!

And naturally, Lotto Max Mania continues to roll through the country.

Using the past two estimated ticket sales for this weeks projections, we expect:

• A 25% chance of no Jackpot winner again.
• Of the 55 Maxmillions drawings, about 13 will not have a winner, 6 will have three or more winners, 24 will have two winners, and 12 will have single winners.
• Nearly 200 million combinations will be sold.

Considering that there are only 604,800 seconds in seven days (the time between drawings), more than 300 combinations will be randomly generated each second. And knowing that most random number generators rely on a seed time to start, there is a good possibility that many of these numbers may be duplicates.

But who cares. With so many top prizes being offered, you've got to give it a try.

If you live in or around Canada,

Play Lotto Max Now.

We're crossing our fingers for you!

Prime Numbers for Use in Lotteries (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-10)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-10 was: 

Prime Numbers are a small subset of numbers that all lotteries contain. Helping to educate our lottery players about various strategies, we presented the following questions last week:

• What are Prime Numbers?
• How can they be used for playing the lottery?

A simple internet search yields the answers to these questions.

• Prime numbers are those numbers which are divisible only by themselves and 1. The common set that lottery players will recognize are: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, and 59. Note that the number one (1) is not a true prime number, we include it in this subset for lottery purposes only.
• Since the use of this subset limits the number of choices a lottery player can make, the number of possible combinations is also minimized. For Powerball, all 18 numbers are playable. In Mega Millions, only 17 are valid; and in 649 games, only 16 are permitted.
• Additionally all but the number two (2) are odd numbers. Thus players choosing this subset will be playing mostly all odd number or odd plus 1 even number.

In our opinion, these numbers are important because players can systematically reduce their playing number field with confidence in knowing that the numbers have more than random significance.

JL.....

Lotto Max Mania Sweeping through Canada

With this Friday's June 11th Lotto Max jackpot offering of $50 million and $45 Maxmillions, millionaire fever is spreading through Canada like an uncontrollable epidemic. And it should!

Even though Lotto Max tickets cost C$5 for 3 combinations,

Should you buy one or more Tickets?

Absolutely Yes!

Considering an estimated population of approximately 25 million who are 20 years and older, there is a good likelihood that 1 in every 500,000 to 1,000,000 people will become overnight millionaires.

Based on last weeks results, we project that at least 30 million tickets will be sold generating approx 90 million combinations, exceeding the mathematical 85.9 million possible combinations.

Of these, we expect to see at least 10% duplicate numbers. This means that there is a 10% possibility that the primary $50 million jackpot will not be won.

In either case, 45 more Max Millions numbers will be drawn, but only 5-10 will not produce a winner. The other 35-40 will have one or more matching tickets!

So if you've ever dreamed of being a Millionaire,

Go for it Now.

With jackpot levels this high, this is the time to give your Luck a try.

What are Prime Numbers? (Lottery Trivia Question 2010-10)

This week's Lottery Trivia Question is about Lottery Numbers in General.

Our Trivia Question #2010-10 is: 

One strategy for winning the lottery is to limit your playing numbers to a smaller subset. One such subset is "Prime Numbers".  Our questions this week are:

• What are Prime Numbers?
• How can they be used for playing the lottery?

Enter your answer by leaving a Comment to this post below. Leave your name, and if you have a website or blog, provide it's URL and name.

We will provide the correct answer next Monday, June 21st, and will post your name and a URL link back to your site.

JL.........

A Dollar and a Dream

One of the best lottery slogans was coined by the New York State Lottery:

"All you need is a dollar and a dream"

With  tomorrow night's Powerball jackpot prize of $260 million, I, for one, just can't stop dreaming. Already, I've spent $5 on tickets, and have dreaming about:

• Waking up and finding I'm the winner.
• Taking a trip to lottery headquarters and collecting my huge oversize check.
• Buying that lake-side summer house I've always wanted.
• Not having to work anymore.
• Playing cards, eating out, planning and taking vacations.
• Surprising my family with a share of the winnings.
• Exercising all the time so I don't get too fat.
• Paying all my bills.
• Laughing all the way to the bank.

And what about you? If you have a dream, share it with us. After all, it only costs a buck to play, but you get an infinite number of dreams for free.