South Dakota and Delaware Spend the Most Per Capita on Lottery Tickets (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-13)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-13 was: 

Using the answers of our past two weeks, we can divide a States lottery ticket sales by its population to determine:

• Which States sell the most lottery tickets per capita?
• Which States sell the fewest lottery tickets per capita?
• Do you think sales are based on population alone?
• Or, are sales based on the desire of people wanting to win a jackpot prize?

To answer the above, we referred to the Lottery Sales and State population links in the previous posts, and found that:

• The top 5 States (1-5) that spend the most on lottery tickets per capita are: South Dakota, Delaware, Massachusetts,  New York, and Georgia. The next five (6-10) are: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio.
• The States spending the least on lottery tickets per capita are: Idaho, Nebraska, Montana, North Dakota, and North Carolina.
• Based on the results of these rankings, we clearly conclude that sales are not based on State populations. For example, South Dakota spends approximately $0.853 per person on lottery tickets, but it ranks in the bottom 5 States in population. Whereas, California, who has the largest population, only spends $0.097 per person on tickets. 
• Observing the above results, we realize that a State's overall desire to win a jackpot prize plays an important role in the amount of lottery tickets that are bought in a State. Desire to win is important in the top 5 States and others. For example, Vermont spends $0.170 per person verses $0.155 in Texas.

JL.....

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California and Vermont Have Largest & Smallest Lottery Populations (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-12)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-12 was: 

To help us understand whether states with the largest populations sell the most lottery tickets, we need to identify various State populations. So, last week, we asked:

• Which lottery selling States have the largest population? (most amount of people)
• Which States have the smallest population? (the least amount of people)

Based on the 2009 revision of the WorldAtlas.com , we found that:

• The top 5 States (1-5) ranked by biggest Population are: California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. The next five (6-10) were: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, and North Carolina.
• And, the States with the fewest number of people (ranking 43-50) were: Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. (Note that since neither Alaska nor Wyoming sponsor a state lottery, we have expanded this list to include the bottom five states that do have a lottery). 

JL.....

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New York Consistently Leads Yearly Lottery Sales (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-11)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-11 was: 

Since lottery income has become an important source of hidden tax revenue, more and more States have been under pressure to increase sales and generate income. But, we wondered if the income received is simply a function of the population of the State. To help understand this, we first asked ourselves to identify:

• What are the top 5 lottery revenue generating States? (those making the most money)
• What are the bottom 5 lottery revenue generating States? (those making the least money)

Based on information from Data360's 2006 Lottery Sales by State, we find the answers.

• In order of yearly sales, the top 5 Lottery Sales are in: New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, and California.  Near these are: Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Michigan.
• The bottom 5 States, i.e. those with the least Lottery sales are: Idaho, Nebraska, Vermont, Montana, and North Dakota (the lowest).

Data for these answers can be confirmed by visiting the NASPL Sales and Profits Page which summarizes sales for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008 as well.

JL.....

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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.....

Lottery Players Bear Parimutuel Risk (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-09)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-09 was: 

The winning prize amounts of many State lotteries, such as Pick 3 and 4, are paid based on parimutuel system while other States have fixed payout prizes. To help players better understand what this means, we asked:

• What is a parimutuel Lottery Payout?
• How does it differ than fixed payouts?
• Are parimutuel payouts higher or lower than fixed payouts?

Based on our research and experience, we have found that:

• A parimutuel payout is one in which a fixed percentage of the amount received is paid back to the players. It was invented by Joseph Oller in 1867 and is typically used in race track betting.
• This differs from a fixed winning payout in that the amount of a winning ticket fluxuates depending upon the number of winning tickets. For example, States such as North Carolina and Texas pay a flat $250 for a straight combination $0.50 winning ticket. However, New Jersey, California, and others pay the Pick 3 winners based on a parimutuel share of the winnings.
• Parimutuel payouts might be much higher or lower than the corresponding fixed payout. A Pick 3 parimutuel ticket may pay as little as $75 or as high as $425 on the same $0.50 ticket.

In our opinion, the primary difference is: Which Party bears the payout risk?

• In the fixed payout system, the State bears the risk of having to payout more than it received. To counterbalance this, the State get to retain the implied profit when few payouts are required.
• In a parimutuel environment, the player bears the risk because: the payout odds differ from number to number; and, the odds are not shown to the player.

JL.....

Lottery Expansion Helps Powerball Most (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-08)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-08 was: 

Powerball and Mega Millions began selling each others games at the end of January 2010, but they did not change the format of the games. Since then, we questioned:

• How has the increased playing population affected the jackpot winning frequencies?
• Have the average jackpots gotten smaller?
• What is the average growth of the jackpot prizes?
• Which game appears to be more popular?

To answer these questions, we examined and summarized the results of these games since 2001.

• Prior to the change, there were an average of 11.4 Powerball and 12.1 Mega Millions Jackpot yearly winners. In 2010, there have been 4 Powerball and 3 Mega Millions winners. Neither of these indicate an increased frequency of winners.
• The average winning jackpot sizes of Powerball has increased from $92.2 to $95.5 million. Conversely, the average winning Mega Millions jackpots dropped from $95.6 to $76.5 million since the expansion.
• Similarily, the average growth of each Powerball jackpot rose nearly $10 million since the expansion (rom $11.6 to $21.5 million).  Mega Million jackpot has grown as well, but only by $2.75 million (from $11.3 to $14M), a much smaller pace.

Based on the growth rates of the Jackpot sizes, it appears that Powerball has been the more popular game, and has profited most from the expansion.  Although the chances of winning Powerball is much higher than Mega Millions, I think this is attributed to:

1. It's name (Powerball seems more attractive?)
2. The overall chances of winning a Powerball prize are lower.
3. The tickets are easier to read and fill out.
4. The Powerplay Option guarantees 2nd place winners $1 million (it's not a gamble).

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Let's see if things change in the future.

JL.....

Expect to See Repeated Pick 3 Numbers after 37 Drawings (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-07)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-07 was: 

To win the Pick 3 State lottery games, a player must correctly predict the winning number in the range of 000 to 999. If this number correctly matches the one drawn, the player wins approximately $250 on a $0.50 bet. So, if you like to play this game, you have probably wondered:

• How often would you expect to see numbers repeat?
• Or, in other words, how big would given a subset of daily results need to be in order to see duplicate numbers?

To answer these questions, we must remember that there are 1000 different numbers.

• Based entirely on an even distribution, the probability of any number being drawn is 1 in 1000.
• This means that any one given number should repeat once every 1000 drawings on the average.
• But, we all know that numbers repeat at various intervals.
• Thus, we refer back to the "Birthday Question" to determine how large of a sample is required to observe duplicate numbers.
• After solving this problem, we find that: in a set of approximately 37 drawings, we can be 50% confident that one of the numbers in that group will be a duplicate.
• And, if we examine a results set of 118 drawings, we can be 99.9% confident that one of those numbers will be repeated!

JL.....

Why Lottery Winners Should NOT Take Cash Option? (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-06)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-06 was: 

When the lottery jackpots grow, many more players are tempted to try their luck in hopes of winning the huge jackpots. And typically, they ask the retail clerk who sells the lottery tickets for the "Cash" payout option which is much lower than the advertised jackpot. As we stand in line waiting to purchase our tickets, we often wonder:

• Why do most players take the Cash Option?, And,
• Why do the States want you to take the Cash?

While there is no "wrong" choice, we believe players are encouraged to accept the lower amounts, because:

• Most players do not understand what an Annuity means. Simply stated, an annuity is a continuous stream of annual cash payments. For Mega Millions, a player would get 26 equal payments. In Powerball, the player receives 30 payments which gradually grow in size.
• Today, the Powerball Annuity Jackpot is $125 million. A player who wins the jackpot would receive the first payment of about $2.23 million, and the last payment of $6.95 million.
• Whereas, the Cash Option payout is only $60 million, which is 48% of the Annuity jackpot.
• But players are afraid that if they die, they will lose the money.
• That's not true. The money will continue to be paid to their heirs until all is paid out.
• Next, players always think they can invest the cash option money in the stock market and make much more. But, the State lotteries are guaranteeing a return of $4.80% for the next 30 years. With interest rates so low, this is a great rate of return.
• Again, recent history has shown that fortunes were lost when the Stock Market tanked. If you're lucky enough to win the lottery, do you really want to lose it all?
• And lastly, we read story after story about Lottery winners who spent or invested all their money, and ended up with nothing.
• So to us, we think that all players should take the Annuity Option.
• The member states, however, do not want you to take the Annuity for two reasons: First, they will have to manage that money and make sure that you get your payments; and, Second, the are offering you almost $1 million less in Cash than you deserve. That means that they keep the money and help booster their revenues. 
• We think that this is a lot of money to lose. We'd rather have that money in our pockets rather than the State.
• So next time you buy a lottery ticket, tell them you: "Want the Annuity", and you won't be sorry. 

JL.....

Optimal Lottery Mix of 3 Even and 2 Odd Balls is Best (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-05)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-05 was: 

In Mega Millions and Powerball, particular patterns of numbers tend to occur more frequently during certain periods of time.

• So, after a review the past 3 month results, is it possible to identify particular mix of odd and even numbers that outpaced the expected probabilities?

To this, the Correct Answer is: Absolutely YES! Here's why:

• In Mega Millions, there are an equal amount of 28 odd and even white balls. But, in the last 3 months, 3-even and 2-odd number combinations have been drawn 11 out of 26 times, although only 8 would be expected.
• Similarily in Powerball, the odd balls have a slight 30 to 29 even ball advantage.  But, in the last 3 months, the 3-even and 2-odd number combinations have been drawn 12 out of 26 times, although only 8 would be expected.
• From this, we can conclude that presently, the 3-even and 2-odd white ball combinations have a clear advantage.
• And, from this, we find that, presently, there is a short term bias toward the even numbers!

JL.........

Lottery Numbers Are Not Always Equally Distributed Between Odd and Even (Lottery Trivia Answer 2010-04)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-04 was: 

In most lotteries, you would think there is a 50% chance of Odd numbers and 50% chance of Even numbers being drawn.

• So, based on historical data, do actual drawing occurrences obey the expected laws of probability?

The Correct Answer is:

• It depends on the Lottery Game you are looking at.
• During the past year, the occurrences of an Odd Powerball being drawn are about 62.5% (or 5 out of 8), whereas only 51.3% are expected.
• And, if you play Mega Millions, odd Megaballs are also drawn more frequently then even ones.
• So when selecting the bonus balls in these 2 games, the odd numbered balls have the advantage.

JL.........

France Has Won EuroMillions More Than Any Other Country (Lottery Trivia Question 2010-03)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-03 was: 

Since the EuroMillions lottery began in 2004, there have been 140 drawings in which the jackpot was won.

• Which country has sold a jackpot winning ticket nearly 30% of the time?
• What countries have never produced a jackpot winner?

The Correct Answer is:

• Of the 140 winning EuroMillions drawings, France has won 41 times, or 29.3% of the time.
  
• This is followed by Spain (33 times), and Portugal (31 times)
• Luxembourg and the Isle of Man has never sold a winning EuroMillions ticket.

JL.........

Lottery Expansion Begins Jan 31 for Powerball & Mega Millions (Answer to Question 2010-03)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-02 was: 

A deal was struck last October allowing Powerball and Mega Millions States to sell both lotteries.

• When will States begin cross-selling tickets to both lotteries?
• Will there be any format changes to the games?

Who Sells the Most Winning EuroMillions Tickets? (Lottery Trivia Question 2010-03)

The Correct Answer is:

• Many of the Mega Millions states will begin selling Powerball tickets on January 31, 2010.
• Similarily, many Powerball states will add Mega Millions on January 31, 2010 as well.
• NO, there will NOT be any format changes to either game when sales reach expands.
• Because of this, many expect that the Jackpots will be won more frequently.
• For example, in both 2008 and 2009, the jackpot was won 13 times out of 105 and 104 drawings.
• Of the 105 Powerball drawings in 2008, there were 11 winners; and, in 2009, there were 12 winners of the 104 drawings.
  

Make sure to check with your State to find out if and when Lottery sales of both games will begin.

Remember to check-in tomorrow to read our 3nd  Lottery Trivia Question for 2010!

JL.........

Lottery Trivia: Super 7 Replaced Pennsylvania's Match 6 (Answer to Question 2010-01)

Last Week's Trivia Question #2010-01 was: 

In March 2009, the Pennsylvania Lottery retired its Match 6 Game.

• What new lottery game replaced Match 6?
• What is the format of this new game?
• What are the chances of winning?

The Correct Answer is:

• The Game Super 7 replaced Match 6 in Pennsylvania
• In this format, the player selects 7 out of 77 numbers
• However, 11 numbers are drawn (thus making this a Keno type lottery)
  
• If a player matches 7 of the 11 numbers, the player wins the Jackpot
• The changes of winning the jackpot are 1 in 7,287,298
  

Remember to check-in tomorrow to read our 2nd  Lottery Trivia Question for 2010!

JL.........