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I was just wondering whether the Missouri Lottery could have lost money on the Million Dollar raffle. Up until the last few days there were only about 140,000 tickets sold at $10 a piece which would equal $1,400,000 in sales but you had to pay out $1,620,000 in prizes. I did see a winning number in the 171,000 range but it appears you barely broke even. Would the prizes have become parimutual if they didn't sell enought tickets or would Missouri have taken the loss.
Posted by: Jayzer | January 24, 2009 at 01:33 PM
Scratchers - the odds for each game are different, based on the prize structure and projected sales.
MDR - we don't have the full accounting on that game yet, but it was definitely not the sales we were hoping for. It was not our intention to alter the game in anyway (change the prizes) so we proceeded as scheduled with the potential for a loss.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | January 26, 2009 at 07:06 AM
Is there any way to check if you have won on the "crossword" scratchers. You know how if you win on any of the others, there are 3 letters, that will spell your won $ amt. What about on the crossword tickets??
Posted by: Linda | January 31, 2009 at 04:49 AM
i was wondering if i felt really lucky about a pick 3 number say 467 was going to win could i buy more than one ticket like 4 tickets in hopes of getting $2400 or is there a cap per person per day of $600 on pick 3 i look forward to your responce
Posted by: chuck | March 02, 2009 at 02:05 PM
You can buy as many tickets as you want, but please be responsible.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | March 03, 2009 at 04:28 PM
I KNOW PLAYING IS JUST A WAY OF GAMBLING. BUT YOU THINK IF YOU PLAYED ALOT YOU JUST MIGHT WIN SOMETHING. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW JUST HOW MANY ENTRY'S WERE ENTERED IN THE FIRST DRAWING OF THE GET CRUISIN PROMOTION. I HAD 115 ENTRY'S IN IT MY SELF. LIKE TODAY I SPET $122.oo on 25,000 bankroll which was 61 tickets 089 thru 149 which was the last of the 61 tickets in the book and only returned $40 dollars is there any standards set up for how much you can lose in a book. thank you and like i said i know it is gambling. PLEASE IF YOU CAN ANSWER ANY OF THIS FOR ME THAT WOULD BE GREAT.
Posted by: DEAN GATES | May 01, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Dean-
There were more than 167,000 entries in the first drawing of the summer promotion. I know you had a lot of entries, but it was just a fraction of 1 percent of the total.
I would encourage you to exercise good judgment when playing the Lottery. It's fun, but there's no sure way to guarantee a win. Please always play within your means.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | May 01, 2009 at 01:19 PM
Has there been any study done on the number eleven? 99.9 % of the time if I have the number 11 on a scratch off tickey I can be assured on not winning anything. I dread seeing the # 11
Posted by: John Admire | July 15, 2009 at 10:36 AM
No, it is just a coincidence. Winning numbers are drawn at random, and numbers on Scratchers tickets are used as part of the game's play action (i.e., if the game is 7-11-21, etc.). If he would like to find out how many times the number 11 has come up in a Numbers Game (just for fun), he can go to our Web site on the game's main page and click on Number Frequencies.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | July 15, 2009 at 01:32 PM
Hello Captain Lotto,
I have a few questions, comments, and suggestions. I've been playing lottery for years and haven't hit anything close to what I've spent. I'm basically a $10 and $20 scratcher man. I've spent over $600 on those $20 tickets and haven't won anything worth mentioning about. I've spent over $1,000 in $10 tickets. And this is only this year. My friends say I need to quite. And I'm wondering. Everytime I go to the missouri lottery home page, there's always someone hitting big on some of those tickets...well any ticket. And the thing about it, it's never in my neck of the woods. Do you understand where I'm going with this? Cause I'm wondering. Here's one of my questions, are all the $10,000-and-up winning scratcher tickets purposely placed in upscale urban neighborhoods? And are the $500-and-under scratcher tickets along with 80% of the loosing tickets placed in poor neighborhoods. Do they code the boxes (ex. red-poor, yellow-middleclass, blue-rich urban) of tickets so that they can be distributed in the right neighborhood? I wonna believe this is what's happening.
True story, I know a place that was spawning so many winners on scratcher tickets that the ticket machine was actually moved out of the store. And it was a poor neighborhood too. But the scratcher machine was taken out. You tell me Captain Lotto? I'm trying to understand where are all the big winning tickets. I can hit up 10 gas stations in one day and buy $20 worth of $5 scratcher tickets and won't win nothing. I bought so many 10X scratcher tickets and haven't won but $5. I haven't seen or I don't even know what the 10x looks like on the winning line. I should've. I think my winning streak is on the Casino. I'm not sure if this is what's going on. If so, you'll probably deny it And it would be best that I buy my scratcher tickets from an upscale neighborhood. Feedback is always welcomed.
Why isn't there a second-chance winning with "lottery" tickets?
What happens to the expired tickets with unexclaimed winnings?
Thanks for listening, Wayne.
Posted by: Wayne | August 20, 2009 at 01:38 PM
Wayne - a lot of questions there, but it's the same kind of request we get from players all over the state. We don't know where the winners are going to be until they claim their prizes.
We do have second-chance promotions frequently, and unclaimed prizes are returned to the state. I'll follow up with a personal email, but please understand that playing the Lottery is a gamble. Our games are designed to generate money for public education in Missouri. You should only play the Lottery for fun and always within your means. If you would like to speak with someone about problem gambling, free help is available at 888-Bets Off, or www.betsoff.com.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | August 20, 2009 at 01:59 PM
I really want to see club Keno more on the web site ..i love to go to the bar and play
i win every once in a while but i'd like to see more partner plays and promotional deals with playing Keno
Posted by: Maureen Dunlap | August 31, 2009 at 02:30 PM
Does Missouri Lottery have a "replay"
that you send in your losing lottery tickets
for a chance to win prizes? I just read
about the guy in New Hampshire who won
lots of stuff this way. Just wondering.
Posted by: feeling lucky | October 22, 2009 at 12:21 PM
We do frequent "second-chance" promotions, usually associated with specific games. Our next one is the holiday promotion which starts next week.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | October 22, 2009 at 12:48 PM
i think that mo lottery should post the number of tickets issued for each scratchers game and also post the games ending date. that way we could look at the prizes paid/ prizes remaining chart and make a more informed decision as to whether or not continue playing certain scrathers games.
Posted by: mark hovorka | November 29, 2009 at 07:01 PM
We do post the number of winning tickets remaining. We can't post the closing date because that's based on sales. We close a game once all the top prizes are awarded, the game is out of date or the tickets have all been distributed.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | November 30, 2009 at 09:38 AM
Has any one been winning buying the $2.00 holiday scatchers? I have bought about 15 of them and only hit a $2.00 dollar win.
I've even tried buying them at different places.
I'm going to post the same question on facebook and twitter.
Posted by: alex | December 17, 2009 at 04:12 PM
OK, on the scrathchers web site that details how many prizes are still available for every game, why do you not show how many NON WINNING TICKETS are stil outstanding for these games?
Posted by: Thomas Mosier | November 11, 2011 at 10:03 PM
Prizes remaining is the most indicative statistic. We don't really know how many tickets are being sold at any given time. We know how many we printed, how many have been distributed and how many winning tickets have been claimed. There is no way to judge how many tickets are currently in dispensers and being sold at the moment.
We can tell you when prizes have been found and claimed.
Posted by: Captain Lotto | November 14, 2011 at 06:35 AM