Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on Jan 15, 2011
It would seem to me that when scratch off tickets are made they are bar coded and the amount of prize for that ticket goes into a data base for record. When tickets are sold the ticket is activated with that bar code going into the states data base. The state could possibly know where the ticket was sold and the amount of prize before it is even cashed.
Seems like I read articles where unclaimed prize tickets were known where they were sold and the amount of the prize based on the states data base info.
While it is certainly possible for scratch-off tickets to be scanned at the time of sale, I dont think that's happening in The State of New York. I say that for two reasons.
Firstly, I *think* the barcoding on NY's scratch-off's is underneath the coating that has to be scratched off. (I could be wrong about that.)
Secondly, whenever I have bought a scratch-off, the store clerk tore the ticket off a roll that is in a plastic case, handed it to me, and then rung up the sale in the cash register. It was not scanned at any time during the transaction. That leads me to believe that it's impossible for the barcode on the ticket to be scanned at the time the ticket is sold.
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Here is more info on scratchers.
I did not read it all but it looks like it goes into activation details of books and tickets. I thought I read each ticket has a unique bar code. Also the book of tickets has a bar code when issued to a retailer.
You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale.
(2) Such a scratch-off ticket includes its own unique identifier such as a bar code depicting a series of numbers in a prescribed sequence. For example, the bar code may include numbers corresponding to the precise game played by the ticket, the identification of a book of tickets in which the particular ticket is located, and a particular ticket number within that booklet. Other information may, if desired, be provided on the identifier for the ticket.
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Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on Jan 16, 2011
Here is more info on scratchers.
I did not read it all but it looks like it goes into activation details of books and tickets. I thought I read each ticket has a unique bar code. Also the book of tickets has a bar code when issued to a retailer.
You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale.
(2) Such a scratch-off ticket includes its own unique identifier such as a bar code depicting a series of numbers in a prescribed sequence. For example, the bar code may include numbers corresponding to the precise game played by the ticket, the identification of a book of tickets in which the particular ticket is located, and a particular ticket number within that booklet. Other information may, if desired, be provided on the identifier for the ticket.
Nice find of info out on the web. I didnt read all of the document either, but it appeared to me that it was describing a patent for using a barcoding system to control inventory of lottery tickets that have been disbursed to retailers.
I'm thinking I might use the "Ask The New York Lottery" feature on NY's website and e-mail them a question. I suppose I could ask them if they know the retailers location of all top prize winners for all scratch off's prior to the tickets being being sold. I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase the question.
"Is the lottery aware of the location of retailers that have in their inventory of tickets for sale a top prize winning scratch-off ticket prior to the ticket being sold?" Sound good to you? I have to believe they've been asked that question in the past.
As an aside, quite a while ago, I read in a local newspaper that an area convenience store had been burglarized and scratch-off tickets were stolen. The police recovered many of them on the side of a lightly traveled country road. I cant recall if the article said they had been scratched or not. But if they had been scratched, it would seem to me that it would be easy enough to identify the theives when they presented any winning tickets for payment. It could be the theives realized they could be easily caught, and that's why they dumped the tickets on the roadside.
South Carolina United States
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"Is the lottery aware of the location of retailers that have in their inventory of tickets for sale a top prize winning scratch-off ticket prior to the ticket being sold?"
"You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale."
I had to rethink about the bar code activating each ticket when sold. The bar code may not activate each ticket but when the bar code is scanned by the retailer the ticket goes into the lottery data base as being sold along with other info on the ticket bar code.
Another point I would like to bring up is that each ticket has a scratch area which identifies the prize amount for that ticket. I would think the prize amount would need to match the bar code on the ticket. It would seem to me the lottery would have in a secret data base the prize amount that goes with each individual ticket bar code.
NY United States
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The advantage of scratch off lottery over mega million type jackpot lottery is, in mega million lottery, for the top few high dollar value prizes you have to match 5 or 4 numbers from the 6 winning numbers meaning if your numbers are weird then chances of winning other prizes are not there. In nutshell, if you don't have six winning numbers, it's very less likely that you will have 5 winning numbers. Usually you are lucky to even match 3 numbers.
Whereas in instant lottery, for e.g. 2nd, 3rd etc it's all random. which puts your odds of winning other prizes at a higher probability. Do you guys agree with this?
Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by jaggudada on Jan 17, 2011
The advantage of scratch off lottery over mega million type jackpot lottery is, in mega million lottery, for the top few high dollar value prizes you have to match 5 or 4 numbers from the 6 winning numbers meaning if your numbers are weird then chances of winning other prizes are not there. In nutshell, if you don't have six winning numbers, it's very less likely that you will have 5 winning numbers. Usually you are lucky to even match 3 numbers.
Whereas in instant lottery, for e.g. 2nd, 3rd etc it's all random. which puts your odds of winning other prizes at a higher probability. Do you guys agree with this?
Sorry, but I dont think I understand your question.
To me, whether or it's an online game like Mega Millions or a scratch-off, everything is entirely random.
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Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on Jan 17, 2011
"Is the lottery aware of the location of retailers that have in their inventory of tickets for sale a top prize winning scratch-off ticket prior to the ticket being sold?"
"You could ask your retailer about activation of a ticket. Could be they activate each ticket in a book before putting in case. Possibly to save teller time to do it at the lottery terminal each time of a ticket sale."
I had to rethink about the bar code activating each ticket when sold. The bar code may not activate each ticket but when the bar code is scanned by the retailer the ticket goes into the lottery data base as being sold along with other info on the ticket bar code.
Another point I would like to bring up is that each ticket has a scratch area which identifies the prize amount for that ticket. I would think the prize amount would need to match the bar code on the ticket. It would seem to me the lottery would have in a secret data base the prize amount that goes with each individual ticket bar code.
I sent them the question. I'll post their answer here after I receive it. My guess is they dont know where the top prize winners are, but it is certainly possible to design a system so that the state lottery could know the exact location of all of the top prize winning tickets. I'm not sure the state lottery would want to know that information. If they dont know where the top prize tickets are, it's impossible for someone working for the lottery to commit fraud by revealing to somebody else where to buy tickets. Even if that happened, nothing says the guy buying the tickets would be guaranteed he would be buying the roll with a top prize winner in it. And, in New York State, players are keenly aware that it's a very safe bet that most of them are located in the New York City metropolitan area.
All winning scratch-off's must be validated prior to being paid. In NY, players can use the barcode scanner at the retailers location to check and see if they have a winning ticket. If it is a winner, the scanner's screen tells the player exactly how much was won. The same thing is true for online game tickets. So for scrach off's, the barcoding must have some information in it, that when scanned, tells the player how much they have won.
I'm not sure that's true for online game tickets since the payout is different for each drawing. Also, the payout is not known when the ticket is purchased, which is when the barcode is printed on the bottom of the ticket. Yet after the drawing, the scanner does tell the winner of an online game how much they won. So it must access a database and see what the payout is for 3 number, 4 numbers etc.
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Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 17, 2011
Sorry, but I dont think I understand your question.
To me, whether or it's an online game like Mega Millions or a scratch-off, everything is entirely random.
Perhaps you could clarify your question?
Let me try it different way.
I agree everything being random in both lotteries.
What I meant to say is this.
Let' say you weren't able to match 6 winning numbers, the chances are very high that you wouldn't be able to match 5 numbers either. I know someone else will be able to match 5 numbers for the 2nd prize, but you as an individual have less chance within the overall odds. Whereas with instant scratch off you have equal chance to win 1st prize, 2nd prize, 3rd prize depending upon the odds.
Both lotteries are random and works based upon the overall odds for large group of people, you as an individual have better chances with scratch off to win something is what I meant to say.
If I could be clear then we will have to leave it at that, as I don't know how to explain better?
Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by jaggudada on Jan 17, 2011
Let me try it different way.
I agree everything being random in both lotteries.
What I meant to say is this.
Let' say you weren't able to match 6 winning numbers, the chances are very high that you wouldn't be able to match 5 numbers either. I know someone else will be able to match 5 numbers for the 2nd prize, but you as an individual have less chance within the overall odds. Whereas with instant scratch off you have equal chance to win 1st prize, 2nd prize, 3rd prize depending upon the odds.
Both lotteries are random and works based upon the overall odds for large group of people, you as an individual have better chances with scratch off to win something is what I meant to say.
If I could be clear then we will have to leave it at that, as I don't know how to explain better?
Gotcha.... Sounds right to me. Maybe I'll start playin scratch-off's a little more than I have been.
NY United States
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I'm interested in knowing the number of first few top(big) prizes a perticular scratch off game has. I can get prizes unclaimed on NY Lotto website but do not know where to get number of prizes when the game started.
In my opinion if a perticular game has several top prizes such as 3 X 1 million dollar prizes then wouldn't it be better to play in the begining assuming the lottery is truely random instead of playing when the unclaimed prize counter is 2 or 1?
Florida United States
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Technically, yes. But not all distributed tickets at any given time contain the 3 winning jackpot tickets. What usually happens is when a game is introduced there is a jackpot winner right away usually in the first few weeks. This is to draw incentive to the game. Then you could have a year go by until another jackpot is won. And the last jackpot gets won shortly before the game is cancelled and pulled from stores.
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Quote: Originally posted by jaggudada on Jan 10, 2011
In scratch off lottery there is no start and end date. Lottery prints out X number of tickets and distributes them. Winning ticket is pre-printed. So let's say if someone gets the jackpot ticket, how do we know the winning ticket is gone? so if you are playing for the top prize of 1 million, 2 million or 3 million, no point in buying a ticket if the top prize/s are already gone. unlike in jackpot games where there is start and end time and when the time ends, the new game begins and everybody starts from the scratch. Also you know if jackpot is gone or not before playing it.
or is scratch off lotteries is like a perpetual game? they embed winning tickets at randome and you keep trying your luck? and just because someone has just won the jackpot have no bearing on next winning ticket? like them don't pace'em out depending upon sales etc.
can you someone help me clarify this confusion?
Heres another article I found about scratch tickets and remaing prizes. This one concerns NY scratch tickets. This investigation was done by a Lottery Post member.
Florida - West Coast United States
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Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on Jan 18, 2011
Heres another article I found about scratch tickets and remaing prizes. This one concerns NY scratch tickets. This investigation was done by a Lottery Post member.
I read that post, and there's no doubt about it, players in NY can not get a very clear picture of what the situation is with regard to the number of unclaimed top prizes for scratch off's. The New York Lottery destroys opened books of scratch-off's returned to them by retailers that have gone out of business. Not good because a top prize ticket could be destroyed. (I do think the odds on that happening are relatively small, but it's certainly possible that it could happen.)
I've wondered if all of the top prize winning tickets are disbursed when a game first comes on the market. I dont know if this is the case or not, but tickets could be in the process of being printed and obviously have not been distributed to retailers.
Many scratch-off players like to jump on a new game when tickets first go on sale because they believe that's the time when all of the top prizes are still available. But if there are tickets that have not yet been printed, it's possible that there may not even be one top tier prize in circulation.
If what I speculated upon above is true, then I think NY would be reluctant to reveal that information, should they be asked are all tickets printed and distributedprior to tickets going on sale.
Does anyone know if all scratch-off's are printed and distributed prior to going on sale?