 |
|
The Players Want
1.
Fairness - More winners, better
prizes
and better odds
for
Lotto Texas than what we have
Out of every dollar taken in by playing Lotto
Texas, this is how it is currently divided:
6 of 6 winners: $ .37532
5 of 6 winners: $ .027885
4 of 6 winners: $ .068805
3 of 6 winners: $ .06699
Reserve Fund: $ .011
Retailers: $ .05
State/Schools: $ .33
TLC: $ .07
This equals $1
Out of all the money brought in by Lotto
Texas, don't you think it could be divided a
little bit fairer than this? Texans deserve more
even if it means less for the state and 6 of 6
winner. |
2.
The truth about the
odds on the
scratch off tickets...
NO MORE LIES
(If you spend $1 for a ticket and you scratch
it off and it gives you $1, tell me,
what did you "win?" All Lotteries
count this as winning. Can you imagine
how this distorts the odds? Is this right?)
A Victory on This One
As of Dec 2000, the TLC says they will
start publishing the truth about the odds!
|
3.
The unclaimed prize money
back in our pockets ....
For fiscal years 2000-2001, that figure stands
at
approx. $74 million and legislature
took it away from us. Why didn't the TLC
convince them that this was
the players money?
|
4.
The truth in print media
& otherwise -
Examples ...
"Same Great Game, Now Even Better"
(Better for who? It's harder to
win and
that's better? Then, the first sentence says
"winning millions is still just as easy."
A blatant lie.
Gimme a Break)
"The Pay-outs will increase from the current
50% of sales to 55%." "Lower tier prizes will
climb, on average, from the current
$3 -$1500 to $5 to $2500."
(Talk about deception.
4.24% of this 5% increase went only
to the 6 of 6 winner - so what
good did
that do for the majority of the players?
The truth was, the lower tier prize increase
was only .76%.
Because it's considerably
harder to win "anything," they expect fewer
winners. That's why they could safely
decrease the 4 of 6 prize
from 18% to 12.51%
but tell you you would get larger prizes. (This
is called getting Screwed.)
The 5 of 6 prize
only increased from 5% to 5.07% but
the
guaranteed 3 of 6 prize increased the most -
from 11% to 12.18. Gee, you don't expect the
TLC not to cover themselves, do you? After
all, this is a "guaranteed" prize. What amount
is not needed to pay the 3 of 6 winners after
each drawing, then the excess funds go into
the reserve fund. Since
this change took
place, the TLC has had more money to
put
into reserve. They over estimated how many
3 of 6 winners there would be. By the way,
they can use this money to cover their
other
mistakes. (Talk about players
getting
SCAMMED out of money.)
"Match 3 numbers and win $25"
Match 4 numbers and win $500
Match 5 numbers and win $75,000"
(Correct figure should have been $57,575)
"With Cash 5 Just Match 3, 4 or 5 of 39 numbers and you can win prizes ranging from $25 to $300,000"
(Correct figures should have been $17 to
$200,000
and the correct number in
today's
times would be $80,000.)
"Over 60,000 Winners Each Week"
(At the time this was running ...
Week ending 7-25-97 - 48,280 Winners
Week ending 7-18-97 - 50,813 Winners)
"We expect the number of winners to increase
from approximately 275,000 to over 600,000"
(Should have been 160,143 to 282,800)
Questionable Surveys Used To Justify Changes!
The posting at the Texas Registry shows approx.
3000 "groups and organizations" for the
adopted rule and 450 "groups and
organizations" against the rule.
Most of the names came
from
these "surveys."
Two things - (1) See the
explanation below about the
surveys and (2) read the forensic
reports too. Click here to read the
forensic reports.
Bottom line is -
They didn't have 3000 "groups
and
organizations" for the rule.
Period.
|
5.
No more "play" on words -
Example below taken from Texas Registry ...
"Comment: One commenter indicated that when "advertising the odds of winning, it is certainly deceptive advertising, if not an out and out lie to call a ticket that sells for a dollar that is redeemed for a dollar, a winner."
Response: The Commission disagrees with the comment because there is not a one dollar prize amount in the Lotto Texas game. The least amount a person can win is by matching 3 of 6 numbers for a prize of $3."
(The comment period brought the TLC comments from all perspectives and for all games. But often as evidenced above, no common sense was used in addressing the peoples concerns. This answer is as "cocky" as they come and completely avoids the issue. Scratch off tickets fit the bill to a tee here and council knew it.)
|
6.
Get rid of the "Scratch Off Vending Machines"
The law in Texas says no gambling, no booze and no cigarettes if you are under 21/18. There are great efforts put forth to prevent under age folks from buying cigarettes and booze. But, it appears when it's the "state" that's profiting, there is considerably more leniency - less security. Why is this? Pull these machines or secure them like cigarette machines. Minors are buying scratch off tickets.
|
The Retailers Need
They've been fighting the TLC for years.
The two groups who got hurt the most
by the adoption of this rule were
the players and the retailers.
Let's support them!
|
1. Increase Their Commissions & Give Them An
Incentive To Sell Lottery Products
|
2. Compensate Them For
Cashing Winning Tickets
|
3.
An Improved Theft Policy
(Retailers have to pay the TLC for
winning tickets that are stolen - but the
TLC never pays out on those tickets!
Read a related story published
by the Asbury Park Press. Click here.)
|
4.
Cancel the $25 "Unopened
Packet" Theft Rule
(They've lost enough)
|
5.
Give Them Their Pencils Back
|
If you agree with these things ... then join
G.E.T. R.E.A.L.
And about GET REAL ....
This stands for Governments Evade Truthfulness, Responsibility, and Ethics in Advertising Lotteries.
For joining GET REAL, there are no membership dues - your joining simply means that you agree with these issues and you are voting for a change too. Just send me an email or write me and give me your name, address, city, state, zip, phone number and say, I want to join GET REAL. You cannot be a member if you do not give me this information. And, no, I will not pass out your personal information. Click here to send the email.
By the way, want to verify the retailers issues. Just print this out or print out the "Protest Flyer" - then - go ask your retailer about it.
A complete explanation of each of the above issues will be published for you. The story involves what it took to get action taken regarding these errors - intervention from the Governors office.
The Surveys
With regard to the surveys the TLC has in its possession that were "for" the rule - I'm publishing a story and I will include statements from the people who signed these surveys. Bottom line was - the surveys were signed by store clerks who were not authorized to speak for their company nor did the person represent a group - (plus - most of them said they don't even play the Lottery) - yet they were counted by the Commission as "groups and organizations" and listed at the Texas Registry. The TLC has 4627 total surveys but only 3000 were listed - Why weren't 4627 listed? The truth is, the TLC completely ignored the true number of players that responded during the comment period.
I also had some of the surveys examined by Forensic Document examiners. To read their reports and view some of the surveys, click here.
The totals - they had 4627 surveys - but only 1747 were traceable leaving 2864 that were completely unidentifiable. The surveys may have had Exxon, Conoco, Mini Mart, Texaco, 7-11 etc written on it, but you would never be able to verify the signatures - if there was one. All the same, they have 3000 names listed at the Registry as "Groups and organizations" for the changes. The TLC had less than 20 letters on letterheads that they counted as groups and organizations for the change too. Most of them were retailers who were desperate to find a way to increase their sales and they were verbally convinced that this would work for them.
Example - Taking just the 1st listing at the Registry for the changes, it is Robinson Public Warehouse (not a lottery retailer). Well, the girl who wrote this letter says she is NOT representing her company. In fact, she says, almost everyone there was against the change. She couldn't even explain to me why she wrote the letter because she's tired of losing her money and has backed off playing.
Players, do you remember what they made us do? They said they would only accept public comments by way of US mail, fax or email and no phone calls but did you know that only 2 of these surveys were mailed/faxed in. The vast majority of them were hand delivered by GTech.
Want to see all these "groups and organizations" for this change? I've added it to my web site just for you. When you get down to the "R's," be sure and notice how many representatives of Racetrac who, according to this document are representatives of "groups and organizations," can't even write their company name properly. The way these are typed here is how they actually appear on the original surveys - Even the misspellings. (FYI- as a test, I went to 15 Racetrac stores and had various employees write their company name for me. Unlike here, all wrote the name correctly. Now, you test it.) This is just one of many things I can point out about these surveys. Click here to see how the Commission summarized and responded to all of your comments.
This incredible story is forth coming for you with absolute proof. I will go so far as to include the persons name and phone numbers so you can call them yourself.
This type of misrepresentations/lies is what we must HALT.
The TLC Blames
the Retailers!
10-3-00 - I noticed the TLC has added a new page to their site and are addressing 4 issues (3 of which involve retailers) that are brought up on a regular basis. This one comment is a perfect example of denial and partial truths. And for the record, I could actually combat all 4 of the comments.
This comment was - "Clerks aren't properly trained or are rude"
TLC answer: "While the Texas Lottery encourages professional behavior and positive interaction from all employees, we do not have oversight of our retailers' employees. We do, however, strongly encourage our retailers to make sure all of their employees are properly trained. We also inform them that violations of retailer requirements could forfeit their license to sell lottery products. If you experience rude or less than professional treatment you should always bring it to the attention of the store manager or owner."
My comment is: Their answer is one that I do agree with BUT it is not the complete answer by any stretch of the means. Do recognize that the TLC blamed the retailers 100% for the training problem. Yet the TLC does not acknowledge that the employee turnover among GTech reps is pretty significant too (retailers & clerks count on the GTech reps for help) nor does the TLC or GTech have any sort of ongoing constant training program set in place for training new retail employees. The TLC passed the buck and essentially said, "It's the retailers job to train their employees - after all - we trained everybody when they were originally set up as Lottery retailers!"
They act as if the poor new employee doesn't have enough to learn about the cash register and the "money making products" for the retailer first. The TLC expects the retailers employees to know and fully understand their games and machines without proper training by experts. What training they have now is called, "hand me down training." Did you notice how the TLC threatens to remove lotto from their stores if license requirements aren't met too. Bullies!
I was in a Krogers just the other day and the Front End Manager said to me, "Our GTech rep is so green that we are training him. We can't count on him to help us because he knows absolutely nothing. GTech's turnover is tremendous - their Reps work for little or nothing." Retailers have a hard time getting answers.
My Conclusion: This is a 3 fold problem but, as usual, the Commission pointed their finger totally at someone else when clearly the finger should be pointed at themselves too. This is another reason for the decline in sales, the decline in retailers interest in selling lottery products and the distaste many retailers have for the TLC. I think the TLC's answer is representative of what I've said about them - they deny and tell "partial" truths which is what we have to stop.
Special Note: It will be interesting to see how they train on the new machines when they come in and how they train on the new $500,000 game they have planned - Also, FYI, Retailers claim that the machines being used today are not "user friendly" for their employees.
|
