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March 16, 2000 On March 14, 2000, Linda Cloud, the Executive Director of the Texas Lottery Commission, asked the Commissioners to approve a plan that would change the matrix of the Lotto Texas game. Her motive, get sales up. Her solution - add 4 balls to Lotto Texas. Her solution makes winning the Lotto extremely difficult - She knows, as we all do, the more numbers there are to choose from, the harder it is to win. If this change is implemented - the jackpots will grow because there will be NO winners .... so people will come in from everywhere to play Lotto Texas as the jackpot grows. And that's EXACTLY what she wants....this is her solution for making more money for the state. I think this plan is kind of ironic. Texas lawmakers say the Lottery cannot advertise "lifestyle changes" to promote sales - but they can dangle $100 million dollars in our faces and say, 'Hey, for only $1 you could win it?' Talk about temptation. Is this right? I believe the "sales problem" should be blamed on the fact that the TLC has, in essence, lost their sales staff. Imagine this if you will ... could Governor Bush have made it this far in politics if he had no campaign (sales) people ... Just recently I posted a story on why I think sales are down for the Texas Lotto. If you haven't read it, I wish you would. To read this story, just click here. I found it very interesting that the Commisioners meeting began with Dr. Eubanks, the Lottery's statistican, explaining why Lotto Texas had 6 consecutive winners recently at the $4 million level. Dr. Eubanks basically said that Texas was just "unlucky." This topic had apparently surfaced during the last Commissioners meeting so Ms. Cloud decided to have Dr. Eubanks explain this to the Commissioners. I thought - why does Texas even have a Lotto since it upsets them to have winners at any level? I thought Texas (we) started a Lotto so we could keep the funds within the state, to help Texans and as a way to collect "voluntary" taxes. I also wondered why there was no mention of making changes to the Texas Million game since there were two recent winners. Did you know that on Jan 28, 2000, one person won $1 million playing Texas Million but the total sales were only $983,880? Now, in addition to paying the $1 million, they had 328 people who won $300 and 24,131 people won $10. Figure that one out. Then, only two weeks later on Feb. 11, 2000, one person won $1 million dollars again. Total sales were $1,040,550. Additionally, there were 358 people who won $300 and 25,825 people who won $10. But Linda Cloud thinks we need to change Lotto Texas? duh.... Anyway, after Dr. Eubanks finished with his presentation, G Tech spoke about Lotteries in other states. In depth I might add. G Tech explained that when states start lotteries, the matrix of the games are usually determined by the states population. When Texas began, G Tech felt 6 of 50 was the right matrix for Texas. Then G Tech added, "As populations increase, Lotto sales usually increase too which reflects the growth." They explained that this is when most states consider changing their games. I thought this sounded reasonable. Then I thought, 'But our leaders think now is the time to change Lotto Texas? Lotto sales have decreased tremendously ... yet our population has increased drastically. So the solution is to make that winning experience harder ..." duh .... G Tech further stated that Texas' Lotto sales was actually in pretty good shape compared to many other states. They said they felt Texas just had a "cold." Then the bomb shell came ... G Tech said that in their research (10 people per city - 3 cities - total 30 people said) they found that the people felt that winning the Lotto was nearly impossible anyway and only played for the dream or chance of winning the big one. Therefore, increasing the odds probably wouldn't hurt Texas but adding 4 numbers certainly would help the jackpots grow ..... they failed to finish the sentence by saying, '....because it will be much more difficult for anybody to win.' They also failed to mention how much this was going to help their own pocketbook. I feel we are at a disadvantage in dealing with the people at the TLC because they are not players. Not one RED cent of theirs is lost playing the games. Perhaps the time has come for us to call for a halt of all games if the Texas Lottery Commission just wants to screw us. Comments on this... Today, our Lotto Texas game is played where one chooses 6 numbers between 1 - 50. If a person has 3 of 6 numbers, they win $3. If a person has 4 of 6 numbers, the average win $101. If a person has 5 of 6 numbers, the average payout is around $1500. If a person has 6 of 6 numbers, then they win the big jackpot. In choosing 6 of 6 numbers from a pool of 50 numbers, there are 15,890,700 combination in matching 6 of 6 numbers. Linda Cloud believes the plan proposed 6 months ago was too complicated and that's why players response was so negative. She thought everybody objected to the bonus ball plan. This time .... she believes.... she's giving you what you EXACTLY what you want. This is the proposed plan in a nutshell. Add 4 numbers. One will still choose 6 numbers between 1 - 54. If a person has 3 of 6 numbers, they will win $5. If a person has 4 of 6 numbers, they win an average of $105. If a person has 5 of 6 numbers, the average payout will be $2500. If a person has 6 of 6 numbers, then they will still win the big jackpot. In choosing 6 of 6 numbers from a pool of 54 numbers, there are 25,827,165 combination in matching 6 of 6 numbers. That's all there is to it. Comments anybody? Are we going to stand for these odds? NO!So, you ask, can we stop them and if so, how? For this answer, just click here.Dawn Nettles The Lotto Report
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