Player Mail: Does The Order That Tickets Are Sold Matter?

We’re sending you into the weekend here on the blog with a player mail question!

This one comes from a woman named Amy who contacted us on Facebook. She asked: “When retailers sell scratch tickets, does it matter if they start with the beginning of the pack (#1 and go up) or the end (#99 and go down)? Wondering if there was a certain way or if it’s up to the retailer.”

The quick answer is that either way is fine.

I think most people know that tickets in our scratch games are sold in packs, and each ticket is individually numbered so it can be identified and tracked. Our sales representatives or store personnel load packs of tickets into our lottery’s ticket dispensers and vending machines so tickets can be sold at retail locations.

Most of the time, the tickets are loaded so that sales in a particular pack begin with ticket No. 1 and continue through the end of the pack. But when you’re loading a lot of tickets at a time, sometimes a pack will be put in so the last ticket is sold first and sales continue through the pack, ending with the first ticket in it.

In either case, the odds of winning in the game are the same. Winning tickets in our scratch games are randomly distributed so not even we know when the next one will hit. So if it’s the beginning of the pack or the back of the pack, the odds remain the same.

I’m officially putting Amy in the “very observant player” category and giving her a gold star for having a great question!

Comments

[Mary Neubauer]

Hi, Judy. That is a comment we hear from time to time, and I've blogged about the details involved before. Please check out these entries. I hope they address the questions you may have.

http://www.ialotteryblog.com/2014/03/why-we-end-a-particular-scratch-game-.html

http://www.ialotteryblog.com/2015/03/are-you-going-to-pull-that-game.html

[Mary Neubauer]

Sounds like a very thorough system, Scott. Great job, and thank you for sharing those details!

[judy]

I don't think it is fair when a person is playing a certain game and there are still a lot of the top prizes left and the lottery rep. comes and pulls then to make room for new games. Those tickets are destroyed and all your chances of winning is destroyed with them. Talk about bad odds.

[Scott Terpkosh]

At my store they load the tickets so the 000 ticket is first and then the highest number in the pack is next. This way it counts down and the employees know how many tickets are left in the pack. We tally the numbers and compare them between shifts. If the numbers don't match, 99% of the time it's a math error or the "Lotto" register key was hit instead of the "Lottery" key. There is a difference when it comes to bookkeeping. This also makes it an easy way for management to see if another pack needs to come out of the safe without opening the display case.

[Mary Neubauer]

Great suggestions, Jason!