Sooooo, back in the Summer (remember Summer? It seems so far away now!) we were speculating about what difference the price increase for Lotto 6/49 might make to people's lotto buying habits.
The other day I stumbled across a page that gives sales figures for the 6/49 Lottery,
http://www.lotterycanada.com/lotto-649/2013-12-21
so I figured I might as well do a quick comparison.
There have been 18 draws since the price change, so I compared that with the 18 draws before the change.
So, from June 12, 2013 to September 14, 2013 the average sales per draw were $12,786,370.00 or an average of 6,393,185 tickets at $2.00 per ticket.
After the change, from September 18, 2013 to December 21, 2013, the average sales per draw were $19,933,324.00 or an average of 6,644,441 tickets sold per draw at $3.00 per ticket.
Over the 18 draws there was a slight increase in tickets sold. Looking more closely however, I believe the fact that the Jackpot rolled over 8 times immediately after the change, building to an eventual win of $40 Million, had a lot to do with the increased ticket sales. Sales for those first 8 draws after the price change averaged $23,595,764.00 per draw, while for the 10 draws following the big jackpot sales averaged $18,468,348.00 which represents fewer tickets sold than the before-change sales.
Also, I looked at the number of winners for each draw. To make this comparison I had to remove the winners of free tickets that were added after the price change so that I could make an "apples to apples" comparison.
Before the price change there were an average of 200,369 winners of cash prizes for each draw. After the change, the number of winners averaged 210,569. Again, the statistic started off strong and has tapered off: For the first 8 draws after the change (up to the $40 Million Jackpot) the average number of winners was 247,154 while in the most recent 10 draws the average number of winners was 195,936. Remember that there is now a "free ticket" prize for matching 2 numbers which distributes 700,000 to 800,000 free tickets each draw. However the free tickets do not seem to have increased the cash prizes won per ticket bought.
Overall it appears that, after the initial excitement over a large jackpot, ticket sales have declined slightly measured by both sales figures and by the number of winners. So, most players would appear to be maintaining, or only slightly reducing the number of tickets bought at the new, increased price.
However, the lottery commissions likely don't care that people are spending more and winning less, as their take has increased. Just imagine the salary increases and expense-account trips that they can have with an extra $6 Million per draw funded by the generous Canadian public!
Good luck!
The other day I stumbled across a page that gives sales figures for the 6/49 Lottery,
http://www.lotterycanada.com/lotto-649/2013-12-21
so I figured I might as well do a quick comparison.
There have been 18 draws since the price change, so I compared that with the 18 draws before the change.
So, from June 12, 2013 to September 14, 2013 the average sales per draw were $12,786,370.00 or an average of 6,393,185 tickets at $2.00 per ticket.
After the change, from September 18, 2013 to December 21, 2013, the average sales per draw were $19,933,324.00 or an average of 6,644,441 tickets sold per draw at $3.00 per ticket.
Over the 18 draws there was a slight increase in tickets sold. Looking more closely however, I believe the fact that the Jackpot rolled over 8 times immediately after the change, building to an eventual win of $40 Million, had a lot to do with the increased ticket sales. Sales for those first 8 draws after the price change averaged $23,595,764.00 per draw, while for the 10 draws following the big jackpot sales averaged $18,468,348.00 which represents fewer tickets sold than the before-change sales.
Also, I looked at the number of winners for each draw. To make this comparison I had to remove the winners of free tickets that were added after the price change so that I could make an "apples to apples" comparison.
Before the price change there were an average of 200,369 winners of cash prizes for each draw. After the change, the number of winners averaged 210,569. Again, the statistic started off strong and has tapered off: For the first 8 draws after the change (up to the $40 Million Jackpot) the average number of winners was 247,154 while in the most recent 10 draws the average number of winners was 195,936. Remember that there is now a "free ticket" prize for matching 2 numbers which distributes 700,000 to 800,000 free tickets each draw. However the free tickets do not seem to have increased the cash prizes won per ticket bought.
Overall it appears that, after the initial excitement over a large jackpot, ticket sales have declined slightly measured by both sales figures and by the number of winners. So, most players would appear to be maintaining, or only slightly reducing the number of tickets bought at the new, increased price.
However, the lottery commissions likely don't care that people are spending more and winning less, as their take has increased. Just imagine the salary increases and expense-account trips that they can have with an extra $6 Million per draw funded by the generous Canadian public!
Good luck!
is actually alarmingly stingy w.r.t volume of payouts.