Lottery DATA Lab

DATA from the past 40 years show that the Holiday season, Thanksgiving through New Year's day, have historically produced some of the biggest jackpots.  Coincidence?  The argument is that more people play lotteries at this time of the year, so the build up to bigger jackpots is accelerated. Could be. 

But some conspiracy folks believe THEY control the draws to have these spending times of the year and THEY cash in big time.  Well, could be.  DATA does show an increase in play, and states do make more money during this time period, and THEY write it off to the "season". 

With mechanical balls, it is assumed by most of us they are harder to rig. Sort of like elections, he he.  But with random number generator computers  which are programmed, it is assumed they are programmed in favor of the state, makes sense too. 

Today, in mid July, we are at a low tide period of lottery play, with many on vacation, the participation not as big as usual, shifting of lottery play money  into higher gas prices, etc.  One good thing about poor economies and higher prices, higher food, gas and utilities, during high price times and/or inflation...more and more people play the lottery, often those that can ill afford it. 

Keep in mind, it is nice to have a little slush fund set back for your HOLIDAY play, which also, according to DATA, is when more scratch off tickets win, again, believe to be rigged to give people more winners and thus, further play.  We didn't track scratchers, because we don't play them. 

But if anyone of you keeps an eye on seasonal differences between the number of winners and bigger jackpots, it would be interesting. My best guess is, more winners at the holidays, means more play in the New Year, so THEY can recoup all those pay outs, but that is my best guess, NO data here to support this assumption. 

We hear tell, more of the Pick 5 games may be scheduled to add a couple of balls to their games, this is unverified scuttlebutt.  To go from 39 to 43 or 45 makes for higher jackpots and more income for the state, and harder to win for us suckers.  We'll keep an eye on this. 

Also, and this just a rumor, some states have advocates wanting us to fill out a claim form for anything over 200 dollars, no idea if this is true, but there are plenty of politico A holes wanting to tax us more and gather more data on us.  If you catch wind of your state, usually some jerk in the state legislature, wanting YOU to fill out claim forms for under 500, make sure you are aware of these skunkbags, eh?