Mass. lottery players still waiting for delayed final drawing

Sep 7, 2007, 9:41 pm (2 comments)

Massachusetts Lottery

Some Massachusetts Lottery players have given up hope that they'll ever cash in on a $10 million Hold 'em Poker scratch game the state launched more than two years ago.

State Lottery officials acknowledge that a few finalists have died waiting. But they say ticket sales have been slower than expected and it may be another year before the game sells out and prizes can be drawn in the championship round.

"I'm really disgusted," Nicholas Zeogas told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy. He became the second Hold 'em Poker player in the state to move to the championship round after buying his ticket in June 2005.

The Hold 'em game was designed as a user-friendly version of the trendy poker game played everywhere from Las Vegas casinos to college dorm rooms.

Zeogas, of Quincy, was told the grand-prize drawing would be held in mid-2006.

"I'm 73," he told newspaper. "What happens if I die?"

The grand prize drawing is triggered when the last of about 80.6 million tickets is sold. Only about 53.2 million have been sold so far. At that rate, the drawing could be held a little more than a year from now, Lottery spokesman Dan Rosenfeld told the Ledger.

"The game is successful, but it's not as successful as what the initial estimates were," he said. "That drawing is going to be held. It's fair to say the drawing is still a ways off."

Only 358 of the 560 finalists needed to finish the game have qualified so far.

That's not reassuring to Elsie Singh, 59, of Quincy, who doesn't believe it will ever happen.

"Oh God, that's a long time ago, over two years," said Singh, who won a miniature pool table as her initial prize while also winning a spot in the grand-prize drawing.

AP

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computerhead723's avatarcomputerhead723

sounds   like   a  stupid  Game  and  very   unfair  to  the  players  who  have  won  so    far  ;

This  is  one  game  the   Governor  of  this  state  should  demand  that  they  finalize  the   end game ...and  pay  out  ;

SilentObserver

Can someone tell me if it's standard practice for a lottery to: 1) keep an instant game on the market, whose sales have slacked off and is now occupying valuable dispenser space that could be generating significant revenue for the State of Massachusetts? and 2) require that every last ticket of the game be sold before it is pulled? Kind of makes you wonder who is coming up with the order quantities. I beleive I read something recently (but I may be mistaken) where a legislator was going to look into the lottery revenue shortfall. S/he may want to start there? Quite honestly, there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation to keep an underperformer on the market. I guess it depends who stands to gain from it remaining on the street: The Consumers? The State? Someone else?

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