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July 11, 2004
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Kentucky has Powerball on the same nights. Lotto South should move their dates to Thursday and Monday, or to Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. In the South, there's four Powerball states and two Mega Millions states. They'd be better off not directly competing with Powerball on two nights a week.
United States
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July 11, 2003
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I sure hope LS will continue even if KY pulls out. Ironically the low 6/49 matrix would make more sense in a bi-state game (Georgia & Virginia).
I don't know. If I remember correctly, VA & GA get the vast majority of LS sales, and that might be why KY is pulling out.
But to allow me to reiterate, they need to move the draw nights to Monday & Thursday. Either that or go back to their original in-state game (GA particularly).
United States
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July 11, 2004
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I don't think Lotto South can compete head to head with the two biggies. Lotto South wants to keep one of its drawings on Fridays or Saturdays for the heavier weekend sales. Perhaps they need to go to three days a week to Monday, Thursday, and Saturdays. This would avoid direct competition with one of the biggies twice a week. One of PB or MM is likely to have lower jackpots at any given time. Question is will North Carolina go with Powerball or Mega Millions, which may drive their decision whether or not to join Lotto South as well The schedule I proposed above would also work for South Carolina since they wanted LS to move one of their dates.
North Dakota United States
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April 5, 2005
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This is from the VA lottery
Thank you for your email.
Kentucky, Georgia and Virginia are all currently in the process of analyzing the Lotto South game. Ticket sales have been decreasing and the states are looking into possible changes. At this time, Lotto South will remain the same with all three states participating.
North Dakota United States
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April 5, 2005
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Well my impression is that GA VA and KY are looking into dropping the game to start an instate or another kind of game like Win for life (ky) With that said I'm guessing TN and SC aren't going to or have not asked to be part of LS. I like the game but what can you do??? This could be good for Hot Lotto. I know SC is looking into another lotto game like LS or Hot Lotto but I don't know what they have in mind. TN will more than likely go with their own instate game rather than hot lotto. Just my thoughts...
Also, GA players should be buying more and more tickets because there is a winner like once ever few weeks. But that's just my opinion. If VA drops LS then GA could pull Lotto GA again. (I never got a chance to play because I was under 18 when they cut it.)
United States
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July 11, 2004
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Hot Lotto seems to be out for Va as an option as PB+HL seems to be a package deal. It looks like a dying trend for instate Pick6 games except for the most populous states. The Cash5 game is also suffering declining sales. The growth is in scratch tickets and Mega Millions. It wouldn't surprise me if the state looks at Keno.
United States
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July 11, 2003
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IMHO, Georgia was better off with Lotto Georgia. The payouts and jackpots were similar to LS, despite the easier matrix. It was just a better game, and I think thats the consensus among Georgia players judging by sales.
Lotto Virginia is pretty much the same as Lotto South (except one got a 6th QP for every 5 plays), so no lamenting there.
Lotto South was a definate improvement on Lotto Kentucky, which never had a 3/6 prize. So they were right in replacing it with LS. I just hope that Win For Life is further improves on Lotto South, because I hate it when lotteries replace a good game with another game that's not better.
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April 22, 2004
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IMHO, Georgia was better off with Lotto Georgia. The payouts and jackpots were similar to LS, despite the easier matrix. It was just a better game, and I think thats the consensus among Georgia players judging by sales.
Lotto Virginia is pretty much the same as Lotto South (except one got a 6th QP for every 5 plays), so no lamenting there.
Lotto South was a definate improvement on Lotto Kentucky, which never had a 3/6 prize. So they were right in replacing it with LS. I just hope that Win For Life is further improves on Lotto South, because I hate it when lotteries replace a good game with another game that's not better.
Lotto Kentucky did indeed offer a 3/6 prize for most of its history until a bunch of greedy, overzealous, shortsighted bureaucrats in the state government bullied the Kentucky Lottery Corporation into changing things in order to deliver more revenue to the state with blatant disregard for the wishes and interests of players. The KLC then instituted a number of changes, one of which was dropping the 3/6 payoff for Lotto Kentucky, which I think brought about the game's ultimate demise.
I can tell you that I cut way back on my play when they quit paying off for 3/6. I think they didn't realize that even a bunch of wishful thinking lottery players would eventually draw the line somewhere when they got tired of government inspired abuse. Lotto Kentucky was a good, realistic 6/42 jackpot game for a state the size of Kentucky. It was the only lottery game I've ever been lucky enough to cash a $1000 ticket on. It would probably be alive and well in some form today if a bunch of politicians hadn't tried to tell the Kentucky Lottery Corporation how to do its job.
I really don't know exactly why Kentucky is getting out of Lotto South, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that it is again at least in part the result of meddling by politicians who are ignorant and insensitive to the interests of the players who make or break any game. It would be a simple thing to just let a competent professional like the Kentucky Lottery Corporation's Arch Gleason do his job as he so well knows how, but Kentucky government has a longstanding tradition of ignorance and backwardness to uphold. Oops, they've done it again!
