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Back to 1st page I also think it's abhorrent (probably not the best or most accurate choice of words here but you get the gist) that they have said that they are going to suspend your receipt of the drawing info.....I think that they are totally unjustified....They should be able to take the heat...after all they instigated it!!!! by THEIR ACTIONS!!!!! Anyway, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!! We enjoy your publication and your information that you post on your site and the fact, too, that you give us much more information about the TX Lottery than they do...IMHO!!!
Dawn, The survey is in, after 1 hour just standing around talking to the clerk at my regular store, here is what I learned: Good report and I concur. It's the same thing I've found. So that you'll feel a little bit better though, consider this. Have you thought about how many people you DIDN'T see because they quit playing? You couldn't very well get their input because they weren't there. The people who play $1 and $2 will not quit - unless there is a highly publicized boycott, then they would cooperate. You see, these people are actually smart - that's all they spend. But they have a chance to win big if God sees fit and if they lose, so what. It was only a dollar or two. If everyone in Texas did this, the TLC would not have a sales problem at all. In fact, each and every drawing they could probably sell $15 million at least. And yes, the 51, 52, 53, 54 allows a certain population to play their birthdays and that is probably what kept sales in the $4 million range this past Saturday. Just remember, all you see now is the small players purchasing Lotto Texas tickets - to get a true test - stand at the gas pumps and talk to those who didn't go inside. And, just so that you know it, the $1 and $2 player nets the store .10 cents. This is not what the stores want either. This is not worth their time and is one of their main complaints today. Finally, you may not realize it, but you said the magic words several times - "After confronting the few players." I am not having doubts about the impact of my boycotting the lotto, as a player that normally plays $40 to $50 dollars per drawing, I am now not buying any at all. My hope is that your readers and supporters are also boycotting. I am not sure of the numbers but we are a small fraction of lotto players, our only common denominator is that we also use the internet. I will be awaiting the results of Saturday's drawing. F.Y.I. the man that runs the store that I normally buy at is asking me daily if I am going to by tickets today. In fact all of a sudden almost all of the clerks are. It just seems like they are not making the same size of lotto sales as they had in the past. I will do a field survey for myself just to find out, and I will let you know. If the payouts are any indication of Lotto Texas sales for Sat, July 29, you can rest assured the people of Texas spoke up! I think it's quite obvious sales were down. Sales were $4,073,832. Down.
This message was sent to Channel 4 TV and a copy to me- Increasing the odds for winning the Lotto is ridiculous to say the least. The odds should be lowered to let more people win, even if it is a smaller amount. I had a feeling that I was giving my money away when they had 50 balls. Now that they have 54 balls with three of the four new ones coming up the first night, NO WAY I'LL PLAY. I believe a full scale investigation should be performed on the Lotto Commission, not only about how the drawing is conducted but of the people running the Lotto and even as far as to report on where the proceeds are actually going. We know the proceeds are not going to where they advertise they are. (many dollars are going to special projects which should not be recipients) (Example - Unclaimed prizes use to be given back to the players - but now these proceeds go to a hospital in Galveston or somewhere. Is this fair? This comment was made by the Lotto Report - not the writer) If they are going to rig the Lotto, what stops them from rigging Cash 5 and Pick 3 or directing the winning tickets on the scratch offs to certain areas? There are many questions which need to be answered. You may say that if I think it is rigged then I should not play. Well, the answer to that is: I am a tax payer and the Lotto is part of the State. If they are going to rig the Lotto, then what else in our government are they rigging to benefit the government by screwing the public? Thank you for your time. Thanks for sharing your message with me too. I've received thousands of e-mails and your message is a good representation of many of them.
To the Texas Lottery Commision: I couldn't have said it any better! Hi Dawn: I went to your' web site to find out if the Lottery Commission had received and begun to use the new drawing machines for Cash 5 and Lotto. You had informed us this was pending for late July. (Sept. 1 now) To my surprise, I learned that the Commission has determined you to be an activist, rather than a Journalist. This is totally ridiculous. I am quite sure it is within their power, but certainly unethical. The facts as I see them: (a) Yes you are an activist. The name of your publication is The Lotto Report. What else are you supposed to report on? Also, you receive input from your subscribers and investigate and report on their concerns. Does any other journalistic medium act differently? (b) You have made negative statements concerning the Lotto Texas change from 50 to 54 balls. I have only seen one positive review and that was an AP wire service report, prior to the final Commission decision. Every newspaper editorial, and radio or television personality comment I have seen has been negative. Have they also been suspended? (c) Most importantly, the Commission meeting minutes concerning the 50 to 54 ball change, have many statements that were purported to be fact, questioned in committee and confirmed to be fact; and then later "clarified", based upon investigation and questioning by you. Dawn, I will agree with the TLC. You are as guilty and undesirable as any investigative journalist, and should be black listed along with Woodward The commission obviously wants to prevent any further embarrassment, by controlling the release and preventing the analysis of the information it chooses to distribute to the public. My visit here today is case in point: The Texas Lottery web site gives information on drawings such as most frequent numbers, etc. Only from the Lotto Report did I learn of the ball set change, the change in drawing practices, and the impending drawing machine change. Opinions in America swing back and forth over time. Thirty years ago government offices could act in this way, and many did - but no more. Only matters of national security are allowed to operate beyond any scrutiny. If the TLC won't conform to the level of public responsibility that is expected from the rest of government, then the elected officials they report to might intervene, based on public outcry - led by you and other journalists not afraid to ask questions. If this doesn't work, there is currently a struggle underway at the national level to define state and federal rights. A federal office overseeing state lotteries and a uniform code of conduct certainly appears desirable right now. My sincere thanks for taking the time to express your views to me. 21 July 2000 Texas Lottery Commission In any industry, when sales are down, who ever heard of raising the price? We are writing just to say "good-bye"! I represent a lottery pool group of 20-25 people who have purchased as much as $1,500 on a single lottery game, and we are through! The premise of increasing the jackpots by making the odds more difficult is a specious argument. All this means is that it will take longer to raise the jackpot to a significant amount with diminishing sales until a much larger jackpot is reached. You've got it all wrong! Our lottery pool previously would play when the jackpot reached 20 million but with these new odds of over 25 million to one the jackpot will have to reach 50 million or more to make it a worthwhile effort. And it just isn't worth the trouble. On the other hand, if the odds were improved as we suggested in earlier correspondence - say by reducing the number of balls to 45 and changing the odds to 1:8mil - we would play EVERY Lotto game regularly, regardless of the jackpot. We would much rather see multiple winners split even 4 million than 1 player getting 40 million. A decent chance at even $100,000 would be much more attractive. You're going to find that your existing players will be leaving in droves and your net receipts are going to fall dramatically. It's a shame you will have to see the poor results before you realize the mistake - in the meantime it's good-bye from this group. Sincerely, (Name Deleted) Hey, Readers, this man is a genius. We should all write the Commission a "Good Bye" letter but maybe we should call them "Dear John" letters! Dear Dawn Nettles, I am writing to you to express my serious concern about the Texas Lotto. Granted the probabilities for each of the four new balls being drawn are the same as for any of the other balls included in the drawing. However, it is extraordinarily suspicious that on the very first night's drawing that included the four additional balls, three of the four new balls were drawn. This is especially troubling considering the strong public outcry and controversy that has been brewing for many months leading up to this new 54 ball system. My guess is that the lotto drawings are fixed. It appears that as part of a public relations campaign to encourage Texas lotto players to accept the new 54 ball system as being good for the players, the drawing was rigged to produce three of the four new balls in the very first night's drawing. The idea probably was to show the players that the additional four balls are just as likely to be drawn as any of the other balls, and the lotto demonstrated this to the players by having three of the four new balls show up right off the bat. This then would of course mean that the lotto is fraudulent and perhaps has been all along. Very, very few people really understand the probabilities of these games. All they know is that their chances of winning are very slight, but that they do have some miniscule chance of winning. They do not understand the mathematics and the probability factors that are involved, and the state lotto personnel know this. Furthermore, virtually none of the people who buy lotto tickets week in and week out understand the capabilities of high technology electronics. I am referring to electronic technology that could very easily control the results, or the indicated results of these drawings. Very few people would understand the suspicious implications of what happened this past Wednesday night. Another way to look at this is, even if the drawing wasn't fixed, which I find extremely difficult to believe, then the drawing most probably was not a fair drawing, because there is the strong indication that there is some property or characteristic about the four new balls that made them far more likely to be drawn than the other 50 balls. This then would mean the drawing was flawed at the very least, and that all lotto ticket holders who purchased a lotto ticket for last Wednesday night's drawing are entitled to a full refund for the purchase price of their tickets. In either case, I suggest that a group of players holding tickets for this last Wednesday's drawing officially form a legal class for litigation purposes, hire legal counsel to demand a full investigation of the lotto, to include all the drawing equipment that is used, the method and manner in which the drawing is conducted, the backgrounds of all the personnel involved in any capacity with the state lotto, the possiblity that the lotto results as broadcast and reported to the public are past-posted, and of course the possibility of the lotto simply being a revenue raising system that is controlled and fraudulent. Ticket holding players should also consider contacting the United States Justice Department and ask for an impartial investigation into this matter. After all we are talking about the possibility of violations of the Uniform Commercial Code. Recently there was another incident that took place in Oregon, which you may be aware of, concerning that state's "pick four" game. The situation certainly raised eyebrows there, as well other places. It has come to my attention that there is reasonable cause to believe that all of these state and multi-state lotteries may be fixed, and they are just another system that state governments are using to raise revenue. This would mean that the probabilities that the games would be rigged and/or controlled to yield the highest revenues to the various state treasuries is quite high if not a dead certainty. It would be extremely difficult to prove these things, and I believe that the state lotto personnel in charge of the different lotteries throughout the country know this, and are even relying upon this. I am sure that if they are confronted with any of these allegations, their only response would be "there is no evidence of anything fraudulent or improper in our lotto games, and you have no proof that there is." However, the actual probabilities of this past wednesday night's drawing event should be made public. Making people aware of this situation could go a long way towards correcting these problems, especially if players stop buying lotto tickets until this is cleaned up. Also a rotating delegation of ordinary people should be present to thoroughly inspect and observe all future drawings. Please contact me when it is convenient, and let me know your thoughts on this matter. I forwarded this letter to several reporters and TV stations
Dawn I thought I would say "Thanks" for the work your doing on behalf of all of us. The increase in numbers made no sense. I'm sure you've heard all of this but I felt I should at least subscribe to show my gratitude. (This was not necessary but thank you!) In addition, I told a friend the day of the drawing, that we should use all of the new 50's. We did. We got a small return.(Broke Even). I had a feeling this was going to occur. Did they replace the entire set of balls or just add 4? If all they did was add, then I can see this happening again. My small group, that spent a set amount every drawing, will now only concentrate on Cash 5. No more Lotto. I also agree with one of your E-mails concerning an investigation. Perhaps, a class-action suit. I'm close to a few District and State elected officials (unfortunately I'm not comfortable in mentioning names or position without their permission). I'm going to inquire. Thanks again, Judging from my mail, I believe a great many players would certainly appreciate your discussing this with your friends in high places!
Did I read correctly that the "TLC" has suspended you from receiving info? Is this their "tantrum response" to your promoting Cash 5 play? I should think all of your FREE advertising for one of their games should be applauded and appreciated altogether, instead of suppressing your info.! Way to go, TLC, for yet another ungracious act - as for me, I've decided the state of Texas can just get my money the old fashion way ...taxes....and I'll have more money in my pockets on Wed. and Saturdays! Thank you for all of your hard work and fine efforts in keeping us all informed...best of luck to you, in all you do. I will post the letter and explain in complete detail why they suspended me but first I will appeal to Ms. Cloud to make certain that the decision stands. Basically, I've been told they do not think I practice "professional journalism" and have accused me of becoming an activist or a lobbyist. So, I've been suspended from receiving the drawing results, payouts, who sold the winning tickets and all press releases. Just FYI, I have received this information by fax daily since July 1993. But no longer.
It appears many people have their own perspective about three of the four "new" balls appearing in the Wednesday draw. I guess I'll throw my two cents in too. Hmmm..... Hmmm..... Hmmm..... Hmmm..... Hmmm..... I wonder what would happen if one of those 50's numbers did occur three times in a row? Would the lotto be considered "random" or "rigged" or would the number 51 be considered "hot"? By the way, what does "rigged" mean anyway? Does it mean that the possibility exists that the winning numbers are known prior to the drawing? Hmmm....... This one made me smile!
To: Channel 4 TV - goodday@foxinc.com - I am definitely against the lotto commission increasing the lottery from 50 to 54 balls. I have been averaging ten dollars per game and more if the jackpots went over 20 million, but unless they go back to 50 balls, I have played my last lotto ticket. Instead, I will only play the Cash Five and Pick3 as I have in the past and quit donating to the lotto. After the 7-19-00 drawing results were posted, I was convinced there is something rotten in Denmark when 3 of the 4 added balls came out the first game after they were added. If it had only been one, that would have been okay. Two would have been really stretching it but three is cheating somehow. I know it is supposed to be impossible to cheat, but now I think it is possible. Anyway I thought the lotto was supposed to be a game for the lottery players to have fun with and maybe win some big bucks if you were lucky, but instead, it looks like the lottery commission is only interested in making big bucks for the state so unless it changes back, I am through contributing to the state coffers through LOTTO 54. This is how the majority feel. I want to commend you on your stand against the four extra draw balls. I appreciate you and your efforts to keep the lottery a little bit honest. I did respond to your request in my opinion to the Dallas e-mail and asked other to do so. My sincere appreciation for taking the time to write such kind words and for helping me spread the word. Contacting the media IS our FIRST solution.
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