|
|
The
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
My Apology to Linda Cloud Keith Elkins Radio Comments About the Overpayment CHAIRMAN CLOWE: Let's go down to Item 2 on the agenda: the report, possible discussion and/or action on lottery sales and trends. Linda, I think you or Toni will brief us on this. MS. SMITH: Yes, sir. Good morning, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Toni Smith, Marketing Director of the Texas Lottery Commission. CHAIRMAN CLOWE: Good morning. MS. SMITH: Good morning. CHAIRMAN CLOWE: Pardon me, Toni, go right ahead.. MS. SMITH: That's okay, sir. To take a look at sales in the normal view that we do in these meetings, we typically look at weeks ending. I just wanted to make note before I got started that this past week, the week that I'm now reporting on, is the first full week of this fiscal year. But what's in the packets only represented a couple of days of the first of the fiscal year, so this report is for the full week ending September the 9th. So total FY '01 sales to date are 101,474,591. This is up 36.65 percent from fiscal year 2000 total sales to date of 74,259,855. Our fiscal year '01, current weekly average sales is 50,737,295.5. Again, this reflects a 36.65 percent increase over last year's weekly average of 37,129,927.5. And then to go on and look at year-to-date sales comparison by product, the Instant products for fiscal year '01 are at 41,499,460, which is a 43 percent increase over last year's 41,320,955. And I think the good news is where we are with our Lotto Texas game for this week. We're currently at 49,624,871, compared to only 19,948,928, which was a 148.76 increase. Now, that increase is, for this week, directly related to our $60 million jackpot that we had last week.We're very excited that those sales are going in the right direction, that the jackpots are doing what we had planned; and that we had a $60 million jackpot, and the game is working for us. To go on and just look at weekly sales, for the past week by product, product for -- comparing this week to the previous week, which we'll go ahead and look at the full week, even though it wasn't part of the fiscal year. Instant tickets were 39.85 percent of sales at 31,268,686, and compared to the previous week, they were 30,979,551. So this was a .93 percent increase. Lotto Texas, on the other hand, though, was at 39,725,265, compared to 19,827,339 for the previous full week. So that was 100.36 percent increase. So I guess we were real excited to see that Lotto had done for us what we hoped that it would do. And that wouldn't have made that -- MS. CLOUD: Commissioners, I'd like to point out one thing in our projections that we -- in our proposed change for the matrix, we gave you numbers relating to the number of jackpots and the sizes of those jackpots that we projected. I'd like to say that this past week, we originally projected that we would have between -- we would have four rolls between 37 million and 67 million. So that's one of our four for the year. So we're on our way now. The game is working the way we had hoped it would. Our players have been tremendously excited about this jackpot. All the rollovers, the top rollovers the last couple of weeks -- Saturday night, just to give you an indication, from 1:00 Saturday until 9:30 or 9:45, when we had the draw break, we were doing over a million dollars in each hour. It increased itself in the last hour between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00. We did $2.2 million in sales in one hour. So this answers our question. Our players like the big jackpots. They come into the game. They play. We've had numerous -- we've had wonderful media with this. Our newspapers around the state have gone out in the field and talked to players and talked to retailers. And most of what we've seen in print has been very positive, and we're real thankful for that. So we ended the week in sales with 78,462,037. And that's the highest sales figure for a weekly figure that we've had in a very long time. So I am delighted. I was at the studio Saturday night. It's much more exciting to be there to watch those balls drop in person than to be at home. So a number of us, actually, were at the studio, and the anticipation of waiting that 20 minutes until the computer has time to search for those winning numbers just keeps you on the edge of your seat. And then it was announced that we had one winner. You're excited for that winner because that's what we're here for, to make millionaires. And I think most of our players have had a lot of fun with this rollover, and I just think it's the first of many. And I'm really happy to feel that we have brought our Lotto game back, and the players have shown us that this is what they want. CHAIRMAN CLOWE: Very good. Toni, do you have any comments on Item 3, the advertising and promotions and print media criteria? My Questions/Comments After Reading The Transcript ... Ms. Cloud - With regard to the sales for the $60 million jackpot being so great - I would like to know if by any chance the sales weren't the greatest on the borders. I think the people would like to see the sales demographics for where all those tickets were sold. That would tell the "whole" story. OK?And, since you were so happy, why didn't you boast that the actual jackpot was not $60 million but over $67 million - there was enough accumulation to cover that. Also, with regard to your statement, "So a number of us, actually, were at the studio, and the anticipation of waiting that 20 minutes until the computer has time to search for those winning numbers just keeps you on the edge of your seat. And then it was announced that we had one winner. You're excited for that winner because that's what we're here for, to make millionaires." I notice you chose your words very closely here - the truth was - you were disappointed there was a winner because you wanted to break the $77 million jackpot record. Isn't that right? You see Linda, it shows. A good marketing person would have been boasting about having a $60 million winner first and foremost then led into the sales aspect. Excitement comes from within - and then it spreads. And one last thing, how come you didn't discuss the $1.9 million error on the July 26th advertised $40 million jackpot - Sales were not what you anticipated so it cost players $1.9 million - that is - if you took the money from the reserve fund to pay the Sweet 16 Group. Now if you took the money from your stash to cover your mistakes, then we don't care AS MUCH! So many of you have written and wanted to see exactly how the figure of $1.9 million came about. I'll draw you a little picture so you can see it. Sales from every Lotto Texas drawing are divided - when there is no jackpot winner, the 6 of 6 funds are carried forward until there is a winner. In the case of the $40 million pot - here is the exact carryover amounts (This is the amount the winner is suppose to receive if he choses Cash Value Option or this the amount invested that is suppose to give a return of the advertised jackpot amount - in this case, the amount needed to give a $40 million return was short so, apparently, the Commission took the funds out of reserve and gave to the 6 of 6 winner):
I can't help but wonder too, how much more money has been lost so recklessly? It was a Statistics class taught by San Antonio College mathematics Professor Gerald Busald that discovered that the Group of 16 from the University Family Health Center - Southeast in San Antonio really were lucky when they collected their winnings of $20,545,440. This group had chosen the Cash Value option when they purchased their Lotto tickets for the July 26th advertised $40 million jackpot amount. Total sales fell over $5 million short of projections and left the jackpot fund over $1.9 million short, funds that had to be paid from Lottery reserves. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Lotto Report |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
