Take a look at this article over at CNN. A video feature is available too. A Virginia man is suing the state lottery for breach of contract because the instant game he purchased had already sold all of the top prizes. While his plight has garnered some support while reviewing the various comments about this story, we think it’s fair to really examine the claims here in depth.

Mr. Hoover says he was felt ‘duped into buying these things’. I find that highly contentious; it’s hard to blame a third-party for an adult’s decision to buy a lottery ticket. If this guy has enough dough to retain a lawyer to sue the state lottery, I can’t believe he’s up in arms about losing on a scratch and win. Let’s get to the merit of his point though. His lawyer says, “It’s one thing to say it’s a long shot to win the $75,000, but it’s another thing to say you have no shot to win it”. Again, another statement I’m not exactly comfortable with. In fact, the Virginia Lottery does display it’s available prize listings, just like the NJ Lottery, on its website. If Mr. Hoover wanted to make an informed ‘investment’ in instant games, surely it is his responsibility to review all material available for him to understand the prizes left and what his odds actually are. We’ve outlined this on our strategy post rather comprehensively.

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To a casual observer, there is very little strategy in playing instant games. That’s the kind of thinking, though, that keeps the dedicated player focused on playing games they have some reasonable mathetmatical chance of winning. Casual players eat through loads of series with little or no major prizes left and tend to leave a few unpopular games ripe for the picking. Consider a game like Flamingo Double Bingo, launched in April, that still has eight prizes of $20,000 left, and almost 400 unclaimed $500 wins sitting on the table. My guess is that the gambling populous was a little overexhausted with bingo games, and let this one slip by. A smart player, though, is going to pass on any number of new cards launched in the last month or two and find a much better value in grabbing Flamingo Double Bingo.

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