Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Review of Maryland Lottery's $1,000,000 Platinum Play Scratch Off

The latest $1,000,000 prize scratch off lottery game that the Maryland Lottery has come out with is the $1,000,000 Platinum Play game. The game has been out since August 22, 2016. Surprisingly, none of the $1,000,000 or $50,000 prizes have been claimed as of the time of this post.

The game features prizes of $1,000,000, $50,000, $10,000, $5,000, $1,000 and lesser amounts down to $20. One difference in this game vice previous $1,000,000 game scratch offs is that the Maryland Lottery is offering four $1,000,000 vice the normal three such prizes. Also, there are nine $50,000 prizes though I don't know what the norm is for that. I suspect the Maryland Lottery will issue more tickets in this game to make up for the increased number of $1,000,000 prizes. I saw on the game's webpage that there will still over 250,000 $20 winners alone still out there.

Like all $1,000,000 scratch off games, the tickets cost $20. Overall odds of winning according the 2 tickets I bought with my own money are 1 in 2.94. Please remember those are the OVERALL odds i.e. you can do better and you can do worse.

Another noteworthy thing about the game is the Maryland Lottery doesn't mention on the FRONT of the ticket that the game has an instant win feature which is common enough with their scratch offs. If a star symbol pops up on the ticket, you win that prize automatically. Otherwise, you try to match 1 to 5 of the 5 numbers you get at the top of the ticket. The game states you have 30 chances to win though the number that really matters is the overall odds ration i.e. 1 in 2.94 which is normal for the $1,000,000 prize games.

Like all the recent games, losing tickets do qualify for Lottery Rewards points. There isn't any second chance drawing in this game for those who like that feature.

Overall, I found the $1,000,000 Platinum Play a decent enough game though I didn't find anything that makes it particularly noteworthy barring the fact the Maryland Lottery is offering four $1,000,000 prizes this time. I do wonder if this will be the new norm for all their $1,000,000 prize games. Time will tell. Best of luck to all players out there and please do remember to play responsibly.

One final comment: all opinions in this review are my own and aren't in any way reflective of the Maryland Lottery i.e. they didn't have anything to do with this game review. I bought the 2 tickets I played with my money i.e. I didn't receive any kind of compensation from the Maryland Lottery and, I never will. Any statistics that I stated for this game came either from the tickets I bought or from the game webpage on the Maryland Lottery website.