Sunday, March 19, 2017

Review of Maryland Lottery's Treasure Island Scratch Off Game

My apologies to my readers on this review. I've been meaning to write it for a while and, I didn't get around to it till today. Today, I guess I have a surprise urge to write stuff. Anyway, on to the review.

If you like to scratch a LOT on the scratch off games (I have a co-worker who does), you'll love this game because there is a LOT of scratching involved though not as bad as Maryland Lottery's Lucky Seven Game book they had a while back.

The Treasure Island game was launched by the Maryland Lottery on December 27, 2016 (Source: the Maryland Lottery webpage; http://www.mdlottery.com/games/scratchoffs/ then look for the Treasure Island game). According to the webpage, as of March 18, 2017, the game has five out of eight $30,000 prizes left, fifteen out of twenty-two $1,000 prizes left and seventy-two out of one hundred and four $500 prizes left. Those are the big prize amounts in this game. There are smaller amounts all the way down to $3 which is what the game costs to play.

How the game works: The game has 3 ships at the bottom of the ticket. You start scratching where each ship begins and, you go the direction each arrow points (either up, right or left). Along the way, you'll uncover symbols or prize amounts with arrows directing you which way to go. If you hit a skull & crossed bones with the words Game Over, the game is over for THAT ship. Remember, you have THREE ships paths to follow i.e. you have THREE chances to win a prize.

There are 3 ways you can win in this game:

1) make it all the way to one of the four prize areas - you win the prize you uncover.

2) uncover 3 identical symbols (either a gold bar or key) in all three ship paths, you win $25 for the key, $50 for the gold bar.

3) uncover 3 identical prize amounts in all three ship paths, you win that amount.

At times, even though these directions which I took from the game webpage should be clear enough, I've found I've had to check my ticket with a scanner at the place I bought the ticket or with the Maryland lottery app which will tell you if you have a winning ticket or not (though it won't tell you how much annoyingly). I had one case where I had three $3 winners in a row and didn't know it!

Overall odds of winning in this game are 1 in 3.85. You can do better or worse than that. I've had both happen.

One neat thing the Maryland Lottery did to promote the game is they created a page where you can get your pirate name! I tried this and ended up with the pirate name - Jolly Davy. I have no idea where it came up with this name as my real name is Ron. Guys AND Gals can get their pirate name at:

http://www.mdlottery.com/promotions/treasure-island/

Overall, I've found this a fun game to play vice playing for the $30,000 prize (though I wouldn't turn it down if I hit it to my surprise). I feel this is a cheap game (I usually play the $20 games) to play. It is eligible for Lottery Reward points so save your losing tickets so, you can claim the points on the reward webpage or by using the reward app.

Lastly, please be responsible while playing. The odds aren't in your favor of hitting it big so do play responsibly (i.e. don't play with money you can't afford to lose like your rent or electric bill money). Best of luck to you all!

Update May 7, 2017: I discovered you can use the Maryland Lottery Rewards application (app) to check tickets to see if you won. A big plus of this app vice their normal lottery app is not only will it tell you if you have a winner, it'll tell you how much! This is becoming my go to app when I'm playing Maryland Lottery scratch off games. Also, it may be obvious what you've won in other games unlike this game BUT, it doesn't hurt to have confirmation from the Maryland Lottery on your win.

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