Review of Maryland Lottery's Electric 8s Game

The Maryland Lottery recently came out with 3 new games: Triple 333 ($2), Winning 7 ($5) and Electric 8 ($10). Because they're new, I recently played all 3 to see what they were about. This review will give the particulars on their Electric 8s game.

The game costs $10, has overall odds of 1 in 3.43 (per 1 of the tickets I bought) and has a grand prize of $88,000. At the time of this review, there are all 8 grand prizes out there. The game was launched on November 24, 2023.

The game has instant win features as well as the standard matching 1 or more of the 5 winning numbers. The game is unique in that at the top of the ticket are 8 Electric Bonus spots which the player scratches off. If any of them reveal a prize amount, the player automatically wins that amount. According to the ticket I'm looking at while writing this review, you can hit more than once in these bonus spots. There's also a instant win feature in the standard winning numbers part of the ticket. In the area where you scratch to see if any of your numbers match 1 or more of the winning numbers, if you see an 8 symbol, you automatically win double the prize shown. Prize amounts for this game per the ticket I'm looking at are: $10, $20, $50, $100, $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000 and $88,000. Any prize amount of $1,000 or more must be validated at the Maryland Lottery Customer Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

Overall, I found the game a nice game to play though not necessarily any better than some of the other games Maryland Lottery has. The game has decent overall odds of winning though you can always do better or worse. Those odds are the OVERALL odds, not guaranteed odds for every book of ticket though usually the books will follow the odds. Maryland Lottery is promoting the game this month with their lottery rewards program. For every $25 worth of losing tickets for this game and the other 2 mentioned at the beginning of this review, you get a spin on the app wheel where you can win a coupon, draw points or prize points. You can get up to 4 spins on the app wheel ($100 worth of losing tickets). Please be responsible in your playing if you decide to play. Remember, you're not guaranteed to win a fortune if you decide to play. Good luck to you and thanks for reading my ad free blog.

Disclaimer: I wasn't provided any free tickets or remuneration from Maryland Lottery for writing this review just like my other personal reviews on other games I've reviewed. I spent my own money to play this game. My sources for this game are 1 of the tickets I bought and the Maryland Lottery app which has a function where you can call up any of their scratch off games and see when the game was introduced, game number and how many prizes are left for each prize amount. I do recommend this app as it's handy for seeing how many prizes are left. Plus, you can check your ticket with it to see if it's a winner. I recommend you ALWAYS double check your ticket with this or one of the ticket checkers at any location that sells Maryland Lottery tickets. It's easy to miss something while playing. You don't want to throw away a winning ticket by mistake.

Review of Game Parlor's Slot Machine Coin Bank

 Normally, I'm very pleased with everything I buy at the Jessup, Maryland Ollie's Discount Store. They sell very good merchandise at excellent prices. This makes this review rather different as this review is of a product that I believe is poorly made and should be avoided. The product in question is Game Parlor's Slot Machine Coin Bank made by Meridian Point.

The product sells for $10 at Ollie's though they claim it would normally retail for $24.99. The product is a miniature slot machine where you can insert coins, pull the side lever and see if you hit 1 of the jackpot combinations on the spinning wheels (there are 3 of them like on real slot machines). It doesn't run on batteries though mine had a space on the back for them. You don't have to insert coins in order to spin the slot machine.

The problem I ran into is that the machine is apparently poorly made and broke on me through normal use shortly after I bought it. I've tried repeatedly pulling on the side handle and nothing happens. To add to my dismay, I made the mistake of throwing away my receipt so, I can't return it to Ollie's for a refund. On a recent trip to Ollie's, I checked another such bank and found it broken too. So, my problem isn't a 1 off. This is why I'm warning other consumers out there of this product. If you buy 1, make sure you keep your receipt just in case you have to return it.

While I greatly enjoyed this product when it worked, I'm not thrilled that it broke so easily and apparently can't be fixed. I give it 2 thumbs down because of this and recommend other people avoid buying it.