Instant Games
Besides offering terminal-based games, the Pennsylvania Lottery has many instant games (such tickets are usually referred to as "scratch off tickets"). Approximately 42% of Lottery proceeds are from instant ticket sales. The Lottery website maintains an updated list.
The Pennsylvania Lottery uses an animatronic groundhog called "Gus", who claims that he is the "second-most-famous groundhog in Pennsylvania" (after Punxsutawney Phil), as the mascot for instant games in television commercials which appear around the beginning of every month.
Pennsylvania instant games range in price from $1 to $25 (however, there are no $25 games currently active; the Lottery has had two $25 games, and both were retired in 2010). Typically, higher-priced tickets offer better odds of winning, higher top prizes (up to $1 million for a $20 game; $2,500,000 cash or a $3 million annuity for a $25 game), and a higher payout percentage. Payouts range from 57% of sales ($1 tickets) to 76.91% ($25 tickets).
Originally, a winning ticket was denoted by two matching letters in the play area. Later, this was updated to the winning amount being highlighted with parentheses at the top or bottom of the play area, in order, but not necessarily consecutively; for example, a $100 winner would be denoted (1)(0)(0). Still later, three letters were scattered around the play area, spelling out the winning amount; for example, a prize of $100 is denoted H U N; losing tickets are denoted with a combination of: B, J, K, P, Q, and Z. Any prize over $2,500 on newer tickets is denoted with the letters "C L M" for "claim"; tickets released prior to July 2008 used C L M for amounts over $500. Starting with tickets released at the end of November 2010, tickets no longer have validation codes; an area marked "Scratch to Cash" must be scratched off by the player, revealing a bar code. Concurrent with the removal of validation codes, the Pennsylvania lottery also removed "benday," a random pattern of squiggly lines used as a security feature.
Read more about this topic: Pennsylvania Lottery
Famous quotes containing the words instant and/or games:
“Truly, though our element is time,
We are not suited to the long perspectives
Open at each instant of our lives.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)