With Ravens scratch-off jackpot prizes still in play and holiday games set to launch, John Martin of The Maryland Lottery tells Nestor that the massive jackpots hit in other states often provide big local winners who don’t have all of the numbers – but still cash in with a large check.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
win, people, maryland, ticket, ravens, scratch, winners, sports wagering, lottery, game, pitching, baltimore, good, tour, word, week, md, talk, delaware, prize
SPEAKERS
John Martin, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W en st Towson, Baltimore. And Baltimore positive. We are taking the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road. I am working on like a bunch of dates in the November December we have the governor coming on amongst others as well as the Mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott for the holidays, putting it all together, getting it all out. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. We were up at Hollywood casino as well as last week at drug city celebrating where my truck city shirt celebrating 55 years of my life and even more than that a drug city up at the tasting my son stopped Bobby a great guest George Shula and I one time I’d like to say was my physics teacher, my biology, taking his classes at Dundalk. He was the science teacher that always taught the classes I couldn’t go to. You’ll hear all of that as well as Chuck Jacobson, Luke Jones. Joining us from drugs city is also brought to you by our friends at weathernation. XX 690. Nation buy to get to free all month long and the newest sponsor the Maryland crabcake tour. That is our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, a little orange light went on I got to take my car over to Merritt Boulevard, make sure I get my oil change. This guy has been on for two weeks. I think his batteries are recharged here. You know, last time we got together the browns and the Ravens played and then bad things happen to the Ravens he didn’t get to rub it in too much. We let Seth through that last week. And now we’re we’re out of the baseball playoffs and we’re into the Halloween competition to contest we welcome John Martin back in here made your agency’s you know given billions of dollars away since the last time you left me here How you been happy Halloween season to you?
John Martin 01:28
Well back at you and I you know I have to commend you I liked the new intro the subtle change but but but I caught it you know welcome home. I like that’s comforting. Let’s Let’s watch
Nestor Aparicio 01:38
25 years and 32 years on the air i i still think maybe there’s a first time listener out there Yes, tuning in for the very first time and say why does he say that? But for most people, you know if you’ve set your dial at am 1570 anytime between 1998 and 2023 and you’re listening on the radio, I want you to feel home and if you’re finding it on YouTube, anywhere we travel at and the lottery.com Sometimes we’re out there. Yeah, it is a little bit of a comforting feeling
John Martin 02:06
is it’s like having that blanket that that crackling fire that that hot cocoa on a brisk morning that scratching off a winning lottery ticket all those good feelings when just in that welcome home message. So
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
Monday morning whether the Orioles win or lose whether the Ravens win or lose here I am doing and you know what you guys gave away a lot of money. I didn’t get a chance to talk jackpots and all that. And set the night before he came on. He’s like I hope somebody hits it tonight. And I’m thinking, do you really don’t you want it to go over 2 billion? I mean, did you like want to set a record?
John Martin 02:41
You know, I’ll have to talk to young Seth about that. But we’ll have a little counseling session. Clearly we want people to get excited about when to be enthusiastic. We want them to play responsibly. We want them to enjoy it have some fun play with friends in a group setting if that be the case. But ultimately, yeah, we kind of feel a little ah want to you know when it’s all over. But a lot of fun. Emily, oh, a lot of people went along the way focuses on $1.7 billion, or whatever it ends up being that’s where it should be. And that’s where it should be. But you realize we have nine other we have nine tiers of prizes, right up from, you know, four bucks all the way up to the jackpot. I
Nestor Aparicio 03:25
bet a lot of people when they play like my wife, she would be completely shocked if you said, Hey, you won 50 grand or 100 grand because you had the Powerball or you had the four at five or five out of six or whatever. Those things that there’s nine of them. So I don’t even know if you can explain all nine of them without having a list in front. But for you everybody plays to win the big banana. I wouldn’t feel bad if you brought me 100 grand I really wouldn’t. And you do that all the time. Right? You can go to
John Martin 03:51
our website at MD lottery.com and read up on some of these winter stories and they are they are fun each and they’re like little chapters in a in a book of winning hay like that. I’m going to
Nestor Aparicio 04:01
oh boy who writes the headlines is that dog Raj who writes the headlines and me because I love this headline. It’s not grandma wins 50 grand while husband loads groceries into car. How do I not click on that read that how do I know I want to know more so so let’s do that.
John Martin 04:17
And when you click on that, you get a picture of the winner holding her oversized check and is paid to the order of goofy Ruthie. Goofy, Ruthie and and there’s self self named 50 Grant. Yeah, so she and her husband are going out shopping and you know push the cart through the aisles. They get a ton of groceries and she tells, you know, hubby Hey, load up the backseat. I’m gonna go back in and get us some some lottery tickets.
Nestor Aparicio 04:47
This happens all the time with me. The ROFO I’ll get outside with a two piece chicken which I got from my birthday. Thank you royal farms. Appreciate that last week on my app. And then my wife runs back and I got it. We Got a bid? It’s 800 million I gotta run back. It says she does that all the time. So I understand this.
John Martin 05:04
And goofy, Ruthie was actually playing a scratch off ticket. It wasn’t even a Powerball win. So she goes back and gets a $5 Lucky riches scratch off and wins the top prize $50,000
Nestor Aparicio 05:17
This happened at 6340 York Road in Baltimore with a giant right down there by channel two. So yeah, I mean, people are winning right down the street from us that could have been me could have been you could have been me. And it’s
John Martin 05:26
always great when you hear about people coming from other states coming in and swooping in and, and being winners and enjoying experience. We have a Delaware man, a young man by the name of Christopher Hudson from Delaware who, you know from time to time will come over into Maryland for his job and do some work as a part time landscaper and walks into a 711 in Ocean City. Again, a scratch off winner or $100,000 crossword seventh edition for those of you keeping score. Any wins $100,000
Nestor Aparicio 05:59
Why can I play Wordle every night, I don’t want anything.
John Martin 06:02
You know, I’ve not gone it would briefly give me the 25 words or less what is
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
Wordle it’s not 25 words or less, it’s five letters. So it’s five letter word every day. And you have to figure out what it is. And you know, you begin with with and it tells you what letters you’ve got right or wrong. You have the whole alphabet below use. It’s a little bit like Scrabble, but you’re trying to deduce what the word could be like if you use the word do a D, I, E, you right? That’s that’s a good starter work. It’s got a lot of vowels. Think real fortunate, right you’re trying to solve. So you get an A, you get an eye, it’ll tell you the A’s in the right space. And now you know, the word begins with an A and you have an eye and then you have to figure out alright. How do I do this? So that’s Wordle Does that make sense? That entice you in any way?
John Martin 06:50
So So, so there’s only one one win, there’s there’s only one word,
Nestor Aparicio 06:55
8but you don’t win 100 grand you just like high five your wife? And tonight, you know, yeah, it’s it’s bragging rights, which which counts for a lot. And then she goes out on Facebook, and then you know, and then you know, but the one thing you can’t do with Wordle and I’m gonna be honest with you. Don’t don’t tell people in social media with the word. You know what I mean? Don’t
John Martin 07:14
Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. Right. So there is a wordle of on high that comes down from the mountaintop. And it’s the one word that everyone’s playing. This was
Nestor Aparicio 07:23
the word I think’s interesting, because it’s a dude came up with it, and it caught on. And then the New York Times bought it for like a billion. So it’s like a New York Times at this point. But my wife’s addicted to it. It’s our dinner thing. You know what I mean? So I understand, like crosswords, and winning money, I see the allure of all this, why the scratch off? Because I often wonder, I really do. And maybe you could speak to this. When I’m in Costas, let’s say, and you have the big machine there. And you have all the tickets in there and a lot. What makes someone play like a certain game versus another game, or in this case, the Ravens scratch off, obviously, you might want to win tickets for life, or Jacksonville, or trips or whatever, or you just love the purple bird. But like, do all the games have sort of the same probability of winning? And I mean, would you pick a game over another game to say I want to play this one or that one, because the odds are better.
John Martin 08:15
You know, it used to be when when we started this many, many years ago, because this is our 50th. Year, as you’re well aware, they were they were more rigid that the price structure as we call it, for a $1 ticket was pretty much the same it different from a $2 ticket and up the line. But now we’ve evolved to clearly as you see, when you go in any retail location, you know, it’s colors, it’s is words that catch your eye. It’s the it’s the top dollar prize for some people. But even within a specific price point, like a $10 price point for a scratch off ticket, we could have $100,000 top prize, where there may only be five or six of them in the entire state. Or we go the other end of the spectrum, and maybe the top prize on the $10 ticket is $10,000. significantly lower, but we have hundreds of them. So So people have to say to you, where am I? Where do I want to invest my $10? Do I want to buy one $10 scratch off ticket where the top prize is $100,000. But there are so few of them. And I can win lower amounts? Or do I want to go to the other $10 ticket, which has a top prize of only $10,000. But there are hundreds of them. So my odds of getting a top prize are a little bit better than they would be on ticket a and and that’s the
Nestor Aparicio 09:31
ticket as an example. I was in Hollywood casino the other day, I literally gave out almost 100 of these like that day, and everybody was captives. 930 in the morning watching the game at a good ending, weird but a good ending. And I said to everybody, Hey, how many of you won? And you know, I mean, it must have been a dozen people. And I said what did you win five bucks. 10 bucks, three bucks. eight bucks. Nobody won 100 that time but I’ve had $100 winners. I have not had a $20,000 winner at Coco’s or papists or you know, any my places, but like, I could I mean, I have the same tickets everybody else has. So they could stand up and win. But you’re saying that the $5 ticket would be the 50,000? Or the 10? Would be the 100,000 that maybe I wouldn’t see as many two and three and $5 Winners maybe?
John Martin 10:16
Oh, correct. I mean, when you go to Mt. lottery.com, and look at our, our scratch off catalog, if you will, it will be very, very specific and tell you what the top price is. It will tell you how many of those top prices are remaining,
Nestor Aparicio 10:32
just correlate to a difference between a $2 $5 $10.20 $5 ticket, right? Literally
John Martin 10:37
Oh, sure, sure. Because again, we every scratch off has a minimum a breakeven price. So a $2 ticket will have a $2 win a $10 ticket will have a $10 win as the minimum wins. And then they they progress up like a pyramid. So at the top is the top prize, no matter how many there are. But at the bottom of the pyramid, the breakeven or the pyramid, the breakeven prices, the the, you know, 235 times the prize, you know, a lot of people think if they can get five times their their investment, that’s a good deal, right? I mean, they, they buy a $10 ticket, if they can win 50 bucks, well, that’s not too bad, they buy a $2 ticket and they win 10 bucks. Again, that’s not bad. So you know, some people go through the multiplier logic that say, boy, if I, if I’m going to buy these tickets, if I can get this amount of money, I’ll either reinvest in other tickets, or I’m going to call today go home, put in the wind column, and try to get another time.
Nestor Aparicio 11:29
John Martin is here. He’s executive director of all things, Mayor, the lottery and gaming, we’ll get to that and the casino life and sports wagering and all that because every month we’re adding up numbers. And obviously this football season, there’ll be a little bit more of that. I do find it fascinating that you know, the psychology of people playing but more than that, the fact that you come on our show every week, and we have a partnership and we do crappy tours, but people really do win 100 grand and this happens only I get a little bummed when it’s a guy from Delaware. You know what I mean? I’m thinking coming across the state line and winning and I like that that feels to me to be like, not the way it’s supposed to work but certainly open for everyone and you’re happy to give money away to somebody across the state line they come in to buy a ticket right?
John Martin 12:09
Well don’t worry about it because you know, some some schmuck at the Delaware lottery is paying people off Marylanders who come over there and in pensive so and you know, it’s there’s a reciprocity is that the the borders are open both ways. You’re not
Nestor Aparicio 12:23
gonna get a Maryland crab cake in Delaware, that’s all No, you know, no, sir. No.
John Martin 12:28
And you’re not gonna get Nestor Aparicio. And John Martin, that’s for darn sure. All right. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 12:32
For for the Ravens game, because I want to get this in. Because we’re home this week. We’re gonna have competition down there this week. We’re getting into the middle of the season here. How long can we expect to see the Ravens game? I have them and I’ll have them on the crabcake tour next month. Ross made sure that I’m going to happen throughout the season. But But at what point do you do they just sort of run out? And also here we’re getting a little late on the trip at least this year. But you have other grand prizes out for the Ravens game, right?
John Martin 12:58
Well, hang on, we still have until if you are a Ravens fan, or if you’re even listening to this ravens ticket discussion for the very first time, go to MD lottery.com. And check out our second chance contest and we have a great opportunity for Ravens fans or people who play the Ravens tickets both the $2 and the $5 level. We will draw for our second Jacksonville away trip game, which is in December but we will draw on October 23 So you can get your entries into my lottery rewards. Again go to the website for other details you can get your entries in by October 22. You may be the second lucky winner of the two and join our first lucky winner Mr. Dale Robinson of wind oak Maryland on the team plane to go to Jacksonville for the away game and December and hopefully see it come back with a big ravens victory and a great experience.
Nestor Aparicio 13:55
I don’t know where I am with Jacksonville or the Raven. I don’t know who who are these teams who are the eagles who are the 40 Niners at this point, the league’s crazy and then it’s fun, right
John Martin 14:04
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, the 40 Niners I can tell you who they are.
Nestor Aparicio 14:09
They got hurt. And then
John Martin 14:11
please Oh, please,
Nestor Aparicio 14:13
this is crazy. I’ve never heard of your quarterback once you get past Deshaun Watson the second and third string quarterbacks is an amazing game with the backup quarterback really
John Martin 14:23
it’s very simple. He is the victorious quarterback PJ Walker.
Nestor Aparicio 14:28
You like those those were uniforms they’re wearing? They don’t look like the Browns to me. Maybe that’s why I’m playing better
John Martin 14:32
it’s we may be seeing more of those.
Nestor Aparicio 14:38
I do comedies I do radio it’s what I do. We have a little checkbox on the backside of our site that says is this a comedy piece and I’m thinking there are all kinds of comedy pieces right? I mean literally,
John Martin 14:47
life is comedy. If it’s not you’re playing the wrong game.
Nestor Aparicio 14:52
Well, our baseball team last since the last time we got together anything you want to kick any dirt on them. Are you done? No, no,
John Martin 14:58
no, i Hey, no, no, you You’re back. I’ve been saying from back to spring training. This is a young, exciting team. i They certainly overshot over delivered this year. I didn’t expect them to win 100 games and win the division. But I thought they would make continuous improvement and they have. And you know,
Nestor Aparicio 15:16
one playoff game, you know?
John Martin 15:18
Yeah, yeah. But you got to get in the playoffs first before you can win one. So look at
Nestor Aparicio 15:22
the math on this. They’ve lost eight in a row in the in the postseason, that’s three here. Then the one in 16 with Zack Britton thing. And then in four teams, four in a row after Delmon young, right like so four in a row to Kansas City, that so we’ve had eight consecutive, like, national anthems been, you know, starting, you know, like, we need to win one and we can’t we gotta wait a year to do that. Again, we gotta go be good again, like, baseball man. And by the way, and I’ll leave you with this and we’ll get on to sports wagering, but seeing the Phillies pitching and seeing the Rangers pitching at least early in the series. And who knows how it turns out by the time people listen to this on the weekend, cuz it’s baseball and ABS everyday. pitching in October, we talked about it the other 11 months of the year, and then you look up and you’re like, oh, four hitters, they tend nothing you know, when you see great pitching in October, that’s really that’s where that’s where matters, right?
John Martin 16:14
And you talk about who is the quarterback for the Browns for these guys pitching. I realized I’m not a national league guy to begin with, but I have no idea who’s starting for the Phillies or, or the
Nestor Aparicio 16:25
it’s been around a while wheelers been around a minute and they were in the World Series. So like it just we need to watch more baseball here the next couple of weeks and get inspired to that’s what I’ve said. I’m not mad about any of this. I’m inspired by greatness. I’m inspired by watching the Rangers when webs Eight, seven in a row, whatever they’ve won in the postseason, that look at it and say that’s where we need to be. And when I see Nate ivaldi out here looking like Clemens in his prime, we’re looking like feller. I’m saying he had some postseasons where he was young too. So I’m gonna pick Grayson Rodriguez up I’m gonna pick up you know, John means to get healthy next year and obviously Kyle Bradish will be better.
John Martin 17:01
Let’s get a starter and a starter to be determined.
Nestor Aparicio 17:04
From your lips to God’s ears. You have all this depth. We’re going to talk trades and pitching and offseason, John Barnes here from the Maryland lottery. We’re gonna get the crab cakes. We’re back out on the road to come have a crab cake with us as well. Sports wagering give me an update on that. I’ve learned a lot you know, obviously traveling around with baseball and baseball, wagering and people parlay in and all that kind of stuff. What has it meant for the state? What does it meant for the agency and and we’re finally like mature I remember back when you were all sweaty palms. But we got to get this open. We got to get to casinos. We got to get mobile up. Now. It feels like it’s open and, and structured, a little more mature, I would say right?
John Martin 17:40
It is today we have 13 retail operations and 12 mobile 25 sports books around the state and most of them start at the beginning of the NFL season, and the college football season. So we’re one quarter into the books, right July, August, September one quarter in our fiscal year. And the reports are good, we have delivered over $9 million to the state our tax revenues. Now it’s not straight math, you don’t just multiply 9 million times four. And say we’ll be at 36 million because of the ebb and flow of the sports calendar and where the peak wagering events happen. But I think it’s fair to say that we will exceed our 25 to 30 million estimate. Last year, we just exceeded a little over $25 million. I felt we’d be closer to 30. Don’t tell my boss I said this, but we may be north of 30 It’s still early. Again, it’s the first quarter of the year. But projections are strong for will probably do more than $30 million in tax revenue. That second
Nestor Aparicio 18:39
quarter and third quarter of the toughest though, right like the middle year. Because I’m just I’m a sports guy my whole life the whole calendar given to have playoff games. You’re gonna have March Madness kind of first quarter. April, May June, you know, man Oh, sure. Oh, it drops off. Like PE PE PE traditionally Americans don’t wager on that stuff.
John Martin 18:57
Tradition? No, correct. And when I’m talking about quarters, I’m really talking about our fiscal year. So that’s going to screw up your calendar. Right, right. Right. Right, of course. But But yeah, I mean, we’re trending up. I mean, the next three months, October, November, December will be strong football on both feet, the strongest right will be the strongest. And then of course, January and February through the Super Bowl, which is still the the pinnacle, will be extremely strong, whether the ravens are in it or not, but the longer the ravens are in it, the better it will be locally, obviously. And then you’ll get maybe a little more enthusiasm for the spring of the year with baseball season and, and people a little anxious about the O’s getting back in. So we may see a little pickup in the spring that we wouldn’t normally see. But yeah, then you come May, June, July, August, it does kind of dry up a little bit. But I think overall it’s a very strong start. We continue to work through people in the pipeline to come on board. And where we have additional licenses to to vet and approve we will do that. But right now I think we’re seeing a fairly mature market in the state of Maryland and And but but it’s a positive thing so far everything’s going well, so he can
Nestor Aparicio 20:03
give you a hard time he said ravens ravens Ravens. I’m thinking the Washington football team probably provides, you know, if they were to ever get up and walk again, like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, browns fan proud tradition, and there’s a lot of browns fans, they haven’t had a lot to crow about same thing down in Washington that if that team ever picked up and move, it would probably bring numbers in Montgomery County and Southern Maryland places that are footholds for the burgundy and gold that would make a difference to right for the state of Maryland.
John Martin 20:31
Absolutely. So what I hear you say you’re supporting a Browns commanders Super Bowl is that are we going out early on that fork is
Nestor Aparicio 20:37
on not on the planet when that happens? Yes. I mean, I and you know, and the interesting thing is, I could bet on it. Now if I wanted to, you know, what’s the beauty of it? Right? If I wanted to say maybe that could be there, but I’m just trying to figure out the Phillies and the rangers here as well. John, last thing for you. It’s Halloween season, you have a Halloween I kind of when I did the welcome home thing back 15 minutes ago. I like your funny little promotions when I go to MD lottery.com. Not just fun headlines and fun winners and all that. But you are trying to be seasonal, whether it’s horse racing stuff around the Preakness, or, or whether it’s seasonal the Halloween, and I’m sure we’ll be having eggnog and peppermint something something for the holiday cards that are coming out real soon to.
John Martin 21:17
Absolutely and thanks for the segue very well played there next week. Next week. You can visit your Maryland lottery retailers and see the beginning of our holiday scratch off tickets. So we’ll talk more about that when we talk next week. But
Nestor Aparicio 21:30
caroling next week, maybe on the show you and I think
John Martin 21:33
Wouldn’t It Be Nice wouldn’t? wouldn’t wouldn’t radios be turning off all over the state of Maryland if we did a little holiday duet?
Nestor Aparicio 21:39
I bought eggnog the other night. And that’s changed my whole perspective on eggnog now. I couldn’t believe it myself. I was at the wise I looked up there it was and I’m like, I’m gonna have some of that Michael I got some right here. My wife loves coffee right now.
John Martin 21:52
I do. Wow. Delicious.
Nestor Aparicio 21:54
It’s never too early for eggnog.
John Martin 21:57
I’m not eggnog you know I
8Nestor Aparicio 21:59
would you get a dog pumpkin spice on me right now
John Martin 22:01
here. No, no pumpkin spice is fine, right?
Nestor Aparicio 22:05
I’m just making sure you’re good American. That’s why all Americans love pumpkin spice. John Martin is here he’s the executive. So Halloween that’s still going on for
John Martin 22:13
we’ll go on from through the month of October and enter your your your pick three pick four pick five tickets into a second chance contest and you may be one of Lucky five 5000 Other winners or 510 $1,000 Winners of cash prizes at the end of the month. So stay tuned. MD lottery.com For more details.
Nestor Aparicio 22:30
All right if we learned them up good enough for this week. Are we good?
John Martin 22:33
I think so I feel good about it. I feel home I feel like I’m home. All right. We
Nestor Aparicio 22:36
might have some World Series teams by the time we get together. John Martin is executive director of all things Maryland lottery gaming. He gives us these really cool ravens scratch offs to give away on the Maryland crab cake tour. Roz actually gives it to us and Doug will will take care of you if you win 10 grand or 20 grand from one of our competitions as well. You can find it all at MD lottery.com You find our crab cake tore up picture me and my son having old fashions at drug city right there at the fountain with Chuck, my dear friend and science teacher George Shula retired join us last week as well as I brought Luca drag Luke out to the crabcake tour would actually sit down and talk about something other than ravens ravens, ravens, Oreos, Oreos, Oreos. We actually talked about his church a little bit been Deacon Jones and beverages and offseason and all that good stuff and you could find Luke at Baltimore positive as well merrily crabcake tour fire to back up with our friends window nation as well as Jiffy Lube, multi care, plenty of places. We’re going to Coco’s we’re going to Pappas. We’re going back to stay fair. We’re going to be down at Costas for the holidays. And we’re going to be fatally sad at Lexington market one more time before they move into the new market. I am so we are wn sta a 1570, Towson Baltimore. You are home. We are Baltimore positive.com
