John Martin of The Maryland Lottery talks March and 50th Anniversary Madness with Nestor as the year-long celebration begins with spring.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
maryland, lottery, people, berlin, scratch, ticket, week, years, college basketball, sports wagering, delmarva peninsula, march madness, state, march, games, 50th anniversary, powerball, virginia, scratch offs, winner
SPEAKERS
John Martin, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Looking back at W and S t test the Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively back on the beat. Appreciate all the kind words for all the radio row history and all the old conversations with legends and Hall of Famers and all that good stuff. We’re bringing it back in here in March taking the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road. I was starting in Dundalk. I mean, it’s perfect. I’m a drug city on Friday, my middle school music teacher, the great Calvin stadium in the state of singers gonna be bringing a little gospel edge there might even be a keyboard involved. I have a doctor who was the first girl ever had a crush on who’s been around the world spend time in Antarctica, like so. Like we’re gonna be doing all sorts of cool stuff and Dundalk, a drug city. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. And of course the 50th anniversary as well as our friends at window nation. 8669 D nation you buy two you get two free and then on Wednesday and because I’m wearing this the fade li shirt we’re going down maybe the last time in the old market that we’re going to be a fade least it’s going to be Wednesday morning. It’s going to be a great show. I got some great guests there as well. Always presented by the Maryland lottery. We’ll have some fresh 50th anniversary scratch offs. I haven’t seen them. I’ve only heard about them and Kate’s Talbot. So John Martin is here. It’s been a little respite. He was happy to get away from me for a couple of weeks, especially in the dead of winter. he’s readying himself for Guardian season around here in March Madness. How are you John? Welcome back, man. So it’s been a little while but fresh games to play here with the Maryland lottery right.
John Martin 01:31
Good morning to you Nestor. You know, it’s always great when you turn the calendar. There’s there’s something very cathartic about that. So so the the ceremonial turning of the calendar from one month to the next and march is such a month of promise, isn’t it? I mean, it starts off. Yeah, okay. But by the end of March, you’re thinking, You know what, opening day is only a week or so away. So there’s, there’s such a vibe about the month that just transcends you feel like a little kid again, don’t you?
Nestor Aparicio 01:56
Well, I mean, everything starts to bloom, you know what I mean? Like, so for me? The hope of yes, there will be a beach again. And yes, there will be a baseball game again. And yes, there might be something outside and on the bay or like crab cakes, or oysters or, or games, right. So I would just say this for the winter, we sort of get cooped up a little bit, and we try to get it out a little bit. You guys have ever really put forth this 50th anniversary. And I know you’ve put a lot of effort into it. But it’s been a fun sort of media campaign, you had your kind of fun, like all that. But this was the big thing that you guys have put a lot of focus on because it’s fun for you. Oh, absolutely. I
John Martin 02:33
know, when you talk to Katy Perry, last week, she went into a lot more detail. But but the planning process is is incredible. You know, you go back years in the making, because you know, when you get to about 4748 years, there’s going to be a 50. And and you just you start to focus on that. And then it gets a little progressively more intense and product gets laid out and promotions. And yeah, here we are at our 50th anniversary year, and we’re having a blast. And more importantly, our players are enjoying it as well, because a lot of our new games are unique, based on the 50th anniversary, especially the scratch off and some of the other draw games will be launching. But we also have a lot of fun with Second Chance prices. Because as you know, from our conversations here, it’s great to win the cash prize. But sometimes there are even more fantastic, more fun or, as I like to say more fun or prizes in the in the second chance. And we’re very excited when people can win regardless of what the experience happens to be.
Nestor Aparicio 03:33
Well, you know, this 50th anniversary, it’s my 25th on August the third. So like when I have Cade on and I’m a little bit of an entrepreneur and a Brander myself. And I love stealing ideas and come up with like even just things that are gold in the right year or silver in the right year or whatever. But for bringing back the wishbone and I talked so much with Kate about this last week, and that it means something to me, right. And I think to anybody who’s of the age who understands what 50 years represents, you have to be around for 50 years understand how long 50 years really is, and go on doing the throwback thing it was sort of built in that you’ve had 50 years to sort of play with and make fun games around.
John Martin 04:16
Yeah, and all the things we’re talking about can be found at MD lottery.com. And we already here we are getting into the third month of the calendar year and we already have three exciting scratch off tickets to talk about that are already now in the marketplace. One is our family of games are gold multiplier. You talked about silver and gold. Our gold
Nestor Aparicio 04:36
was gold. That’s why I held this Yes, I don’t have the fresh scratches. I’m saving those for drug city. So I’m just going gold this week with you.
John Martin 04:42
Right and with our gold scratch of our family of games, we have Second Chance prices some lucky winner can win $50,000 In a second chance contest. We’ll have five of those matter of fact, our very first winner. Let’s see if I have the name right here. I think I do bear with me We handed out a $50,000 winner to row moved us Frey who’s of Riverside, Maryland. I don’t know if that’s a Mr or MS, but it is a winner. And winner nonetheless. So $50,000. So that’s pretty exciting stuff on us on a non winning ticket. And then we also have some other events coming up in terms of Second Chance drawings.
Nestor Aparicio 05:21
Hold on, you said it’s a non winning ticket. They want 50. It’s not a non winning ticket, then Right? Is it? Or is that a different classification?
John Martin 05:28
Yes, no, it is. The ticket itself was not winning, but it gets you into the second chance
Nestor Aparicio 05:32
understood me, it felt it felt like winning to me. That’s all I’m saying. I wouldn’t call it
John Martin 05:37
smells like victory. So we have our wishbone ticket, or $2 Instant lottery, which I know Kate talked about is really a throwback to the very first scratch off 1976. And you and I both know where I was in 1976. I don’t know where you were at night. I
Nestor Aparicio 05:55
was in my parents kitchen. And I sort of remember what they look like, because it was such a, it was such a rage that Miss Ed could get you could get instant games, you know, because she played the dailies. It was a big thing. I mean, it really was and and obviously the media campaign and where we were were three TV stations and a couple of newspapers then and whatever. But but it reached the marketplace. I mean, everybody knew what the lottery
John Martin 06:18
was. Yeah, and I mean, 1976 That was the bicentennial. For those folks on the on your radio network here. And you’re in your your fan base, who are as old as I am, and there probably aren’t many. But that was a big deal. You know, the country was 200 years old. And the celebrations and the bell bottom pants and whatever else we had going on,
Nestor Aparicio 06:39
I had a teacher in 1976 that collected the quarters. That was that was a special, they were like really cool the 1776. And she would trade quarters in for them. And she had 1000s of them. I don’t I never they’re not in circulation, right? Everybody pulled those out the 76 years. That’s how special they are. You can’t find a 1976 Quarter,
John Martin 07:02
you know what takes a lot of quarters $5 million, takes a lot of quarters now,
Nestor Aparicio 07:06
hold on, that’s times four, that’s 20 million. That’s a lot of the managers. That’s a
John Martin 07:10
lot. But we have two, not one, but two opportunities for players to win $5 million. And one is an our new $50 scratch off ticket. We’ve never before launched the ticket and a scratch off price of $50. And that just began here in February. It’s been extremely successful players, of course, for part of the appeal of being part of our 50th anniversary. But that $5 million top prize, there are three of them out in the marketplace. So hopefully, someone will
Nestor Aparicio 07:42
Can you imagine? No, I can’t that I mean, so for scratch offs, the highest prize is. I mean, when I think of like the jackpots, I think of, you know, going back to the lotto, and then obviously Mega Millions and Powerball. But I’ve never thought about what the most you could win on a scratch off would be because I think most people when they’re out at events, and I’m giving us if they went 20 bucks, 50 bucks on a $2. You know, they feel really, even if they get their money back, they feel like they’ve won or win 10 bucks. But I would say how much can you really expect to win when you scratch? Right? Like, can you change your life by scratching? Well, we have
John Martin 08:19
done studies as no surprise to you. But we have done studies in the industry over the years. And most people if you can get 10 times the price point. So if you bought a $5 ticket and you went $50, you feel pretty darn good. I mean, that’s, that’s we’re all the way up and down the price point line or $30,000 ticket or I’m sorry, our $30 ticket had a top prize of $2 million. So now we’ve jumped it. Way beyond that. So
Nestor Aparicio 08:45
there have been $2 million scratch off winners, but you’re going from two to five. Yes, yes, that’s a big deal. That’s a That’s a huge difference. And
John Martin 08:54
with the launch of the $50 ticket, we also have the introduction of what we’re calling our 50th anniversary cash bash, which is something that will appeal to players not only of scratch off but all of our games. Enter through our mind lottery awards, player loyalty program $50 worth of tickets, we’ll get you an entry into the drawing. And that can be as simple as buying one $50 scratch ticket. If you bought $51, pick three tickets, whatever combination gets you to $50 you automatically get an entry into drawings which will start when we get the first start date, march 29, and for five months, each month, we will draw two cash bash finalists for a total of 10. And those 10 people will come to win the state fair in September. In being a live event. We’re one of those 10 may play for up to $5 million live in front of all their family and friends. It’s
Nestor Aparicio 09:59
like well meaning ravens tickets for like only $5 million
John Martin 10:03
you know if you want $5 million you can probably
Nestor Aparicio 10:06
roll with the Ravens rest your life you want to have good time with right?
John Martin 10:10
I would do that right Right exactly. That’s a lot of fun.
Nestor Aparicio 10:12
You know I was gonna ask you this and maybe you know I’m these are unscripted but if you went 5 million bucks do you have to take it all and she like how does that is it annuity or is it here it is pay the taxes go for it.
John Martin 10:27
The $5 million I believe is annuitized. And you Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 10:31
well, I mean that that kind of helps people right like literally absolutely money over time, right? Yeah,
John Martin 10:36
yeah, yeah. No, it does. You know, the the scratch offs tend to be annuitized the draw games, the Powerball Mega Millions tend to give people the option for the cash. But you can see a lot of winter stories on MD lottery.com. And you know, just because we’re excited about the 50th anniversary and justifiably it’s great to hear stories about unique winning scenarios and how people come across tickets and their their play styles and what happens there’s a great story about a couple from Virginia and I love when out of towners come in and do Nurlan lottery and with their their their winning ticket and they’re thrilled about it because it’s always a great story.
Nestor Aparicio 11:15
You feel lucky or when you’re at a state right now,
John Martin 11:18
why is that? I don’t know. I don’t know little spring in your step maybe. So and I know you enjoy Berlin, Maryland. I know you’ve been there many times
Nestor Aparicio 11:27
many many times I had several beverages on the on the crab cake and breweries were presented by the Maryland lottery last summer in late August Berlin’s beautiful
John Martin 11:36
so this Virginia couple comes to to Berlin Did you know Main Street beautiful right Misuk a Rockwell painting you know your your enjoy Berlin they’re having that. The guy goes to ocean downs casino wins a few bucks. The wife buys a scratch off ticket, I believe but let me not misrepresent it because it could be a sponsor. Yes, goes to the ROFO picks up a same
Nestor Aparicio 12:02
as me. Same as you and me. He picks a little get some chicken maybe no picks up? Well, I
John Martin 12:07
don’t know. I don’t know. But she did get a $50,000 Cash scratch off and wins $50,000
Nestor Aparicio 12:15
That’s a good day of row. But wait, they’re less ROFO wait, there’s
John Martin 12:18
more. There’s more. They come from I’m not again, not scripted. We make this up as we go. They live in a place called temperance. Temperance, Virginia.
Nestor Aparicio 12:29
That sounds very Shakespearean temperance. I’ve never heard
John Martin 12:33
of it. So of course, I Google it. Any idea what the 2020 census population of temperance Virginia is or we’re citizens? 58 308.
Nestor Aparicio 12:43
Okay. All right. All right. It is
John Martin 12:45
on the Delmarva Peninsula. And we forget right? There’s a Dell Amar and a va, a va. Va. It’s the VA part of the Delmarva Peninsula. So it’s not even in the Virginia State. Well, it
Nestor Aparicio 12:56
is. What side of the bridge? Is it on that bridge? The bridge tunnel?
John Martin 12:59
Well on the other side. Okay.
Nestor Aparicio 13:01
So the best thing is I took my wife to an accent three summers ago during the plague. And she had never heard of the Bridge Tunnel. And I said to her, I’m like, No, it’s pretty cool. She’s like, you’re making that I was like, sort of like the pool on the roof in high school. She’s like, it’s either a bridge or a tunnel. And I’m like, no, no, it’s a Bridge Tunnel. And then she Googled it. She’s like, that thing looks amazing. Like, like, we gotta go over that. So we did. So it is it up toward like chicken tank or is it down toward Norfolk?
John Martin 13:29
No, no, again, Delmarva Peninsula. So those are the bridge connects the peninsula to the mainland. Alright, so
Nestor Aparicio 13:35
I’m googling right now. temperates. Virginia.
John Martin 13:37
Here we go. Oh, my goodness.
Nestor Aparicio 13:40
Temperance Ville, Virginia temperance Ville, Virginia. Ah, yeah, that’s it. Temperance, filbert. It’s right by Pocomoke City in Maryland. Oh, well, that’s where they went to Berlin. They’re near Crisfield. Yes, those are my people. Yes, yes. Cakes.
John Martin 13:58
Yes. And now this look, this lovely couple as one they took money from the casino. They took money from ROFO and they beat it out of town. So good for them.
Nestor Aparicio 14:07
But they’re gonna bring it back to Assa T. Anytime. I mean, they’re gonna look what they’re gonna want. And this is a free plug for for my dear friend Claire. They’re gonna want the brittle at crabs to go write this down, John, because we go through Berlin. You know, the best part of Berlin. No offense to Berlin, if anybody’s listening in Berlin, is you’re almost at the beach. So when you get to Berlin, you’re like, you could start to smell the salt water and taste the taffy and all that. But I like that free plug for Berlin there but I love that part of the world. It makes me get giddy for summer all over again.
John Martin 14:40
And again. I’m gonna show my ignorance wasn’t Runaway Bride filmed in in Berlin, Maryland. Was it?
Nestor Aparicio 14:47
Parts of it were made in Baltimore. I know that for a fact. It was at their research. Well, my Son’s Church in his mother’s church. Like literally it was the little church. They were like Extra, like in Yeah, so it was tough parts of it but I do think it was Eastern Shore based I would agree.
John Martin 15:04
Yeah, yeah. So you know it’s it’s again great stories when you look at MD lottery.com Check out the winner stories and get
Nestor Aparicio 15:13
all over the state like we’re Baltimore positive and like all that but these can happen anywhere line a comin can get $150 billion, or whatever it was.
John Martin 15:23
Oh, absolutely, absolutely you know from from from all corners of the of the state and in earlier this week we had Powerball drawing, not a big winner, but we had 350 $1,000 Winners of Powerball draw on February 27, Germantown, Lutherville, in Upper Marlboro, so again, you kind of get nice blending of, of people from various cross sections of the state, but all having some fun, hopefully all playing responsibly and enjoying the Maryland lottery.
Nestor Aparicio 15:50
John Martin is here he is director of all things a Maryland lottery and then there’s the gaming part of that we have, you know, Super Bowls over you know, hold on now stop everything. March Madness is like here and the availability for people who likes sports wagering. I mean, there are a couple of people in my competitor station now consider themselves consultants, you know what I mean? Like everybody’s a tab, whatever, but it’s available. And if you’re responsible in the way you play, and you’d like the NBA, or you’d like the NHL, or used to fly to Vegas, or you had some awful situation that wasn’t legal, this is now available for people on a daily basis. And I don’t I haven’t seen the numbers. And I know you’re going to be looking at all of this. But March should be a little tick because of college basketball. College Basketball is fun for everybody.
John Martin 16:41
Oh, it’s more than a little ticket. You know, clearly the Super Bowl is the the crown jewel. But March Madness is second, there’s there’s no other thing on the sports calendar. Particularly for its duration, you know, you get two to three weeks. The intensity, the
Nestor Aparicio 16:56
Maryland we hope.
John Martin 17:00
All right, well, you know what they’re getting the Terps getting hot at the right time. Well, this
Nestor Aparicio 17:03
is the worst part to hold on. Now. I’ve been on here 31 years, the expectation starts to rise, right? Like, you know, you mean, it’s just a different thing you get in and it’s like I was talking to look this week, I’m like, Alright, so they get in the tournament, you feel good, right? They lose the first game you feel good. I don’t know. You know, like, you start to say, well, you get into the term you want to get at least to the next weekend. And if they could get to the next week, and that would just be an amazing, amazing thing. Because I mean, you’re you’re getting Ohio background, Gary Williams came in from all that college basketball, to have it feel really relevant again, and to see CIA and to see a coach who’s going down to UMBC. It’s been a really good week for college basketball, and again, 31 years on the air. I remember when March was college basketball here for long stretches. And then it wasn’t any more. And now that it is I would think that it is and the fact that you can pick up your phone and get involved in it that this is going to be beneficial this month. Today
John Martin 18:00
as we’re speaking we have 10 retail locations and eight mobile sports books in the state. We are Fingers, toes and I’s cross we might be able to squeeze another one or two on the mobile side before the madness really kicks off. So in the first two weeks of the month of March, stay tuned watch your schoolwork, radio dial and as well as your Maryland lottery updates. And see if we can’t get some other players into the into the sportsbook business as we
Nestor Aparicio 18:30
always say it’s not over. It’s just beginning literally right? Oh, absolutely.
John Martin 18:34
I mean, yeah, they the plan for 2023 is we will continue to bring on both retail locations that are in the pipeline as well as mobile sportsbooks. And, you know, this is this is the challenging part of the schedule. We knew that I mean, when you get to the big boys, the people, you know, right off the top of your head that do this all the time internationally. Well, they’re up and running in nanoseconds, you get to people that are unique to the maybe the Maryland geography they they’re not maybe that familiar with sports wagering, but they they run a pretty good business and they want to enhance their business with
Nestor Aparicio 19:09
their locals. I mean, I’m the UNSC I mean, I, I deal with that every day in my industry as to what I’m a guy in Towson, you know what I mean? Like a guy from Dundalk in Towson. And I’ve seen the difference between the big boys and going out to Greenmount station and having one guy from Dundalk, and another guy from, you know, Hampstead, that that sat with me and talked about this process where the big boys have teams of people who come in when Ohio goes online 10 weeks ago, or when the next state and more states are coming online for all of this every day, right? Oh, absolutely. And
John Martin 19:42
that’s why, you know, people like Chris and people in that category, you know, it’s going to take them a bit longer to get the infrastructure, you know, some of these places have going through physical changes of their business, you know, building it out. I mean, there’s construction costs, so it’s not as simple for them to get into it as It is for, you know the Caesars in the in the bed MGM and the DraftKings and FanDuel ‘s of the world. So these people are very diligent, very methodical. But the intent is to get them all up and running, hopefully, in time for March Madness if they’re not already there. Because then the calendar does start to soften a little bit. And you know, we all can kick back and enjoy the, you know, the American pastime, that is baseball, but it’s really not that big, or as big a betting portion of the calendar as some of these events, including the clarity of the March Madness.
Nestor Aparicio 20:33
Oh, because I like pulling these backstage questions for you when you don’t know what I’m going to ask. But this is where a couple months into mobile, right? I’m a player and I play with Team X and team y, and I make my bed and something goes wrong, whatever it is, and I’m a guy that like put my keys in my check luggage the other night, and they lost my luggage, right? So like, so I hit the complaint department, right? I don’t even know what the complaint could be at any of these Barstool Sports in Hollywood. If I’m playing online, if I have an issue that gets to your level to say something’s awry. Has any of that happened in eight weeks in regard to you do all this for complying to make sure that letters don’t come to John’s desk that Hokey Pokey is going on? But I would think eight weeks in, they’d be there has to have been a hiccup here or there or whatever, are you two months, three months into this saying that this thing’s been way smoother than maybe even you thought it would be when it got installed?
John Martin 21:29
Oh, I don’t know if it’s a matter of smooth. It’s, it’s it comes with the territory. And you talked a minute ago about other states and jurisdictions coming on board. I mean, in our industry, you know, Ohio and Massachusetts came just right after we launched mobile, Ohio on January 1, and actually Massachusetts will launch their mobile next week or and aiming for March 10. So you know, these these things have already you’re gonna get things every day. I mean, Anytime you open your your doors to the public, invariably, stuff happens. And in this case, you know, our partners, the sportsbook operators, that’s really the first line of of interaction, because typically what we’re seeing is, oh, they didn’t credit this correctly, or this didn’t happen or something. And it really is at that sportsbook operator player level. But if
Nestor Aparicio 22:21
it’s just like, it was for me with the airline to say, I got my bag, everything’s cool. I don’t need to call the FAA or you know, whatever. Right?
John Martin 22:28
You know that. That’s, that’s a great example, because the FAA regulates the airline industry, you know, united, Southwest, Delta, whoever, those are the people with the customer service interaction. Same thing in our business, we regulate sports wagering, we don’t hold anybody’s account here. We don’t have anybody’s money here. We don’t set the odds here that’s out in the marketplace. And those things typically are addressed. At that point, they’re better equipped to address it. Sure. Do people call me Yeah. But I’ll turn around and go right back to the sports book opera and say, hey, it looks like you’ve got a problem here with with this situation.
Nestor Aparicio 23:04
Have you ever been snooty, you two years ago, none of this exists, you know, for anybody, and I would think there’s all sorts of no offense to old people, because we might be two of them. But maybe your app or froze or this or that, you know, just the typical, my thing doesn’t work, you know, kind of or how do I work this or, Hey, I thought $200 Free meant that and it meant that, you know, like all of that I would have thought there would be a little dust up you expected in the first 90 days, but also the part where, you know, these big casino types, they should have this in line to have heard every complaint once or twice from the state before and be able to handle it before it becomes anything more than an angry customer that you can try to make happy and just keep everybody Kumbaya
John Martin 23:52
and like most of these things, and I am the world’s worst my wife will tell you I am the world’s worst I had an issue not it’s funny. You mentioned this this weekend with one of my service providers. I won’t disclose her name, but but it rhymes with XFINITY. And, and I I’m frustrated it’s it’s all chatbots now right you know if I want to speak with a phone and talk to somebody in a conversation, first of all, you know, these fingers were not meant to get a frantic pace on a on a chat. So I’m frustrated with that and then screens are popping up I don’t understand right? I’m like the old guy get that ball off my yard. You know? And here I am frustrated with with all this stuff and gave him a horrible review because right now everyone’s so how did we do? How did we do how do we do it within seconds of reaching out because I gave him a horrible review seconds and said well how can we help you? We’ll getting oil and I’m talking to somebody I’m talking to somebody else after that. And in two minutes, bada boom, Bada bing resolved, and then I did I feel like the idiot
Nestor Aparicio 24:58
so I was real discipline. He’s with my airline on Saturday night too. You can imagine. Yeah,
John Martin 25:03
yeah. But but that happens in all walks of life and it happens in sports wagering unfortunately, we have great partners and people who are in the industry who know and address and provide customer service to the best of their abilities.
Nestor Aparicio 25:15
I miss anything. We got Merillat crabcake tore back out on the road truck city Friday, we’re fadeless on Wednesday. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. John Martin is our guest, as well as our friends at window nation 866 90 nation, make sure you’re taking care of them all month long as well. We’ll have more crabcake dates out. And at some point, I’m going to steal your way for crabcake during the calendar year, but in the meantime, we’ll have March Madness stuff popping up here in the next week or two green beer all that stuff going on and spring will sprung. And before you know it you guys will be out back on the festival beat doing all the things that were sort of normal before COVID to the Maryland lottery right? Yes,
John Martin 25:51
we are and we’re gonna we won’t get into now but the month of March we begin to dust off the roadshow in the price wheel and we will be out and about in the community at several venues in the month of March. We’ll talk more about that next week.
Nestor Aparicio 26:02
Well I spawn the prize we will run two or three times last summer was almost COVID it up. I can’t imagine how we’re all going to want to get out once these once the weather really changes for good here. We can put some sandals on and do things properly. March Madness is here. The Maryland lottery always sponsored things we do in our Maryland crab cake tour. I will have the fresh scratch offs from Ross on Friday drug sitting in Dundalk and then on Wednesday at the old market and fade Lee’s up but we’re gonna try to get into the new market sometime soon as well. Maryland crab cake tour and the Maryland law we’re doing it together. John appreciate you I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore. Awesome.
