The big numbers of sports wagering and fun of Ravens fall game

After a huge first month of football and sports wagering, John Martin of The Maryland Lottery discusses the record numbers, the popularity of the Ravens scratch-off and a new way to play Mega Millions in 2025.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

birthday celebration, Maryland Lottery, sports wagering, record numbers, mobile wagering, responsible gambling, Mega Millions, new game, bigger jackpots, better odds, multiplier feature, no break-even, promotional events, Purple Evening, Fast Play Fridays

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, John Martin

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W N, S T, Dallas, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. What a week. What a week. This is. It’s my birthday this week, Washington versus Baltimore this week, and the football thing that we pined away for for 13 years, and I for my birthday, not only getting pizza, John’s Pizza, pizza, John’s crab cakes, crinkle cut fries with the proper gravy and a meatball sub if I want maybe in the chef’s salad. If I want to stay skinny, maybe the cheesesteak with extra provolone. We’ll be doing that with the Raven scratch. Also the Maryland lottery on Friday, it is my birthday. It is Luke’s birthday. It is Leonard raskins birthday. It’s Jim Palmer’s birthday. It’s Kiko Garcia’s birthday, and also former Cleveland back when they were called the Frank Duffy the shortstop was also my birthday. October 14, we’ll be at Pizza Johnson Essex. Come on out. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. In conjunction with Liberty pure solutions, keeping our water clean, I got 26 oysters. 26 days. I didn’t shave today, and I didn’t shave on video because I had the great Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Todd, rung of Utopia, who was performing on Sunday night. I’ll be up in York, Pennsylvania for that. So John, I apologize, and I’m not as polished. I’m not all purple Friday up the way you are, even though you’re only on a raven fan, but it is a raven competition, but you should adopt the ravens, because the Cleveland team’s not going to give you. It’s fun to be a raven fan right now. You would admit that

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John Martin  01:30

is fun just to be here with you. Nestor, that’s more fun than any one person should have. You know that menu that you just ran through at Pizza? John says that was quite that was quite the lineup, until I realized you had 12 people at your birthday party that all shared the same day. Now, well, here’s

Nestor Aparicio  01:45

the important thing, do you like pineapple on your pizza?

John Martin  01:48

You know, I’m going to say no, that that’s I like pineapple. I like pizza. I’m not a big fan of the pineapple on the pizza. I’m

Nestor Aparicio  01:56

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going to be talking to Brett Michelle over there about that this week, because it is controversial. You know, I’m a controversial guy, but pineapple, I love it. I’ve learned to love it, but it’s not for everybody. But this is, it’s my birthday. If I want pineapple on my pizza, I’m gonna have pineapple pepperoni on my pizza.

John Martin  02:11

You should do that. You should absolutely do that. You’re celebrating

Nestor Aparicio  02:15

some stuff here. So I let me before we get going here, I’ll do transitions here, but we’re into football season, and we spent last month, and I always tell everybody, one 800 gambler, if you have a if you think you have a problem, you do and get some help. We talk so much about that, but in saying that we’re on the up and up, I was out in September eating oysters every single day. I was in sports bars, in different places at night, I’m seeing people, um, wagering was up. I don’t think there’s any question about that. I’ve talked a lot of people. I’ve had people reach to me about doing shows and different things like that. Um, Marylanders wanted this, right? And you’re the one here with news about where the money will go and all of that. But we’re really on boarded now with mobile. We’re a couple years in. Would you would you call it mature? Is that what you would call the market? Because you have some really impressive numbers for how much people really are wagering this time of year? Yeah,

John Martin  03:09

I think mature for the market is, is a fair assessment. Here we are now in the numbers have just been released this week on our September sports wagering numbers and the handle the amount wagered over $530 million a half a billion dollars, just in the month of September, and when you subtract the the prices paid, the bets that have been won, still a rather healthy hold, which is the money left after prices are paid in aggregate, both retail and mobile, a 12.3% hold. Now, when you get to double digits, that’s pretty darn good. So that was a very strong month for the for the operators, but the the net of it is the state of Maryland took home 9.3 plus nearly $9.4 million for the month of September. That is the best record transfer month we’ve had yet since inception. So a big, big check to the governor and and the state for for taxes in the month of September, a record amount of over $9.3 million one

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Nestor Aparicio  04:24

thing I love about having you on John Martin from the Maryland lottery joins us every week or thereabouts to really kind of discuss this stuff as grown ups, which we try to do here at Baltimore positive. I’m thinking that’s a half a billion dollars in a month, right? 530 million. I mean, that’s that as you as we would put it that way. And I would think, these are people that want, can this eat in the lottery money? Does this? Do people wager in different ways? And you use the word handle, which is a racetrack word for me, and I’m thinking, How long and I was out there, I told Clem Florio stories this week, and Charlie from the old days. But I’m thinking, they just have to handle at all. On the board at Pimlico and Laurel whatnot. And I’m thinking how long it would take to have a handle that’s a half a billion dollars. Like I’m thinking Preakness upon Preakness upon Preakness, race upon race. It’s just that’s that. I mean, that’s a hell of a lot of money, John. I mean, I think anybody listening would say that as well. Yes,

John Martin  05:16

it is. Yes it is. And again, you it’s, it’s a little different than than two bucks a pop at a racetrack. So, you know, the

Nestor Aparicio  05:24

only happens nine times a day, five days a week, right? Yeah.

John Martin  05:27

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And you hope again, when we preach this and we will forever, you know, we hope people are doing responsibly. They’re playing within a budget. They’re setting a budget on a time limit, and well within that. But having said that, yeah, that is, that is a lot of a lot of money, and we don’t really see it now have any impact on our traditional lottery. They they typically are different players. Now, certainly some people participate in both, and they also participate in going to a casino. But I think for the most part, it’s a little different demographic. It is a little different preference for how they spend their entertainment dollars. And we found that there is enough of a market here in Maryland where the lottery can exist and generate its profits for its beneficiaries. Sports wagering can exist, and the casinos can exist and and to what end? I don’t know. I don’t know how this ends, or how it evolves, but we continue to look at this year after year and make sure that the guardrails are in place, the people are wagering responsibly, regardless of their game of choice, and that things are people having some fun along the way.

Nestor Aparicio  06:32

Well, I would also say on the up and up, and I always go back to that. I had an interesting conversation two weeks ago about a TV show I did 25 years ago, and the old one 900 numbers, and my old friend Mike Warren still lives in the area, and just like how wagering was done in bookmaker, salads were made, and how now we’re talking about $9 million this month for the state. But more than that, on the up and up, the bets are being paid out. You know, the numbers are the numbers and the odds are the odds, and it feels more it just feels safe from a user standpoint, and accessible. But I guess it really speaks to a couple years ago when people were mad at you, mad at everybody, that mobile wasn’t on, and how, how can they do it in that state? And we’re doing in this state, but now it’s working functional, and people are having the experience they wanted to have. And I, you know, and I guess to close things and throw it back more to other lottery related things, it is amazing to me. I was at Costas two weeks ago. We did the crab cake tour there. And cost this is a great, you know, study, because there’s two rooms, there’s crabs, there’s food, there’s families, there’s a lot of different things going on. But when I go into the bar area, I’m seeing some people play racetracks, and I’m seeing some people like keto, and I’m seeing other people just using and I’m seeing some people watching sports, and clearly on their phones, because they’re, they have, they’re involved in mobile wagering. And I’m thinking to myself, it’s a fascinating study of how people play the game, and even the social part of people really having fun with Kinos, flirting with some people that, you know, they had everything out in front of them and how people engage. And it really is sort of a fun thing people do over a drink, social, a conversation, and it’s $1 or two. No, it literally is the spirit of, I think, why this was set up 51 years ago. Now, yeah,

John Martin  08:17

and you hope again, that those, those things are in place, again, those protections are in place, and the people are are informed about the games they choose to play. They’re staying within their guidelines, and they’re having some fun and doing it. And it doesn’t become a, necessarily a way to pay the bills. It’s really should be discretionary dollars. There are always resources. One 800 gambler is one that is made very accessible in every lottery location, in every casino, on every sports wagering platform. So if you or someone you know seems to be having some trouble managing that that that part of their their life, then please reach out and get some help. I

Nestor Aparicio  08:57

tell you that she’s wearing purple. It is a purple week. It better be purple. You know, I caught the Orioles owner down at the other ballpark in our state, which I know you, you know you don’t want to disparage especially when they’re four and one and we’re three and two and they’ve got the quarterback everybody’s talking about, but Raven scratch officer. You talk about silly fun, just fun. These $2 scratch offs. When I gave them away at costs, I had winners at different tables. Two weeks ago, we were faithless. I’m going to be a pizza Johns. People really do have fun with this. And of all the things we talk about, mobile wagering, casino, things that people get physical about or really into or cheer for their team, this is your most popular scratch off. Like, like, if the whole year, Doug tells me this is the most popular game, oh, no doubt. And

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John Martin  09:42

not only is it popular because of the game itself, the second chance prices, the experiential prices, and this year, and you can go to MD lottery.com for all the details, this year, we introduced a couple new wrinkles in our second chance contest. One that is becoming quickly a favorite, is called fan. The game, and it was modeled after our contest of the game on the on the baseball side of the house. So every game, we pick a a fan who submits an entry into their my lottery rewards account. And last week, we selected Audrey Harvey of Baltimore. Audrey won $1,000 for being selected, and additional $1,000 for each touchdown, and they had five touchdowns last week. Nestor. That means Audrey won $6,000 and coming up on deck for this weekend’s game Robert beers of Frederick, Maryland, and we’ll see what happens with the with Robert’s field goals, nothing, right?

Nestor Aparicio  10:40

We don’t want those nothing.

John Martin  10:41

We throw those back touchdowns or nothing. Well, I,

Nestor Aparicio  10:47

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you know, it is kind of a special week. Every four years we get together here, and it’s us and them, you know, from my perspective here, but I have talked a lot this week about how that’s cooled down a little bit, you know, like they, you know, you’re an outsider to this, right could the Cleveland side of things and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Ohio, and that’s a long way away. You know, you don’t feel any you don’t even feel, we’re gonna feel it Sunday, one o’clock is important game. But it is weird to me how much disdain we had for that other franchise back in the day before we became the kind of franchise that the Director of the Maryland lottery won’t wear purple today.

John Martin  11:27

You know, it’d be interesting. And these tests happened this season, right? I mean, if you looked at the schedule when it came out months ago, and I know you did, you thought, you know, week six, yeah, right. Homecoming,

Nestor Aparicio  11:37

well, it’s a $300 ticket on the internet. John the commanders, this is the same thing with your baseball team, which may or may it may not be eliminated. Good luck to you. By the way, this week, would you know, well, if bad stuff happened around here to us last week, so it’s gonna happen to four other teams this week, I’m just trying to make sure it’s not you, because I do kind of like the Guardians, but you know? Like, there was that time here in place where there really was, like, angst and all of that kind of stuff. And I don’t like really smell it so much, but I would say this, the angst comes when your team’s better. You know what I mean? Like, I told stories this week, 26 years ago, 28 years we had the team. My friend was he had tickets at RFK and hair too, and all that, and he made fun of my franchise like, and I’ll never forget it. 30 years ago, we were out in the we had stolen, we had borrowed, we borrowed your NFL franchise in Ohio. And I remember thinking like we were like being laughed at purple Barney uniforms. Now you’re Bradley wearing purple today. But it really is amazing how far it comes and what they’re trying to do down there, which is rise again. And I tell you what, when their fans are up here this weekend taking some tickets, that’s this is a big week. It’s a sell. It’s really a Maryland football celebration. It’s good for everything, I think.

John Martin  13:00

Well, to come back full circle to our opening story, September’s handle was large. This, this, this year on the sports wagering that is in no small part to to the the rise of of the commanders, not totally, but certainly, they play their games in Maryland, and they are one of the few stadiums in around the country that have a retail sports book in the stadium,

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Nestor Aparicio  13:25

or at least reminding me that I had gotten a better that’s

John Martin  13:29

not, that’s not a commonplace thing. It’s still a very unique aspect of it, and this has been measuring stick. I mean, clearly, you know, are they the team that they think they are, or are they, you know not, and we’ll find out. We

Nestor Aparicio  13:45

can bet on it now.

John Martin  13:48

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And you know what? And I appreciate the kudos on the on the purple sweater, but you know, full disclosure, I’m not wearing pants.

Nestor Aparicio  13:56

Well, you know what? It’s like. You look like a Northwestern football fan right now, or a Kansas State fan, or anyone else that’s wearing purple. John Martin is here. He’s executive director of all things, a Marilyn lottery and gaming. He does he pulls the purple sweater out just to do this show. There we have the Raven scratch. Also good. Be giving these away Pete shots. I have a whole list, you know, John, I literally and I this is where you can pile on a baseball, or we can promote Game of Thrones, or anything else that’s going on. I’ll throw to you. But I had plans for the month, like, obviously, this Pizza John thing. We have fun this week. It’s my birthday, but I, you know, most fans here thought we’d be playing a couple of weeks. I couldn’t make any crab cake tours. You have this big Halloween ween thing going on at empty lottery that I saw. You’ve got a lot of plans this month, but I couldn’t make as many plans. So I’m gonna be having some more crab cake doors. Cake doors as we get going here, because it is a little disappointing when your team goes out quick. Well,

John Martin  14:47

you know what good for you, because now you have opportunities to come and visit with us around the state. This weekend, we will be on the eastern shore with our endless summer cruising event the 27th annual so stop by and visit. Us there in Ocean City, cars, right? That is cars and a whole lot more. It’s five foot. You know what? I haven’t seen the the forecast, I think it’s going to be a fairly decent weekend. I don’t know that, but I hope it is. You’ll be in Ocean City to enjoy that. And then, of course, if you’re not out there this weekend, or even if you are on Saturday, you come back Sunday, we will be at the M T Bank Stadium, as we often do for the for the home games, and then Monday, the 14th, a fun event. I know you’ve probably been there, or at least aware of it, purple evening. It’s a way that the Ravens engage their their their female fans, the women who are supportive of the team. And wife was

Nestor Aparicio  15:40

a veteran of that event. Always loved that she was at the very first one they did about 20 years ago. That event really become something that shows up all over my timeline the night it happens, yep, yep.

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John Martin  15:49

And we are part of that. So so if you’re not familiar with it, or even if you are, come out and visit with us Monday evening,

Nestor Aparicio  15:57

ladies, come on. Let’s go. We do have a number

John Martin  16:01

of promotions. This month, you talked about our hollow win promotion. You can get details at MD lottery.com another fun promotion we have is our fast play Fridays, and that’s an opportunity for you to play any $5 fast play game for a chance to win a free fast play game of any denomination. So again, details on Fridays, go to MD lottery.com we have a couple Fridays left this month. Don’t miss the exciting promotion with fast play Friday also don’t miss the $2.68 million jackpot and growing our progressive jackpot on our fast play game, the $30 fast play VIP club, this is now our largest progressive jackpot available in the fast play genre of things. So watch MD lottery.com Watch your lottery retailers and see if that jackpot continues to grow. You know, I

Nestor Aparicio  17:00

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think about the second chance with all this and being a grand prize winner and all that cool stuff you do, is there any way we can rig the contest where we can just beat Washington, that the winner can say they get to lose? Because this is four years, four years you have to live with this, these preseason governor’s cups, and none of that means anything anymore, unless, of course, we meet them in New Orleans for the big game. You never know.

17:23

Wow,

Nestor Aparicio  17:25

this is, but it really is a bragging rights thing. I mean, they’re four and one their fans are all riled up. We do play in the same state. And so it is sort of the, you know, I don’t say, but this is the big one, I would say,

John Martin  17:42

Elizabeth, it should be, should be a good one. It should be a good one. Hey, we’d like to to make our fans aware. And I think between you and I, we may have a fan or maybe two our wives, but they don’t really count. They they’re, they’re compelled to listen to this my wife and watch the show. I mean, no way. Oh my so that one is just one. Maybe, if I have Todd run on, maybe, you know, wow, wow, wow. Yeah, but I’ve got some news that, the news you can use and file away for a future date. You know, I know, speaking of your lovely wife, she’s a big fan of Mega Millions jackpots,

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Nestor Aparicio  18:15

only when it’s 101 or more. Not even that. She’s got to get to like 253 now, well, it’s,

John Martin  18:21

it’s, it’s, it’s triple digits. So it’s, it’s 150, and growing. So we’ll see what happens on that she’s in now good we are. We are announcing all around the country. This week, we are announcing a new and improved Mega Millions game that will be launched in April. So this is plenty of lead time, but I think our fans of Mega Millions game will be very, very interested to hear we’re looking at bigger jackpots, better odds, a built in multiplier and no break even prices, which means whatever you pay for your ticket, you’re guaranteed to get at least twice that on a winning ticket. We’ll have a lot more details as the months lead on. Puts

Nestor Aparicio  19:03

more back into kitty. Is that right? Sort of, maybe, sort of, maybe,

John Martin  19:09

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I don’t know, yeah, sort of, sort of, I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  19:12

know math. If I knew math, I’d be, you think about it.

John Martin  19:18

Oh boy, that there’s an opening there that I’m just gonna let go by. I’m gonna let that one go by. So the the appeal to the players is that, you know, we have not had a an increase in the game significantly since 2017 back then, the game was $1 we made it a $2 game. We added some features and functions in 2017 in 2025 eight years later, the the price will go from $2 to $5 but for that investment, you are now going to get a lower odds on the overall jackpot. You’re going to get a starting jackpot at $50 million you’re going to get your winning prize of at least $10 or more. And each play, each number play you select, will have its own. Own multiplier built in. So if you’ve select your lucky mega, million numbers, it will the computer will randomly generate a number 2345, or 10 as a multiplier. And then if you’re fortunate enough to hit that multiplier kicks in. And if you buy three lines on your ticket, each one will have its separate multiplier so ways for people to to win more larger jackpots, a lot more fun, and look forward to more details once we get into the beginning of 2025 between now and then, the game is still the same. Nothing changes today, tomorrow, next week, next month. But these changes all will happen the first week of April in 2025 a little part

Nestor Aparicio  20:46

of the old TV show, different stuffs. I’m like, What you talking about? John Martin, I’m thinking like, now I’m thinking this through, thinking I have to get six months to get all this together, because my wife’s still probably going to play 20 bucks, because that’s what she does. So it’s gonna be a $5 ticket times four, but multipliers in right? So I’m just trying to get this through my mind, right? The game’s gonna change a little bit, but my wife’s gonna love it.

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John Martin  21:09

We think people will love it. We think they’ll love the chance to to win larger prizes. We think they’re gonna love better odds. We think they’re gonna like bigger jackpots that grow more frequently. So let’s see what happens. So

Nestor Aparicio  21:19

it starts at 50 million, though, right? No more. No longer 20. Exactly, exactly. What gets us closer to 100 and I’ll get my wife closer to playing. And one day, and I told Todd runger In this John, and you know, if I hit the big one or she hits the big one, we hit the big one. I won’t be doing the show next week, maybe next week, because I love you, and I do love doing the show. Give it a little bit of lead time, but by Thanksgiving, I’ll be in walea, I promise you, I’ll be in Hawaii, and all inspired by Todd rongen, who lives in Hawaii. John Martin is a man who allows us all to dream and dream big sometimes, and just dream of like big ravens prizes. When I give these away on Friday, we do the Maryland crab cake to each and every week, John plays along, and we get these great scratch offs to give away. And sometimes I get $20 winners, $50 winners, and sometimes my wife’s involved in Mega Millions or Powerball, and we’re gonna have a new Mega Millions game as well. So there’s some breaking news. I knew. You knew I wasn’t gonna grasp that the first time, right?

John Martin  22:17

Oh, we’re gonna talk about this forever. Well, maybe not forever, but at least for next six months. Hey, and one more thing, next time you talk to Todd, tell them Hello. It’s me.

Nestor Aparicio  22:28

I’ve thought about us for a long, long time. John Martin is here. He is the executive director of all things Maryland, lottery and gaming. You know what I would say. And he told a great story about this, because his kid played minor league baseball. He produced meatloaf Paradise by the dashboard, like Phil Rizzuto and the lines from Paradise were all in there. There was a lot of baseball involved, but he told me that he made his his wealth, the money he has on bang the drum. I don’t want to work. I just want to bang on the drum all day. So there is your Todd rungren reference to for everybody. Go listen to it. He’s playing up York, Pennsylvania, on Sunday night for my birthday, for Sammy hagar’s birthday, our birthday. And I’m giving away, like, come on by, get some pizza. And I’m giving away free scratch. Also, the Marilyn lottery will be pizza John’s in Essex takes it. It’s a tough thing for a Dundalk guy to go to Essex on his birthday. You know the piece is going to be good. We’re back river neck road. We’ll be down there Curtis for friends at the Maryland lottery, as well as Liberty cruise solutions, Jiffy Lube, MultiCare and curio wellness and foreign daughter, who are putting on our 26th anniversary and my 56th birthday. Um, Luke’s younger, so I’m going to adopt him at 42 I’m Nestor, we are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking responsible wagering, as we always say around here. But have some fun this week, especially with this Washington, Baltimore thing doesn’t happen too often, and I’m going to make John Martin wear burgundy gold next week if we lose somehow back for more right after this on Baltimore, positive you.