Executive Director of Maryland Lottery and Gaming John Martin discusses the beginning of the first full football season with mobile wagering here with excitement and caution as September also kicks off a month of gambling awareness and knowing how to slow your roll and having a plan.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
week, give, scratch offs, lottery, games, win, sports wagering, year, winner, sports, season, doug, kicking, play, thinking, football season, responsibly, raven, kids, wn st
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, John Martin
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back, W and S T, Towson Baltimore. Baltimore positive start by saying welcome home Welcome back. It is football season. We have the Orioles out on the West Coast and winning baseball games. We have exciting things happening here. It is our 25th anniversary inspired by the lotteries 50th anniversary, we’re gonna be presenting our 25 wn st stories of glory up first where the signs this week, next week is going to be barn shows. And we’re gonna be talking about road trips later on in September and all these great memories you’ve had here. But they’ve been doing this at the lottery for 50 years. It feels like it’s been 50 years for this promotion. But it’s been about six months. And it’s capping off this weekend. John Martin joins us now from the Maryland lottery on the eve of us kicking off our Maryland crabcake tour next week at fade Lee’s Johnson last I’m going to hold up the wishbone here because I’m gonna have Raven scratch offs next week. But we’re, we’re we’re thinking about giving 5 million bucks away at the state fair here this week. So I want to get you involved in this because I know how hard you worked on this promotion it is it’s coming to the end, it’s gonna be kind of like when I get to number one in February my 25th year. It’s just our 26th year it’s just your 51st year coming up. But this is a big thing this weekend. And I know you’re dying to give this five mil away right?
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John Martin 01:14
Not only am I dying to give 5 million away there are 10 people who are counting how many sleeps they have between now and then I think we’re down to what two more sleeps. Tonight is the sixth when we’re taping this Yeah, the eighth. So it’s pretty exciting stuff. I mean, how many times you have the opportunity to compete for a prize up to $5 million. And I’m not talking about buying a Mega Millions or Powerball ticket when it’s a billion dollars. And your odds are one in 302,000,001. Oh, this is? Yeah. Well, yeah. Or at least the potential it’s a potential to play for it.
Nestor Aparicio 01:47
How did they get this 5 million me like, let’s get to all the small prayer. What’s going to happen at the state is at that four H Center. Where is this out in the
John Martin 01:57
it’s what is affectionately known as the Cow Palace. Okay. They’re at the morning fairgrounds and on a great 100 degree week with the cows to the left of us and pigs to the right of us and flies all around. Oh boy, can I make it more appetizing than that?
Nestor Aparicio 02:14
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Hey, can I can I just interrupt you and say that my I don’t know what she would be to me, my daughter in law’s mother. We’re related because like our kids are married. But she went out to fare this week and sort of unwittingly was near the pen. When a pig was giving birth to 13 piglets. She said the videos a little graphic because it’s birth or whatever. But I looked at these pictures. And there’s these 13 little piglets running around. And she witnessed this at the State Fair and videotape the four days ago. And I’m thinking, the miracle of farms and life will and the smell of course when it’s 100 degrees, but But real animals are there. This isn’t cartoons, these are real animals.
John Martin 02:54
This is real stuff. I don’t know if I can compete with 13 piglets, but we’re going to try and on Friday, September 8 at the Timonium fairgrounds at State Fair, starting at 6pm. In the Cow Palace, we will have 10 people who have already been selected. So don’t show up Friday expecting you to get in line to win $5 million, that’s not going to happen for you. Unless you’re one of the 10 people that’s already been pre selected to come to the fairgrounds that day, I’ll come up on stage. Round number one, they’ll all select 10 numbers off of a board, there’ll be an order of pre selected order of choice. And when the five players will pick, they will go to round two, and five people will go home with a $10,000 parting gift not bad for a day’s work. And those five to go to round two again, they’ll play a game board with five prizes to be revealed. One of them will go into the final round, the other four will win $25,000.
Nestor Aparicio 03:51
And then what’s the minimum is 100 grand the big winner can win is the minimum. That’s the right
John Martin 03:55
the minimum that person can win is $100,000. And they’ll be presented with a board of 40 numbers. You don’t remember the game concentration.
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Nestor Aparicio 04:02
I remember I it was hard for you. Yeah, I was the guy when the report card came up. Nestor doesn’t apply himself. That was
John Martin 04:11
look how far we’ve gone. Both of us. Oh, right. Oh, wow. So but but you have 40 tiles and they’ll pick numbers one at a time. And they all have $1 amount behind them. And the first time they get five like dollar amounts, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. They’ll win that cash prize. The minimum they can win is $100,000 and the max which we hope for $5 million. Pretty exciting stuff. All right, so
Nestor Aparicio 04:37
it’s gonna be exciting. It’s Friday night. It’s at the state fair. The Maryland lottery wrapping up 50 years. Do you have anything you want to say on this 50 year promotion because like, much like and I talked to you all the time whether sports wagering was mobile, we’re about to talk about open a new places in sports wagering here gambling responsibly, which I’m encouraging everybody out there to do because I ran into a fantasy football draft the other night Everybody’s all worked up by football season. So slow the roll for everybody out there. But you guys spent years working on this. And we had fun seven, eight months ago, just talking about the logos and all of this stuff that this has been, this has been a great 50th year, you already inspired me to do 25 You really, really did. That’s not stick for radio, like I saw what you guys rolled out. And I thought this is, um, it’s a rich history, but it was a promotion designed to sell tickets and give things away and stir up interest in the lottery. I think it’s done that and more. It’s been a fun promotion for you.
John Martin 05:33
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You know, when we kicked it off in January of this year with an employee event, I stood in front of our group of people there and said, you know, 50 years ago, when I was a younger man, if if you had told me at that point that I’d be standing in 2023 leading an organization, nonetheless, the Maryland lottery and gaming agency in their 50th year, I told you, you’re nuts, you were bigger than that you were double nuts. But yeah, that’s it’s been a hoot, you know, to be able to go back and establish, meet people who were so instrumental, you know, we stand on the shoulders of giants to use a cliche in what we do today. We’re very proud of the legacy before us. And more importantly, we’re very proud of the stewardship entrusted to us today to lead us into the next 50 years and I’m just thrilled to be sitting here watching the whole thing go by and very, very proud of our people who work very hard each and every day, whether it’s traditional lottery, casino gaming or sports wagering.
Nestor Aparicio 06:35
So I have these 50th anniversary scratch offs with the old wish but I will not have these next Friday and fade these out. We’ll have the Ravens scratch offs. It is Raven season we’re kicking off will be a family’s from 9am till noon next Friday late to get there nice and early before they get open because they get a little crowded down at the old Lexington market. The oil is gonna be playing some big big games next weekend as well. With Tampa in in first place and all that nine till noon, our partners at Coppin State University. They’ve been we’ve been their flagship for 10 years. Dr. Anthony Jenkins is going to join us talking to my kids going back to school and the campus as well as Larry Stewart, head coach of the Eagles who’s my old pal from the bullets. Raven season, sports wagering scratch offs, the Texans, I had Dan Passerini on the show this week. So I know it’s football season around here. And I’m Bruce Springsteen’s in town this weekend, those Lofgren on the show this week from the E Street Band, but there’s nothing like football, there’s nothing like kicking it off. There’s nothing like one o’clock on Sunday, and you haven’t added responsible for years. You’ve talked about these ravens scratch offs and playing the games, but the sports wagering part of this, this is really the first time the whole place is open for business, right. And you also have some new new sports wagering partners as well. I saw my friends that cocoas Marcela is serving her crabcakes that in Canton at the green turtle, so I want to give her a shout out because she’s partner. I’ll be having lunch down there on Saturday, but new partners and football season and really an important message for everybody to slow the roll here because it is football season ticket ease.
John Martin 08:05
Last year, at this time, we kicked off the NFL season, we had five retail sports books, and they were all brick and mortar locations, you had to get off your your lazy boy and go and visit one of these wonderful facilities, our sports or sports wagering partners. Back then there were all four or five of the six casinos. So they had a great place to go visit and view the game. But this year, it’s a whole different world just this last week. Within the last two weeks, we’ve introduced our 11th and 12th retail operation to go with our 12 Mobile sportbooks will go from five last year to 24 options available this NFL season this college football season for for for sports fans to to get involved with the games. So clearly year over year will be in a much stronger position than we were last last year at this time. But the message is the same. You’re absolutely correct. Please play responsibly. Have a plan. Stick to it. Know the odds know what you’re participating with if it’s parlays, or whatever you get involved with. Don’t chase your losses, make it social, have some fun with it. But first and foremost, put aside some money, put aside some time and stick to those monetary in those time guidelines and play responsibly.
Nestor Aparicio 09:21
At 10 points on the Ravens on Sunday. I don’t know how to cover but we’re gonna figure that out. We’re gonna talk some football around here all week. John Martin is with us. He’s the Executive Director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. You find them out of MD lottery.com and all the things that they’re doing out there, as well as these ravens scratch offs that are kicking off the season. I know you guys will be down on the Ravens walk for the home games. We have Orioles games next week as well. homerun riches is still kind of happening here. We’re still very much in play with that. It really is kids go back to school and we lost Jimmy Buffett over the weekend. Every time I say the kids going back to school I think of when the coast is clear. This beautiful song that he wrote and I think about it every time this year but man this is This is when it gets to be fun. I think from a sports standpoint, from your partnerships with the football team in the baseball team, and certainly what the baseball team has done, has brought sports really back to everybody’s noses even at midnight 1256 In the night when they’re winning games on Tuesday night, and on the West Coast, we’re watching and this is just a nice time for sports and you guys are very, very involved.
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John Martin 10:22
We paid off our homerun riches contest for this year with our second $50,000 Winner winner great story just like our first $50,000 I
Nestor Aparicio 10:32
don’t know that story I need to learn this one because you can go to and famous and instantly right
John Martin 10:36
you can go to MD lottery.com and and read all about it. But Carl Pietra was was our lucky winner from Westminster and Carl’s big O’s fan. retiree been following the season been following the the the homerun riches Second Chance contests all year long hoping his name would be announced for one of the $500 wins and be a fan. I contested the game. But the season came and went for him on that and he thought all was lost. And then he gets a phone call. This is where it gets a little wonky gets a phone call from Doug Lloyd and Doug as you know,
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
8nobody believes dog went like dog. Like I call people all day and say you want from the Maryland lottery like No you’re not.
John Martin 11:24
This this guy put his dog in the category of Nigerian Prince’s calling, you know. So So Doug gets stonewalled or this guy days go by the guy never calls him back. So we’re thinking we we’ve got to get this guy’s money. He’s he’s won $50,000. And finally his brother called in to the to the lottery and said, Hey, did you ever anybody when that homerun riches contests, they said yes. He said, Well, I haven’t seen anything about it. Can you tell me one? And they told him it was Carl Pico? And he said, Oh, thank you. And he hangs up the phone. He calls his brother said you want it
Nestor Aparicio 12:06
I called my wife and said she want 100 grand on some second chance. Like, I don’t think anybody is prepared for that phone call. Right? Like I it’s it’s an amazing part of what you guys do is that you pull a winner out of a hat and you call and because the Nigerian prince is an email threads and scam calls. And I get all the time and probably because of watching a Christmas story when the poor kid did the oval team thing and he didn’t win anything that you feel like you can’t win. Tell me this. This fell in Westminster. I got to take him up the rock. So I see the picture here. But how long did it take you to find it?
John Martin 12:41
A couple of days went by but again, it wasn’t a one call close, as we say in the sales pitches. No, it took us some time. And he and he did the right thing. Right. He kept pushing back saying yeah, yeah. Okay. And he didn’t give. He wasn’t belligerent. He just said, Okay, fine, thanks. Hang up. I’m thinking this has got to be a scam. But, but when he thought it was legit, when his brother kind of came
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Nestor Aparicio 13:03
up this dog like, they just call him like back or like, a minute or cool off. It’s just like when a girl gives your phone number, like 48 hours before I call.
John Martin 13:15
I’m sure Doug does manage a regimented times on that. But no, you don’t call him right back. I mean, you don’t want to make it. You know. You want to give him some time.
Nestor Aparicio 13:25
Really? I’m talking.
John Martin 13:29
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But in all seriousness, I mean, it has forced us to rethink how we notify winners of these things. So I don’t know what if it was the go to spam? They never see it. Right. Right. Right. I mean, gone are the days of the old Publishers Clearing House or just wring somebody’s doorbell with a balloon stand in their handshake or? I don’t know, John Martin
Nestor Aparicio 13:50
is trying to give money away tried to get 50 grand away last week to an Orioles fan. And you know, I guess poor you know, the fella that one though, Mr. Pietro here, Carl Peter, I’m looking at him from Westminster here. You know, I guess he’s thinking I already want to teach 30 games over 500 Don’t prank me. Well, yeah. And he’s
John Martin 14:08
a great guy, a guy you wanted to sit down and have a beer with him and talk sports with. He talks about how he loves the team, you know, re reinvigorated with with the youth on the team. You know all of those. He talks about gunner and Brian O’Hearn, he quotes Rhino Hearns press conference, and I don’t remember this you may be due. According to our winner Karl Pietra when Ryan O’Hearn came up, he said hey, I’m not going back. That determination really resonated with our winner and he and he loves that. And now Brian O’Hearn is one of his favorite players.
Nestor Aparicio 14:47
Hey, Jordan Westberg struggled then it had the game winner on Tuesday night, Luke and I had been sitting here I mean it. I know you’re old school Cleveland, but we had that oriental magic song here in 1979 was a it was an am radio song W FBR and Harry Shriver and Charlie Ekman and Chuck Thompson. And the song says every night there’s a different star. That’s the magic of Oracle baseball. John Martin is here every night. There’s different stars. Well, we’re encouraging everybody to play. But play responsibly Slow your roll a little bit. Yeah, baseball happened. And every night football, all sorts of interesting propositions that are out there, and certainly football season here. But more than that, you guys have you know, we have megamillions we got Pat, you get like regular lottery stuff that has nothing to do with sports wagering or nothing to do with any of that. What else are you guys rolling out after 50th anniversary? I mean, you’re always doing do a new scratch offs, right?
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John Martin 15:37
Always new scratch offs. And you’re right. I mean, you get too caught up and some other things the Powerball is up to $461 million with you when I speak. So I mean, we’re not going to derive a half billion dollars again, with with one of these things. And that’s and that’s the, the magic of these large, multistage jackpots is that while you’re going about doing your your everyday life, these things can start to sneak up Mega Millions is over $100 million. So now we have again the two jackpots in triple digits, and we hope that they will have a nice long run with with one or both of those. But we do also have a number of fast play games, scratch offs. We introduce scratch offs each and every month. We have a number of Second Chance promotions so people can enter their non winning tickets into MD lottery.com And they’re my lottery rewards account for some wonderful prizes. We’re still have our Corvette cash Second Chance contest still going on. We’re very very soon we’ll give our have our final drawing for $150,000 cash prize as a second chance, which we hope gets you more than well on your way to making potentially a purchase of a brand new Corvette and I’ve seen those on the road and I’m sure you have to that is a slick driving machine.
Nestor Aparicio 16:59
It’s sleek my wife still prefers the 67 as you well know but the any Corvettes are good Corvette at this point. We still want on the road the one of the new ones on the road the other day, my wife’s like, looks like a Batmobile. You know, it’s kind of fun. You know, just you know, I guess for the 50th anniversary and for like all of this the other stuff that we’re doing here this thing on Friday night sort of capping this thing off and and giving money away i people get get a bad rap for not being nice, right? Like our society and whatever. When I give these tickets out when I go up somebody with a gold ticket at I was at Pappas last weekend. Glen Burnie and Roanoke county executive Steuart Pittman came out we had a great chat about all things animal, the county had my old producer Reebok, we’ve been playing it on the air here this week. And the bar was packed. So it was Pappas at lunchtime. And Glen Burnie a lot of people there. And I walked around, like, give these out. And without fail. Every time I had somebody want to say I’m not sure I’m here. But he has the marital lottery to Baltimore positive here, I get people light up when you give them a lottery ticket, you know, there’s something was a Willy Wonka feeling about a chance to win, and a chance to play and a chance to have fun. And I watched people I watched it in front of my very eyes when I give out little tickets. And they maybe I’ve had $100 winners and $50 winners, sometimes they have five $10 winners, people are always happy. But when you give one added a promotion, there’s something about playing, that’s fun for everybody. And that’s you know, it makes it brightens my day to watch people have a good time with it.
John Martin 18:26
What it does is it gives them a chance to to dream about what might be it’s that potential. I mean, who among us go back to when you’re a kid, it’s, it’s it’s Christmas or Hanukkah or, or your birthday and and you’ve got a gift in front of you and you don’t know what’s inside. And that’s kind of what a lottery ticket is, you really don’t know what you’re going to have there. And that’s, that’s that’s that feeling that you that we all experienced in one way or another. And, you know, the point is, and here we are in September, which is responsible gaming Education Month.
Nestor Aparicio 18:59
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And and yeah, I just learned something I didn’t know that September was responsible education gaming month.
John Martin 19:04
Thank you, I bet you will. And again, it’s we’re very proud of of the education efforts not only within our small agency here, but but around the country. And that’s the kind of thing that you know, we’ve all shoulder to shoulder Bandy bendy together and stress that, that resources are available and that players become aware, and they do play responsibly, you know, about 95% of the of the gaming population plays for fun well within their means that they can walk away from it, but we know 5% Or so struggle with it, and it may be an addictive behavior may be a trigger to them into, into, you know, going down to a dark and unhappy place and, and we do have to share that responsibility. So it’s it’s making sure that people understand the games. They play responsibly, they have a budget, they know where to go for resources and and hopefully get some enjoyment and play for the entertainment value.
Nestor Aparicio 19:58
I see it with my wife when she She’ll be going now because they’re both in triple digits, half a billion on one of them, she’ll be down at the ROFO putting 10 bucks in or whatever she sometimes she plays 20 puts in and gets, but it’s a chance to change her life. Right? Like literally and that and that big role, it’s a chance to say, all right, that place in wilayah, maybe we can get that, you know, and, and when I saw a man from Cumberland win $100,000 You know, it’s just, it’s a beautiful thing when people come to your office, and they win. And that’s fun. And but we want to make sure the dark side of this stays away for people that they do play responsibly.
John Martin 20:33
And when they do come to the office, I think the stigma from years gone by and of course, you know, the media would shine a light on it. You know, everyone talks about oh, yeah, those lottery winners, they, they they they frivolously spend their money and they wasted all away,
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Nestor Aparicio 20:46
Jimmy song about that now, right? I made enough money to buy Miami, but I right. Okay, just make sure we know, you know,
John Martin 20:54
but but the reality is today, we have a much more informed population and much more informed player. And when I look in their eyes, and I see them there, you can tell that the they’ve got a plan that they’re they’re going to work through the process. Many of them take a fair amount of time, you know, they have six months, they have 180 days to claim their prize. So especially if they want a large amount of life altering amount, they do the right thing, they do their homework, they consult with a lawyer, they consult with a financial advisor, and then they come to our office and work out the details on whether they’re going to take a lump sum, or take it in in installments over a period of time. But in either way, you can tell they’re a lot more grounded, very rare as the time they come in and you think oh boy, you know, this isn’t going to end well. So I think this testimony to a much more informed player today. And that gone is the day when people just firstly wasted.
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
I’m trying to be more grown up and responsible. John marks here. He’s the executive director. Well, thanks Maryland lottery and gaming. We’re encouraging everybody to play. Play responsibly. Have a good time go out to the fair, somebody might win 5 million bucks. You’ll least see some cute animals. Got some good music out at the fair. Orioles coming home next week. Raven start in the season. These are the good times we’re not in the plague anymore. These are the good times. John take care yourself. Hope to see you and everybody else to have faith is next Friday we’re kicking off the Maryland crabcake tour. I will have the new Raven scratch also on the 15th with compensate our partners there and the Eagles and Dr. Anthony Jenkins as well as hoops coach Larry Stewart there’s also the threat that letter Raskind for Rascon global is gonna stop by Bilko it’s gonna be old home week down at the old Lexington market alpaca Street in the beautiful faith. He’s probably a little bit of shrimp salad to go as well as fried oysters. I am Nestor we are wn st egg and 1570 Towson, Baltimore, Bruce Springsteen baseball football. This town’s on fire with Baltimore positive stay with us.
