John Martin of Maryland Lottery makes his weekly visit with Nestor to discuss the 50th Anniversary celebration kicking into spring and some important words for the bracketologists and for those taking advantage of the new sports gambling activities around March Madness this month.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lottery, maryland, ticket, people, game, brackets, play, years, week, casino, win, fun, winners, retailers, march madness, state, sports, places, scratch offs, buy
SPEAKERS
John Martin, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back at W and S T TAS Baltimore and Baltimore positive this is gonna be a good one. We are in the March Madness not just the madness of Lamar Jackson and franchise tags and like all of that but we’re getting the Maryland crabcake tour back out on the road now we did have a cancellation or actually a move move. isation a postponement postponement to move fade leads to a couple of weeks from now. We were a drug city last week. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery first chance to give away the wishbone old schooler scratch offs and my old school people in Dundalk new right what to do with it. I had a $10 winner at drug city on Friday with Mr. Calvin Stadium, which I just want to thank you, John Mark. Before I get into this, I got to thank our friends and window nation as well who sponsor our Marilee crabcake tour. This thing has moved into a new direction, where I get to bring a man who was very special to me seventh, eighth, ninth grade, my middle school music teacher, a man who was very special to a lot of people because he taught for 56 years in schools from Pikesville to Dundalk. We had people come out and give him hugs, and he played the piano. And he’s a wonderful man, Calvin said. So thank you to the Maryland lottery for getting us on the road. And you know what I learned John Martin, I learned in like truck cities kind of a special thing with the Maryland lotteries being like their old school 1954. They were like one of the first people in 1973 That said, Give me the tickets, give me the scratch. I’ll skate. We want to play the lottery here. So 50 years later, you’re celebrating a lot of places like drug city, I think and cost us and other places like that.
John Martin 01:37
Absolutely. We are matter of fact, we have it on our calendar for the month of April. That’s kind of our return back to our retailer network. And we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 retailers who go back to 1973. or there abouts. We’re gonna do this close enough. If you’ve been with us a long time you’re in the club. So yeah, I’m gonna dust myself off what am I traveling suit and, and head out and actually have some fun with some great people, great families, a lot of me I’ve turned over there. They’re the next generation of of ownership in 50 years, that’s to be expected. But nonetheless, it’s gonna be a lot of fun in April, we’ll talk more about as we get to it,
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
I want to know about that, because I want to, like hit some of these places that might be and honestly, John, we put this partnership together a couple years ago, in the middle of a plague and I’m doing this thing, I would just say some places like drugs, city, drugs City is one of those places that I’ve known about my whole life. I went there the other by the way, I want to plug you for a minute because
John Martin 02:40
this is gonna this is gonna cause my wallet.
Nestor Aparicio 02:44
I had George foetus on. Who is the Owner of drug city, you got it honest. He’s a Greek town, pharmacist kid whose mom sent him over there to get a job, but he wanted to buy in the place, right. And these these really serious scratch offs. And this I have a sample. This isn’t a real one. But this is a real one, I’ll be giving these away on the crabcake tour. But but the $50 scratch off and he said to me, he literally looked he’s like, I thought like, who’s gonna buy $50 scratch off, then it says $5 million prize. He said we can’t keep them in. He literally said that he’d be they can’t keep them in. So there are places like drug city that has this fountain, that I would think 15 years and I haven’t heard of them. But in their neighborhood. They’re legendary places, right? That had been a part of a lot of how many places? Could you get a lottery ticket in 1973? Because we think there were computers. I mean, I’m just thinking like, in a different way, as far as you probably had to kind of go out of your way to get a lottery ticket in the beginning, maybe right?
John Martin 03:42
Well, you know what, it’s interesting. And folks can go to MD lottery.com. We have some of this nostalgia in history there. And I know because I’ve read it once somewhere in that, in our pages on our website, it will tell you the exact number of retailers, I believe it was in the you know, 2002 to 3000 numbers. So they really rolled this out. This was more than I expected. And then, you know, generationally when we brought in the Kino product was kind of like the next bump, which was back in the early 90s. So yeah, I mean, over time. And of course, today we have 4400 retailers. And that’s been that number has been about static now for probably the last 10 years has been right around that number. Because I think by today’s age, right, we’re 50 years in if you don’t if you haven’t heard about the lottery haven’t been paying attention. And and if you have you’ve made a business decision one way or the other, either to have it as part of your portfolio or not. And we respect it either way. So you know, I don’t see a big infusion of additional retailers at this point.
Nestor Aparicio 04:39
Well, I mean it but rolling it out was something and 50 years later to still be here and drug city to be one of them. You know what I mean? Like and for me to be there last week to roll it out with these tickets. It was really kind of special and serendipitous because I didn’t play it that way. You got a lot of stuff going on and it’s March Madness. People are in my world bracketing out waiting out, I had a whole bunch college basketball sort of experts. I’m waiting till next week to have more because I like I want to get more insight once the brackets get out. But it’s even more exciting locally because Maryland’s playing this year.
John Martin 05:11
It should be a lot of fun. I mean, it’s a funny thing happened in a way to the to the tournament, right. I mean, the Terps kind of made me stub their toe a little bit and last week of the season, but next week, come on, you know what, that that’s the beauty of it, you know, everyone’s reset to zero.
Nestor Aparicio 05:26
It’s a second chance like the lottery. Oh,
John Martin 05:29
I see what you did there. Thank you. Thank you. I like that, you know, I caught myself in the monitor because if nothing else, I am vain. You know, I note to self don’t wear the gray sweater with the with the beard, man that’s
Nestor Aparicio 05:43
very studious. You know, it looks like I’m about to learn. I’m sitting up in class with notes is what I’m doing. You know, Professor Martin today? Well, I
John Martin 05:51
tell you what, then let’s get right to the learning stuff. Because as you alluded to, there’s plenty of going on in our 50th anniversary year, we have a number of tickets, you’ve you’ve mentioned our instant lottery ticket, the $2 price point, which is a throwback to our 1976. Very first scratch off ticket, we have our $50 ticket called 50 years. And most of these games say most of these tickets have Second Chance prizes. So that’s that’s the beauty of it. If you don’t instantly win on the scratch, please enroll those tickets in your mind lottery rewards account for cash prizes that are revealed throughout the year. But no cash prizes as significant as our 50th cash bash 50th anniversary cash bash, which will culminate in September at the State Fair where one lucky player will have the opportunity to win up to $5 million.
Nestor Aparicio 06:47
I like going to the state fair because there’s stuff there. You know what I mean? And they bring bands in I went last year, it’s good time. Hey, I want to talk about this thing for a minute. Because when I brought the guys from drug city on there, like we’ve been buying a lot of these and breaking even and winning. But this $5 million dollar Scratch is literally unprecedented. Nobody’s ever been ever been able to Scratch and win $5 million. And couple of these outright?
John Martin 07:13
Yeah, not certainly not in the state of Maryland and you know, ticket just to give you a little behind the scenes inside baseball stuff here. You know, each each state kind of plays to their level of first of all population. And why is population matter? Well, it just you know, as you disperse your player ship across all the strata in a state, you want to make sure you have enough people who are apt to pay $50 for a ticket, some states have not jumped into the $50 ticket. It’s not a given. Because you have to offer a commensurate prize of value. And as we escalate, our $50 ticket has a top price of $5 million. You go to a larger state like like Texas, and they sell $100 ticket, which will just knock your socks off, right, Massachusetts. I mean, some of these states sell $50 tickets, like it’s it’s, it’s it’s nothing to
Nestor Aparicio 08:05
think about that. And sometimes he thinks like a little it’s like, well, and then I think people go to casino and play $50 hands all day long. I mean, like, unless I was in a casino, you couldn’t get a table for less than a $25. And in a lot of cases. So I don’t I think we think about it a little bit differently. And I would think the lottery we think about it differently. And if you’re a player, yeah, you want to have a good butyl when you want when you want to win big, and the guys that were playing a drug city that we were talking about this particular ticket, they’re like, Hey, man, it’s 5 million bucks. It’s like there’s a chance to somebody, somebody around you. We hope we’re the ones that sell it quite frankly, right. The retailers want to sell it do.
John Martin 08:43
Yes, because retailers get a commission on on not only selling the ticket but cashing winners in their store. It can be a very lucrative business for for retailer. It’s funny, you mentioned the casino. Part of it that was a definite input into our thinking is, well, gee, you bought a lottery player will that you know, 50 years ago, they bought $1 ticket and we we gasped when we tried to offer a $2 ticket, we’re doubling the price, what would happen? And now you know, we sit around talking about $50 tickets. But you’re right, a big market for this we anticipate and it’s proven out to be are those casino players who would not probably chase a ticket less than that don’t even know what a lottery ticket at one or $2 looks like. But you’re right. If they’re sitting out on a night out at a casino when they’re they’ve made the investment and they’re playing responsibly and they’re managing their budget. A $50 ticket to them may be appealing. So we do anticipate engaging a different type of player at this price point.
Nestor Aparicio 09:37
John Martin is here He is the executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming the gaming part being important here. And you mentioned news and where we are this the uptick we will see next Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And you know, I don’t know the march madness that the NCAA ever figured this all out but putting it right in the middle of St. Patrick’s Day, right. So people we’re out and about next weekend, this will be the first chance to literally at, you know, 10 3011 in the morning, you got brackets, you have all of that, but you’re watching these games, to maybe have a little bit more fun, a little bit more interest in it. And also through the weekend. This is a time where I would say gambling the word game. This is where everybody, everybody’s played March, everybody has filled out a bracket, who likes sports in this country to win $1 You know, win mythical, whatever, wherever they are. This is a time to play for sports. And, and it’s, it’s something across the country that everybody gets involved in. Because state you gets in every once in a while. And here it’s happened. And we’ve had miracles here with UMBC and compensate as well.
John Martin 10:48
It’s interesting, I’ve not seen any data yet, it may still come out between now and tip off next week. But at the Superbowl, they hypothesized and extrapolated that the first time ever, that the Superbowl, public wagers exceeded the private wagers. And what I mean by that is, you know, we’ve all been to Super Bowl parties, where you throw a buck and you get a square and you do those little friendly bets at the you know over the guacamole in the salsa, you’re you’re doing your wagers at the sports parties. But this last Supra was the first time that the legitimate mobile and retail wagering overtook that it’s legit
Nestor Aparicio 11:29
is what we’re saying where it’s gone, legit.
John Martin 11:31
And I wonder if we’re going to see a similar story from our friends at the American gaming Association ata everless have to march madness because again, as you alluded to, everyone over the years of a certain age knows about playing again squares and your brackets and your pool and whatever you do, but I’m wondering if maybe the tipping point is going to come again, if not this year, probably next, where the the legitimize the the the public, wagering will overtake that,
Nestor Aparicio 12:00
whatever the stigma would be right to say, it’s on the up and up, I keep going back to on the up and up. This is a chance where, you know, people play in the points where, like, it makes it more fun to have five bucks or 10 bucks on a game. If you’re watching Roanoke plate. Yeah, I’m making that up. But when the spreads at the end on these three pointers, it’s just it’s March Madness. They gave it the name for that, and people are glued to it. And it’s sports and and it’s more than one game, right? The Super Bowl, we could say the Super Bowl is the biggest event, whatever. It’s one game March Madness. I’m gonna go play 40 games next weekend.
John Martin 12:37
And it is I think you will you mentioned before that did the NCAA really think about it St. Patrick’s Day and all these other things going on, now that they may have fallen into that it may have just happened that way. I’ll tell you what was by design was the the designation of Marches Problem Gambling Awareness Month, that wasn’t an accident. And for all the right reasons, because again, with increased outlets comes increased responsibility.
Nestor Aparicio 13:02
I really did wonder why March I mean, I saw it in notes. And I didn’t even realize we were going to talk about it. But like, I was wondering why March all the sense in the world.
John Martin 13:11
And now’s the time and you’ll you’ll see it more in television, you’ll hear it more in radio, Maryland lottery gaming is proud to support all the efforts as relates to Problem Gambling Awareness, all year long, but particularly in March and and on our website, we put some some key takeaways, and I’ll just kind of run through them very briefly here. But people can go to MD lottery.com. For more information. But you know, first and foremost, please spend within your limits. Never borrow money to make it better to play. Understand the game you’re playing. If it’s March Madness, understand the seeds, and the point spreads. But if you’re playing Powerball and Mega Millions, if you’re playing pick three, again, understand the game that you’re playing, and what are the true odds of that. Please don’t put more on your plate. If you’re feeling stressed, if you had a bad day, with a spouse with a significant other at work, whatever. Maybe just relax, don’t don’t make a bad decision following a very difficult game and recognize as proficient as you think you may be, for the most part and knowing sports or sports expert, John. Yeah, I’m glad we’re talking about right. But particularly on the lottery side, these are games of chance. There is no skill. When you buy a Powerball ticket. There is no skill when you buy a keynote ticket. These are games of chance. You can argue well, yeah, I am a sports expert. So I know the lines of it better. Okay, yeah, there may be some skill involved with sports wagering, but you know, another time in place. You know, there are bad beats and then there there are people make careers out of out of chronicling those. And probably most importantly, play for fun play for the entertainment play with friends who can help you stick to a plan stick to a budget. This is not a profit making venture people should not be thinking oh, I’ve got got rent due next Thursday. Let me go all in on on the 16th seat this week. So, you know, some tips and some some friendly advice, because that’s what I do.
Nestor Aparicio 15:11
Well, you know, I’ve never been a sports gambler, right? And we’ve talked about inside information in my journalism in 30 years, that that wouldn’t have been no bueno. For a long long stretches of time, you know, and who’s injured, who’s playing and having that sort of information that Mr. Harbaugh doesn’t like out none of people in the NFL like out either. But I did have an occasion many, many years ago, to be with Marvin Lewis and I’ll out him because he’s not he but we would watch film together every Friday in his office back in 1996 9790. He wanted to teach me football legitimately wanted me to he’s a teacher, much like Mr. State, I’m a wonderful, he’s a teacher. That’s what football coaches are there. They teach young men how to play football, and technique and all that. And we were watching film one day, and he looked at me and I had a something crazy happened, the Ravens lost three touchdown lead, and everybody got beat at the end, because they weren’t very good in that period of time. And he was defensive coordinator. And he looked at me like, how do people gamble on this man, he’s like, I, I have all the inside information. I have no idea whether we’re gonna win or not. I have no idea which way the ball is gonna bounce. And the crazy stuff happens in games. So I took that to heart 30 years ago to say even the experts are the experts of the experts admit, I don’t even know what pass interference is. Sometime so please be responsible, I guess at heart, my comedic you know, because everybody likes that fun. It’s March Madness. Just know your limits. Right?
John Martin 16:37
You know who else likes to have fun Nesta? Winners. Winners of Maryland lottery games love to have fun and why was in your living room
Nestor Aparicio 16:43
last week when I? Well, I my wife and I came down because we were going to drug City. She loves Mr. State. Um, so she took the day off. Like, she’s like, I want to go see Mr. State and beat you up on the air and give you a hard time. And, you know, I’m like, okay, so come along, shoot that day off, we came down, I had to pick these up because they’re new, they’re fresh. It’s 50th anniversary, all that. So I came in and I my wife had never been, I thought she’d been with me before, but she’d never been there. You know, when I got this gig, she thought I was going to pull the little ping pong, but you have the machines in the lobby. So she I said you’re gonna love the machines. And then I took her to the buddy rugo room and I’m like, the only people that get to go in this room are you and me and people that win like more than 100 grand or 50 grand or 100 grand? Well, they have to win.
John Martin 17:30
Oh, you know what, we’ll let anybody in that room. The because we were celebrating, we celebrate all wins.
Nestor Aparicio 17:39
So well, but people get to come down and take a picture and they really get to have a good time when they win right and winners. It’s fun winning when you when you scratch one of these you don’t just get the 5 million box you get it’s fun to come down and be a part and you love the stories that go along with it.
John Martin 17:56
You know those stories are in for many people are life altering and you know, just as you can go to NBA lottery.com and read a lot about it but but we try to feature a little bit of everything, whether it’s our fast play game, people winning on $50,000 on the fast play ticket. Powerball tickets, bonus Match five, you know, you look at all these things. And ironically, these things run in cycles, a lot of $50,000 winners, coincidence and our 50th anniversary year? I don’t know maybe maybe not. Well, you do know
Nestor Aparicio 18:28
when these things get printed out. There’s a winner out there and it’s going to come in and it’s probably going to come in from the state of Maryland and you know they’re going to be really happy people and every point there’s going to be story along with all those stories up at MD lottery.com You can find John Martin here each and every week and out on the front of Baltimore positive.com As we take the Maryland crabcakes we’re out on the road and get these $50 tickets that on a sample but I have real ones we’re going to be giving away on the Maryland crabcake tour in conjunction with our friends at wind donation. Did we cover everything John? We got people square you do have we’re gonna make some basketball picks next week. We’ll have some fun with that next week. How about that should
John Martin 19:03
be fun you know we’ll be out and about I think you mentioned it last time. There’s a little bit of step in our prep in our step here and a little bit of Spring Fling and we’re going to be at the Maryland home and garden show we were there last week we’ll be there that the the wrap up week. weekend this weekend. I may be out there myself personal appearance.
Nestor Aparicio 19:22
I have a garden this year. We have it we live down. People said why do you why did you leave downtown and my wife wanted to garden we want to outdoor space we have like a little deck now like so this is this is our year so the Home and Garden thing just spin the wheel is that what we’re doing out there?
John Martin 19:38
Absolutely can spin the wheel you can stop by our booth at the Home and Garden Show and then later this month we’ll be back at Timonium for a great fun event the annual beer bourbon and barbecue
Nestor Aparicio 19:50
festival. That’s my dude there. I love Greg, great event.
John Martin 19:53
If you’d like to out of those three you’re in good shape there if you’d like if you got the whole Trifecta you’re in real good shape. I
Nestor Aparicio 19:59
went through the slit Last week at York City, their bourbon spat I mean, no one has more bourbon Right. Like, they have a tasting room. It’s serious. It’s not. It’s not my you know, but beer. Oh, let’s go you know barbecue. Oh, man. Yes.
John Martin 20:11
And then a little tease a little tease coming up in April. We have the annual Maryland chicken wing festival. I can’t say that without smiling.
Nestor Aparicio 20:21
I don’t know about this. You’re making me Google this.
John Martin 20:24
Yep. Go Go check it out. It’s in. It’s in Annapolis at the ANA rental country. County Fairgrounds
Nestor Aparicio 20:31
Maryland chicken wing Tour presented by now. I’m gonna stay with the crab cakes, I
John Martin 20:35
think yeah, you’re probably a good fit.
Nestor Aparicio 20:37
I am a connoisseur or at least I think I am when it comes to wings.
John Martin 20:40
I’m sure you are, I’m sure. And I know what I know what you’re a connoisseur of as well. And that’s all thing. Oh is related opening day on the horizon. April 6 against Well, the team that shall not be named. But April sixth, the OH is Maryland lottery will be there. So we were looking for a great season.
Nestor Aparicio 20:57
I’m home runs again this year, something different. You
John Martin 21:00
know what, this is going to be fun. And let me just tease it now. But we’re doing our annual home run riches pay off where we have a contestant the game. And for every homerun hit $500 This year, big deal. Big difference because we know at some point in the year the O’s will hit their 50th. Home run. Traditionally, it’s the end of
Nestor Aparicio 21:20
May, beginning of June. See what you did there. Okay,
John Martin 21:22
if that happens to be your lucky game, you will win $50,000 We’ll talk more
Nestor Aparicio 21:28
about like that. All right. We’ll talk a lot about that because we’ve talked a lot of oral baseball around here, right? Or is it gonna be good? We’re into it. Every time you mentioned the Orioles in the lottery, all I think about is that Gary Rennick key homerun back in 19, like 79 or 83 whatever year it was when he won the lady the million bucks and the bases were loaded. And every time the bases were loaded, Brooks would say Now come on, Bill come on Scotty we’re gonna we’re gonna win a million dollars now. And he was always a pop out or he hit the bat, you know, something would happen. And then boom, it like I remember it’s 50 years well, 40 years ago, and I remember like it was yesterday. So baseball and lottery go together. So to crabcakes and wn St. Baltimore positive. I’ll be giving away the instant lottery scratch offs here into the spring I got I got I got loads of them. But I gotta make some crab cake dates. I want to throw this out just for everybody listening. If you have a crab cake recommendation, or even an oyster recommendation, because I’m sort of on that a little bit as well, for later in the year. Throw it to me next at Baltimore positive.com. In the meantime, John will gamble responsibly, will play responsibly. We’ll bracket responsibly next week and will spring and St. Patrick’s responsibly as well. And I will see you on the other side for crabcake. All right. Thanks, Nas look forward to it. John Martin, Director of all things at Maryland lottery and gaming don’t forget the gaming side mobile wagering open we got March Madness happening next week. We got the Maryland crabcakes we’re back out on the road is also presented by our friends at window nation I love them because they make me wear the the floppy hat I feel like every time I put this on I think it Tony Siragusa back in the day with a goofy floppy hat and I looked really funny in it but I’m gonna put it on anyway. 866 90 nation buy to get two free 24 months 0% financing and my friends it cost the same with the white. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive Lamar Jackson March Madness franchise tagging. Oh, it’s a mess.
