Our Maryland Lottery pal Seth Elkin joins Nestor at Amicci’s of Little Italy for a holiday visit to discuss a great Ravens scratch-off season and the rivalry that divides their professional relationship during Pittsburgh Week. We decided the loser should have to wear a Browns jersey…
Seth Elkin from the Maryland Lottery discussed the popularity of Ravens-themed scratch-off tickets, highlighting the $5 Holiday Double Luck Doubler with a $50,000 top prize. He recounted his Steelers fandom, remembering Super Bowl 13 in 1978. The conversation covered the Ravens’ 20th anniversary promotion in 2015 and the challenges of being a Steelers fan in Baltimore. Elkin mentioned the Second Chance contest, offering up to $100,000 in prizes, and the upcoming reveal of new stadium seats. They also touched on the recent $1 million Mega Millions winner in Bel Air and the excitement around the Ravens’ playoff prospects.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens scratch offs, Steelers week, holiday double luck, Super Bowl memories, Maryland lottery, second chance contest, Ravens anniversary, Mega Millions, playoff game, million dollar winner, holiday tickets, lottery prizes, football season, scratch off math, lottery promotions
SPEAKERS
Seth Elkin, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Here. Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 tassel, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We are positively in the center of the meatball universe. We are here. Adam me cheese of Little Italy. I am right. I’m touching the Robert McClintock drawing of the very casual eater. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, I had been holding up. So far this year, we’ve had Pac Man tickets. We’ve had Raven scratch off tickets. Seth, Elkin has hand delivered from the Montgomery Ward’s tower. And these are, like special because these are $5 scratch offs. This is the holiday double luck doubler. I was holding out for the magic eight ball scratch all set I was but Seth Elkin is here, and John Martin has sent him out, dispatched him, and we knew this, and probably because of the yellow tickets, it’s Steelers weeks. I like the black and gold is everywhere this. It doesn’t get any better than Steelers week with Jensen, not who lived down here, come down for a job and all that. How many of you do you know here? Are you your own little Steeler Island? Because I’m figuring Pittsburgh people know other Pittsburgh people, right?
Seth Elkin 01:11
Well, I’m definitely not alone. Okay, sure. And particularly at the lottery, there’s a small handful of us, and we stick together. So it’s a it can be a very interesting experience the week of a Stewart’s ravens game. And you know, you survive. People know that my office is the purple free zone, and
Nestor Aparicio 01:31
most he has a penguins floor mat that I give a good workout to. I make sure I I rub my feet in the dirt before I go in. Get get all that goes, get Terry Bradshaw on the wall. So your background as a Pittsburgh fan and Seth, of course, in the Maryland lottery brings me nice things to give away. And hopefully this young gentleman over here is going to win 50 grand on this holiday. Double luck. Double holiday luck. Doubler, double double your first Steelers memory is what?
Seth Elkin 02:02
Wow. I was in first grade when they won Super Bowl 13. Okay, which one was that that the Vikings went? No, that was the, I wish I remembered. That was a little before my time. Oh, that was the RAM Super Bowl. 13 was the second one against Dallas, fall of 1978, 7878 and 79 seasons. That’s what I remember, what I what I have a vivid memory of. Is it in my first grade classroom we made, we had big brown paper that we we drew a Steelers helmet and a Dallas Cowboys helmet on it. That was the Lynn Swann catch, right? No game. No. That was super bowl. 10. It was all right. 13. This was a 3531 game
Nestor Aparicio 02:40
that I watched them all. I mean, you know, just running together. Here a little bit. Roger Staubach, right.
Seth Elkin 02:46
Okay. Roger Staubach, with Jackie Smith, the sickest man in America. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 02:49
the Jackie Smith, fall. He dropped the ball. That’s, that’s the one. Okay, that’s, that was 7979 January, 79 and then January 80 was the RAM. This one is really super Sports Illustrated. Okay, Vince Ferragamo, so I remember those two vividly. Those are really the first memories that I have. So I have Steeler memories before you. I’m sure you do. Oh, my God. Well, so my first Steeler memory would be the Donald kroner game. My dad and I went to that game. By the way I saw ticket stub for that game on sale yesterday, I’ve been like perving old Baltimore Colt stuff, because I have a Baltimore Colts belt buckle like that from 1971 and I’ve had fun with that thing and ticket stubs in my memories of the Colts, because I spent 30 years of my life really, really trying to forget those memories, right? You know, like the Colts thing was very raw, visceral, dirty and all that, but the Steelers beat the Colts twice in 75 and 76 and knocked them out before goes to the post. Goes to the post was like the final straw. But we got our ass kicked up in Pittsburgh, badly, as I remember it in the playoff game. And then we lost the Donald kroner game down here, and the plane went into the upper deck. You are familiar rights, right? Know that story. You know, Steelers were in that game
Seth Elkin 04:10
from the year before. I think that was the first appearance of the Terrible Towel. Was the game against the COVID. Steelers were
Nestor Aparicio 04:16
so much better than the Colts in those years. You know, Bert Jones might disagree with that, if I join around, maybe, but if it felt the steels are better than everybody, right? So then I was an oiler fan, so I paid the price is 79 and 80 in these games. You’re talking about Renfro caught that ball, that RAM Super Bowl should never happen. I don’t know what you’re talking. You do know what I’m talking. So it’s things like this here in a me cheese for many years. I don’t know Jody’s on the phone. I wouldn’t ask her, but there was on this wall forever. It was a sports wall. It was the Ray Lewis with the knee on rothless burger with the steam coming out. You know, I’m saying you have a picture. That picture, I think it’s still in the back room here. Steelers ravens has four. Are transcended anything that was Burt Jones and the late Craig Franco Harris as well. You know, like, you got to admit that it’s more fun for you living in Baltimore being a Steelers fan than it would be if you were working for the Ohio lot. Let’s just say, right? I’m going to
Seth Elkin 05:16
tell you a story I was going to get into this though, the last time I was on with you was the week after the Steelers beat the ravens, despite not scoring a touchdown. I have fun saying that, reminding you of that, every time
Nestor Aparicio 05:27
I see Mike Tom, it reminds me how much you guys beat us. So it’s a good week for you to do that.
Seth Elkin 05:31
There’s a story I’ll share. This goes back to my my rookie year at the lottery, which was 2015 and we were getting ready for the State Fair, which is always a big deal for us, just anyway. But at that time of year, in late August, the football season is getting ready to start. The Raven scratch offs have just launched. The Ravens Second Chance promotion is getting going. At that point, we’re trying to get a promotion.
Nestor Aparicio 05:53
Joe Flacco is about to get hurt, and the whole thing’s about to go to hell in a hand basket. So
Seth Elkin 05:57
we’re, we’re always got a big promotional push at that time for Ravens. So in 2015 there was an extra layer to it, because 2015 was the Ravens 20th anniversary season. So the T shirts that we had made up for all the lottery people to wear at the fair were purple T shirts with the Ravens 20th anniversary logo and a lottery logo on it. And I get handed this thing to wear, and I remember vividly standing and holding this thing in my hand, and what am I gonna lose my job if I don’t win? I’m looking at it. I would not wear steel or anything. I’m thinking, I don’t I don’t want to be anywhere near this I’m thinking, Where I come from, in western Pennsylvania, this is what happens to the guy that finishes in last place in his fantasy league. He’s got to walk around in public draped in purple. I don’t want to be anywhere near this thing. But I had only been on the job for four months. At that point. I got there April, this was August, and I didn’t want to rock the I didn’t want to rock the boat on a minute.
Nestor Aparicio 06:49
Said something that I’m not gonna allow you to say. Seth Elkins here from the Maryland lottery. He brought me lottery tickets, but I’m gonna treat him like you didn’t. Why isn’t it a Browns jersey that you have to wear when you finish in last place. Well, I’m just saying what? What is it? Purple? Look purple color royalty. I’ll have you know, at Prince wore
Seth Elkin 07:08
purple at one time in history. It may very well have been a Browns jersey. But you know, since, since things you want to
Nestor Aparicio 07:16
look like a buffoon, you don’t dress like a raven. I got news for you, pal. Okay, Yin’s in that up there, and you don’t eat french fries on your sandwich. Is what you don’t do. You do if you’re from pits? Well, you don’t do that at amici. So Seth is here. Tell me about these holiday luck doublers. I’m gonna give these away. These are $5 scratches. A lot of folks don’t know the math. I know it. I want you to explain it. You got your little app out $760 million from Mega Millions and all that. But I give $2 scratch offs, and it’s a $20,000 prize, but when you bring me $5 scratch offs, it’s a $50,000 prize, there really is a greater chance of winning a bigger prize on a $5 ticket, right?
Seth Elkin 07:50
Well, the prizes and the and the odds vary from one ticket to the next, but we got a bunch of different holiday tickets, all of which are part of that holiday Second Chance contest. It’s still going on all the way up through the middle of January, so you’ve got plenty
Nestor Aparicio 08:02
of opportunities. John explained, is a extra money you put in the pot for this, right? Pretty much, right? There’s more money that
Seth Elkin 08:08
there’s there is our cash prizes. There’s holiday money for the second chance contest, including in that last drawing in the middle of January 16 is the last drawing. So you have up until January 15 to enter, and then that last drawing is going to be a $100,000 cash prize. So, and there are 5000 I could use that though right now. I mean, I really could. There are $5,000 prizes all the way up until that point. So each week, their weekly drawing, if I
Nestor Aparicio 08:32
win 100 grand, taking one week off, just to make sure I still love doing just one week. I love this show, man. Come on. Wait. Come on. This is like work. This is fun for you with Raven scratch offs, we had the big thing over the weekend, and I was thinking to those people, because it was cold in New York, but I’m thinking, you’re in New York on the lottery, Raven scratch off junket. I’m sure that they’re still full. I mean, you know, I mean, three days later, they don’t need to come though me cheese, because they probably ate and did all that. But you’re, you’re into the big part of that, but words final push, right? Like last we’re the last week to get into tickets for life to be a part of that I have. This is my this is it Tell, tell Roz that I had about 20 tickets left. This is it from the whole season. This is all I got left. And this is your last chance. But it’s we really are getting the last chance on this, right? Yep,
Seth Elkin 09:19
we got. We get another week to go, and then that last drawing is the 23rd of December. We’re gonna select the last two.
Nestor Aparicio 09:26
The Ravens will be in first place by then.
Seth Elkin 09:29
That’s questionable. I don’t know. All right,
Nestor Aparicio 09:32
six and a half point underdogs this week.
Seth Elkin 09:34
I don’t, I don’t worry about that. I don’t. I think we were underdogs. This is where they say it’s Raven Steelers. We threw that out. We were underdogs at home against the Ravens in one despite not scoring a touchdown, all
Nestor Aparicio 09:44
remind, I don’t know how you’re doing it. I mean, I do. Russell Wilson has been a hell of an addition, right? I mean, were you one of the guys, Tom, and I know what he’s doing, we got to leave fields in there. Were you that
Seth Elkin 09:54
guy? I think we needed to find out whether he could play or not. Because, because, you know, any can the question. This team doesn’t know who its quarterback is going to be next year, and we don’t that neither one of them is under contract. So you got to, you had to figure out whether you could play. And you know, the last two years that he had in Denver certainly a little bit deceiving. And you wondered what was going on there. There was obviously some consternation between him and the coach there. And we got him on the field, we got him playing, and we can see that he can still play. So now the question is, how do we build an offense around him? Because clearly, we need some receivers. I’m gonna
Nestor Aparicio 10:26
build some loyalty from the Maryland lottery. $5 scratch off for you, sir. There you go. Good luck, holidays. Yeah, see, see, see, he knows what’s up. He smelled that the Steelers fan. Here is what he was doing, scratch offs, and the other scratch offs that I give away don’t have this sort of thing. You said the ravens, the most popular scratch off you have, it’s because of these incredible Second Chance prizes, cash prizes and all that. Not all the scratch offs have that sort of like cache right? The Game of Thrones thing was cool if you’re in the Game of Thrones, but
Seth Elkin 10:59
there are certain scratch offs that have a second chance contest attached to them, and you can always go to the promotions page@mdwatery.com to see what our current Second Chance contests are. But any any ticket that you enter into your rewards account is going to earn you points that you can use to redeem proprisors, or you points that you can use to enter other drawings that we have. But the second chance contests are really a big deal. It gives us a chance to really leverage some of the licensed properties like the ravens, and that partnership that the lottery has with the Ravens is very, very important as as difficult as that might be for me, as a Steelers fan, to say that is a really important thing for us, because there is so much following of the ravens and people anticipate those tickets. They anticipate the Second Chance promotion because of the prizes that you’re talking about. When you make
Nestor Aparicio 11:44
a big stink about it in the off season, right? You’re gonna bring them all down. Well, there’s no construction going once they get to do it on the
Seth Elkin 11:49
field. Yeah, we should be able to do it at the stadium this year. We haven’t worked that out yet, but, yeah, the reveal of the seats for 20 years, when it will happen sometime in probably February, after the season is over, February or early March and and we’ll get a chance to bring everybody down and give them a kind of a VIP tour of the the stadium, and then reveal which one wins. Which one of the six finalists is going to win the seats for 20 years. So four of those finalists have been selected. You still have a chance to be one of those last two. We’re going to select the last two in that last drawing on the 23rd of December. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 12:19
Matt Campbell’s going to get one of these right in five minutes here, and he’s going to be Ella. Gonna be eligible to jump in on all that. This week, I had Pac Man tickets, and I was just wondering, like, if there was a miss Pac Man competition, can I win a date with Miss Pac Man? You know, like, I don’t know if we’ll do that next year, but I’ve had fun giving the tickets out all year long. Seth Elkin is here. He is trying to figure out, when the Steelers lose this week, how we’re gonna have one more pass for cash for that playoff game we’re gonna host in January, right? Well,
Seth Elkin 12:44
yep, if they do host the playoff game, we’ll certainly have a pass for cash. So yeah, that’s another opportunity in that last second chance drawing Samuel
Nestor Aparicio 12:50
got some fun talking football with you today. Anything else going on? New stuff. We had a million dollar winner last week. We’ve had some big winners as well. Yeah,
Seth Elkin 12:56
that million dollar, Mega Millions win in Bel Air at the Wawa in Bel Air is where the ticket was sold. We have not seen that winner yet as of this time that you and I are talking, so we’re waiting for that person to come in and celebrate with them. And that should be a fun experience. It’s not every day we give away a million dollar prize. So we’re we’re waiting for that to happen in anticipating that. And of course, the jackpot on Mega Millions is up past $760 million at this point. So now might be the time to go out and get yourself a Mega Millions ticket in advance of the next drawing. So I’m always blown
Nestor Aparicio 13:30
away at the end of the year, because we’re getting up on it. You tell me how many times the lottery gives $1 million out in a year? Yeah, last year was 33 of them. So are we getting up on that? We gotta surpass that. I have to go look, last year was special, because it was the 50th anniversary too. So it was like a whole different thing. Yep, we
Seth Elkin 13:47
had, we had a couple $5 million prizes because we had a few of those on the on the $50 tickets. So the 50 years ticket, we got another five $50 ticket. That’s out now. So chance to win $5 million is out there with that. That’s the top prize. Somebody’s gonna win 5 million bucks on that ticket. Somebody went, when we get enough of them sold, and somebody buys one, that’s I just
Nestor Aparicio 14:04
want the 100 grand dude, you know, I just want to win 20 bucks on a scratch offs. All I want to do, Seth Elkin is here. All I’m really want to do is it had the Steelers lose on Saturday. Big week, right? For all four of these teams, chiefs, Houston, Raven Steelers playing on Saturday, playing on Wednesday, the whole world is going to be watching. You know, you’re going to lose home field advantage in all this. No, I don’t know. Do you think the
Seth Elkin 14:29
Steelers can win the Super Bowl? Can they win the Super Bowl? No, okay. Do you think the Ravens can win the Super Bowl? Um, I think the road through the A, F, C, is really, really tough, and I just
Nestor Aparicio 14:39
admitted that the Ravens were a better team. Point spread says that six and a half to talk about point spread, I think
Seth Elkin 14:46
you got to get past buffalo. I think that’s who you’re you’re looking at getting faster. Beat
Nestor Aparicio 14:50
their ass in here September 37, to 10. Don’t you remember this September, that doesn’t count. All right. I’m just trying to be a good Raven fan here this week, because it’s, it’s the holiday. Days, but thanks for coming over. It’s good to see you. Can I can I get you some pasta? You’ve been on? Meet you before? I have not. This is great, does I had a beautiful Italian meal in Pittsburgh. La Familia is a name of a place up in this beautiful little area up on a hill in Pittsburgh. And I got sent up there. Mary Ann Scully from Loyola University sent me. I had a delicious Italian meal. But when I was there. I’m like, it’s good, but it’s not a me cheese of Little Italy. So we’re down here. I’m getting away the final Raven scratch offs I have Seth has brought me some holiday luck doubles. It’s almost like a like a potpourri of leftover tickets that I had laying in my bag because I was scratching and clawing because these Ravens have been popular. I’m down to my last batch, and they don’t say Steelers on them the way his shirt does in his office. So come on down and see us. It cost us on Wednesday, if you get the opportunity. Seth joins us up from time to time. John Martin, the executive director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming, sends us out on the Maryland crab cake tour. I am not shocked that a guy from Pittsburgh would pick the non crab cake location for the crab cake tour. So you pick the one crab cake tour ever where you don’t have a crab cake I did that on purpose. You should get the meatballs. I’ll talk get the chicken. Parm, Yep, there we go. Chicken. Parm, that’s get the Pawnee. Well, the Pawnee rotundo is the thing. The Pawnee rotundo is a shrimp scampi in a hollowed out bread bowl. It’s delicious with these giant shrimp in it. I think that’s every bit as good as any crab cake. And it’s a great invention, and they have it here to meet
Seth Elkin 16:25
you. Had me a chicken parm.
Nestor Aparicio 16:27
All right, you rigatoni guy that, but chicken parm is probably my number. Did you put rigatoni back on or is it ziti? They got rigaton. I bitched enough. Man, they took rigatoni off the menu about 10 years ago, like, what’s with the ZD out of here? And eat some fat and eat something with a little bit of meat to it. Rigatoni, good Seth Elkin is here. Tell me your role. You are the communication
Seth Elkin 16:52
I am managing director of communications, managing
Nestor Aparicio 16:54
the MD of C
Seth Elkin 16:57
so yeah, we are the the public relations department. Anybody that’s got questions or concerns about the lottery, we answered those questions were the kind of the the first people that you talk to if you contact us,
Nestor Aparicio 17:07
all you need to know is, if you have hit the little price check and it says, CMD, lottery, you’re gonna meet. You had a good day. You had a really good day. We’re down here to meet. She’s my thanks to Seth for coming in. I will not call him and torture him next week for Christmas after the Steelers lose on Saturday night, but I’ll be here for the playoff game. I am Nestor. We’re to meet you. Stay with us the Marilyn crabcake tour. We are having fun. We’re wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stop talking meatballs. What’s going cheese? Ben, you.
