John Martin of The Maryland Lottery talks new games, big Spin winners, numbers and the significance of sports wagering integrity with Nestor.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, homerun, baseball, game, ticket, years, lottery, john, riches, maryland, involved, win, good, orioles, baltimore, kent county, week, memorial day, wagering, 25th anniversary
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, John Martin
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home we are W n s t test Baltimore, Baltimore positive we’re positively into a beautiful Memorial Day ish kind of week Preakness all the stuff going on around here, evening have a raven schedule for traveling. And I’ve been doing my homework for springtime as well with Maryland crabcake tours back out on the road. I have not put the official schedule out. So this is sort of like sort of breaking news to some degree, but we’re going to be doing the show at Cooper’s north in early June. We’re going to be state fair on the sixth. We are going to be a Coco’s on the 12th. We’re going to be Costas on the 20th. Before the Orioles beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. We’re gonna be at Pappas in Parkville on the 25th of June and then we’re back at fake news on the 28th of June for Oriole baseball Talk brought to you by the Maryland lottery our friends give us these Pac Man scratch offs to give away also Liberty pure solutions where my water is clean, and Jiffy Lube MultiCare back with us for a summer where we remind you get your oil change, do all the good things to keep the motor running the motor of the Maryland lottery always running. And look Preakness fun springtime Orioles What do you got for me John Martin I hear we have winners here in the state of Maryland. We
John Martin 01:16
have winners all over the state of Maryland hello hello to you and your it’s easy for me to say hello to you and your fans Nestor I know they’re out there all listening all of them all of them. You know we I heard you just give a little casual reference to the schedule. Have you ever happened to look at the end of that schedule? Ah
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:36
no it would happen Fourth of July what happens
John Martin 01:41
when taught Fourth of July about the Raven sketch Raven
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:43
schedule. Oh, I thought you’re talking about my crabcake tour schedule. I see what happens at the end of the schedule is we have to play a lot of football games. Yes, but there’s always time there
John Martin 01:54
could only be one end of the schedule and Esther
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:59
you know don’t make me do a segment like this with you like I did with Luke the other day about what all the possibilities might be but you’re gonna help your quarterback you have saying like there’s there’s real mystery here we go Cleveland Browns quarterback situation as there is for the Pittsburgh Steelers situation. I fear the kid down in Cincinnati. Don’t tell him anybody that that’s No, he’s sort of the apple of my degree.
John Martin 02:21
We have time we have months between
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:24
you’re screwing me all up because we got Preakness we have important lottery issues, we have homerun riches. The Orioles are in first place. They’re just they’re really good. Adley rutschman hits lots of homeruns and gives lots of your money away.
John Martin 02:37
Well, let’s start there. Let’s start with homerun riches.
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:41
So you want to get off the Browns already.
John Martin 02:43
After you started? Oh, no, no, no, I’m just saying it’s the middle of May we have ample opportunity to refresh that conversation. But it is the middle of May and we so far have awarded $61,500 In homerun riches to a variety of lucky fans who win the contestant of the game by entering their home or enriches ticket and we select those on a monthly basis for the upcoming games. And if you happen to be the winner selected, you get $500 just for being selected contestant of the game. And then $500 For every homerun hit by the O’s during that game. And should they have the bags juiced loaded $5,000 for a grand slam we’ve had two of those so far, both of them pretty memorable. But yeah, looking for
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:28
greatest that rutschman Homer last week, you know, against the blue, because you’re watching that game. They’re not hitting the ball. They’re not knocking in runs. I mean, there’s runners in scoring position everywhere, all these failures, there’s umpire failures, there’s Miss tags, all this losing, not hitting the ball, not hitting homeruns if you’re the contest into the game, you’re like, Ah, this stinks. This is this isn’t homerun riches worked by just a home run. Yes. And then it’s a game winning walk off. Who would have thought it pop fly didn’t even hit it square No.
John Martin 04:07
Ball. It was a fly ball. Let’s call it what it is. It was not a titanic blast. It was a fly ball. Maybe had a little help. But I’m not gonna go there. I’m not gonna go there. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:17
was at the Jeffrey Mayer game and it’s a part of my 25th anniversary. Yes. How crazy it was 28 years ago now, right? Like that’s the hardest part for you. We say Jeffrey Mayer. It’s just sort of like that’s a baseball named the guy. But it was. It was aided. I mean, but hey, either way lot. John Martin’s got to go back into the vault and find the 500 pay it off with pay
John Martin 04:38
it off. You know, who’s who’s counting on this week. Big weekend series coming up here. Kathy Nixon in Fort Washington is up on the first game of the Mariner series. Patricia Morgan on deck from Brooklyn Park for the second game of the marriage watched a lot of baseball Avenue and Melissa barent Also from Brooklyn Park in the hole as they say in sports. So we got up at the plate on deck in the hole. We’ve got the big mariners season. I’m hoping we give away Grand Slams every night. Because that’s the kind of guy I am. Yeah, Martin hates
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:11
when I go all personal on him and find out all of all of the secrets of his childhood, you know, love of Cleveland sports. But what do you what do you love about Baseball, baseball has been in your life, your whole life, right? Like I mean, I and this is a part of the vernacular of my culture, not just Aparicio and like, but Baltimore and East Baltimore, my friendships and acini Orioles come back to life like this. It is activated relationships, conversations, Luke talks about it all the time. He’s like, I got friends we haven’t tried to talk to they know, I covered the team. They didn’t bother me when I was down at the ballpark, and they’re losing hundreds engaged. What was your love of baseball, because you do speak of the game as like a real fan. You mean, you know, when it came to corn is, you know, you know, what’s, you know,
John Martin 05:54
you know, it’s it’s my fondest memory. And I know you’ve got anyone who watches baseball has an initial memory, right. And back in the days of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and municipal stadium in Cleveland was walking up the old ramp from the concourse, up to the second deck to our seats and left field and the first time you come up the ramp, and the VISTA opens for you, and you see how green the grass is. And you see the enormity of the ballpark and you’re seven years old, six years old, or whatever, whatever age it is. And you look and you see players that you’ve only seen on television now in person, and the smells, the sounds, the sights, all of that. Those are things that are indelible, those things never go wacko, underneath.
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:43
Both of those stadia. I mean, I’ve sat and watched baseball football in both of those places a lot more Memorial, but I would remind you, I was there that one day the Broncos were not gonna tell me but I was there that day and the roar and the sound, especially your stadium because it was bigger. It had the scene. Memorial stage war was a little louder because it was more concrete years had those girders that held it up or art modell and and it was just so much more open. It was just such a giant, cavernous building. But that sound can’t be replicated. The smell can’t be replicated the feeling and I listen I can’t it a guy last night we played Oakland and there’s the whole situation with Oakland baseball and that’s the that’s the last stadium I go in when I’m in it and I’m walking around it really it’s built like Memorial Stadium that concrete when you’re underneath the men’s rooms when you go in the alcoves that concessions to every part of it the ramps it’s just like memorials that smells like memorials and literally and and it’s going to you know that you can’t replicate that and I would agree with that. And I think for Camden Yards and for whatever this next thing is this is the beginning of something really special I think for baseball fans here and I do hope they can grow it and make it awesome that 50 years from now tool conscious like you and I are talking about it and they’re talking about watching that athlete rutschman ball get aided that cost you 500 bucks so John Martin is here he’s the executive director of all things you know you said that eloquently about your love of baseball right like what
John Martin 08:20
do you saw surprised not
Nestor J. Aparicio 08:24
Who was your first guy What was your first team with with with I see almost said the I work with the
John Martin 08:31
Indians then what do you mean the first? I mean, there were guys that were Tito Francona, not to be confused with his son Terry Francona. Tito Francona rocky Colavito, Fred Whitfield, Sam McDowell. I mean, these are guys Ray Fauci before he got the unfortunate collision that ruined his career you know, you’ve got these are again these are these are names that I’ll Max Elvis Larry Brown, daddy WAGs Leon Wagner, Vic devil Leo who just passed away God rest his soul.
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:01
Oh, Devil Leo passed away really? Oh, yeah. But
John Martin 09:04
a couple months ago,
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:05
I had his baseball I mean, you’re mentioning these are all familiar to me. I’ll just say this when we get back to scratch offs and crabcakes and all that sudden Sam McDowell one of my partners and one of the really good people in my lifetime cap was grew up loving baseball. It’s our it’s our relationship over 40 years. He was my my health professor at Dundalk Community College became a he said that he’s in the video as well. And hit the Indians were his team in the 60s and he loves sudden Sam McDowell like that was his guy and the funniest thing because this thing listens I know you know this I literally 48 hours ago all these old baseball pictures are showing up that you know it’s sort of knows I like old uniforms and all every Charlie Finley old flashy A’s and Nolan right like it knows I like to like jerseys and stuff. So it just finds me but like the right Fauci collision and 73 and all that, but sudden Sam McDowell showed up on my timeline. And like if I don’t know who took the picture was 1968. At Memorial Stadium in the windup, right. And the stands were completely empty. There were like 10 people in the box seats and 1968 60 wherever it was, and to see how far we’ve come with baseball, you know, like when I see that I see, when you love baseball, and I love baseball, not everybody loves baseball, some are 79, or real magic. It went from really nobody being there to like, by the end of the summer, they had captured the imagination of the city. And the way cardiac kids in your town are like, I remember coming in striking around o’clock, but back in the day and John, for you with sports and where we are anything with sports, wagering updates, news, other than patio, we get a lot of stories, people need to take it slow, and I’m always sort of leading my sports wagering with have a good time with it, but it’s out there, and it’s in front of people every night, especially on the baseball side. And we’re baseball people,
John Martin 10:52
it is kind of a slow period of time, although I will teach you that we have potentially some new entrants into the sports book lineup that will hopefully make their way again, at this point, the market is pretty well established. So these are people that are going to come in and be challenged a little bit to carve out their niche, but we wish them well nonetheless. So we’ll have a handful of new entrants between now and let’s say midsummer, I think people just kind of getting ready for the next football season. To see if they can they can stake a claim and get get into the action. But overall, things are relatively quiet. I mean, the big news and sports wagering as you’re well aware, yeah, happens to do unfortunately with integrity. And and you know, again, if nothing else, we sell integrity across the board, whether it’s a lottery ticket, and the drawings are on the up and up to coin a phrase whether it’s casino wagering whether it’s sports wagering, you know, once you start to tremble on the integrity side, man, that thing can fall down pretty quickly. And when you have players and and people linked to players involved.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:01
Well, it also speaks to bad umpiring bad officiating. And we’re just in a different point. Now, with everything’s magnified. Absolutely. In every sport, every pass interference call moves, billions of dollars, you know, like, it’s, it’s amazing. And for it to be on the up and up. That’s all the more reason why, like, you know, I look, I talked about this 24 hours a day, these leads have now gotten into this, and they are now the judge and jury as to who wins bets. And that’s there really needs to be oversight, you know, on this, and I’ve talked about that, as a sports radio person. And when I welcome you a few years ago to say, well, we’re going to make this legal now. And I hear that on every, in every aspect of society and thinking, this was happening in very, very bad black market ways in the past forever. And you used up and up, thank you for that. That’s my dad’s line was up and up. By the way, I even use Charlie acklins line this week and said, he’s the right guy, which was also but Charlie would say on the up and up too. And Charlie was big into wagering big into the ponies 50 years ago. And we’ve talked about this on the radio forever. And people would say what’s the point spread and Jimmy the Greek with the intangibles, and like all of that, this is now there. And I think for every sports fan in my audience, people to play games, we really do want things on the up and up, you know, we’ve all felt cheated in life or felt like something was unfair. We certainly don’t want to feel that way. When we wager, you know, and and people love to wager we talk about it all the time, but they want it on the up and
John Martin 13:32
up. Yeah, people do and and in my role as regulator, our role is regulator, which I don’t take lightly and we treat every instance extremely seriously. You know, there’s, again, some noise in the marketplace, we took a little bit of I don’t want to say heat, but but a little shine light on us. We were very early adopters of the prohibition on college athlete Proposition bets. Because of the inherent, we believe, the inherent harm it may do for young student athletes, putting them in really terrible positions, you know, they miss a foul shot, and then they you know, they’re in class the next day was somebody who, who was upside down on a bet and now you’ve got, or
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:17
worse, it doesn’t even have to be some writing class. Let’s be honest. Right. Right. Exactly. Right.
John Martin 14:21
And and, you know, and, of course, the pushback from some people who should know better, I’m a little disappointed. Some people in the industry said, Well, you’re just going to push people to the illegal market. You know, that’s almost laughable on a number of fronts. First of all, the illegal market preceded the legal market. I mean, that’s just fact. People were betting like you said black market before we even legalized gaming. So it was already making
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:47
movies about that for 100 years. Exactly. So So that’s, that’s the first
John Martin 14:51
hello moment. Secondly, they’re illegal for a reason. It’s in their name. And I don’t care what you legalize, they’re always going to find Something plus one, right? If wherever you draw the line, if you draw the line at no prop bets, they’re gonna offer prop bets you draw the line at okay will offer prop bets, they’re gonna find something else, right? Otherwise they’re going to cede their illegal market space to you as the legal entity you think they really want to do that now. So don’t tell me that in a holier than thou moment that you believe that we, as a regulator are inhibiting your right to spend your money how you want to, you know, go ahead, go ahead, spend your money, but I’m going to do the right thing every day of the week. And in this case, prohibitions on college student athletes was the right thing it was months ago, we did it, it’s the right thing today, it’d be the right thing months from now. So that’s a role that we we really enjoy playing is, is being the eyes and ears being the voice of integrity and consistency. And yeah, every day, there are more people that migrate from an illegal market to a legal market. And we’re thankful for that because of the player protections and the resources that help they’re there. But you’re never going to eradicate an illegal market is always going to be there. And don’t tell me that what I’m doing is pushing somebody into that market space. I’m not buying that today. Well,
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:14
I think there’s plenty of ways to wager easily if you wish to win a college basketball game, that we don’t need to make it dangerous for the for the athletes, and we certainly you under the pro side, don’t need to make it enticing for the actual athletes who are or officials or anyone to get involved in fixing anything. Right? Like I mean, that that is the ultimate charge for Roger Goodell, man, all the way across over all the way across all of that, that if they’re going to be involved in this, they need to be as on the up and up as you are. And every lottery is in anyone that has a bingo parlor, you’re literally doing this fairly. And that’s what officiating is for. That’s what oversight is for. And that’s why we’re glad John marks here. He’s the Executive Director of all things marital lottery gaming, this is good that we’re, you know, throwing this out, because I think sometimes I hear about this and we don’t necessarily address it. But we also do winters around here and I know we have big winners, my wife keeps pulling up in front of Weiser in front of row farms and seeing she sees three digits and it’s, you know, 180 Hoonah from Mega Millions and Powerball she’s like, alright, is it time? And I’m like, it’s usually time when it gets to be that time. You
John Martin 17:26
know what we are fortunate enough to have, where would I put it here? Coming up as we speak, coming up in the weekend. $393 million, mega million jackpot. $77 million Powerball jackpot. But reminding players that there are many prizes available, not just the top tier. So check your tickets, hang on to those. Slot buy any of our 4400 retailers scan your ticket, get the download of their updated mobile app, scan your ticket and see if you’re a winner. And many people do when you go to MD lottery.com. To find out and read some stories on people winning a variety of of games, whether they’re scratch off tickets, daily numbers, games, Powerball? Mega Millions. Here’s my favorite Powerball story of the week. gentleman was retiring Kent County gentleman retiring. His natural habit would be to buy Powerball tickets and stick them in his wallet check him when he can finally got to checking that and found out that he had a Powerball winning ticket of $50,000 that he purchased three days before his retirement. Happy retirement. Go spend your $50,000 and enjoy your fishing and other hobbies that you’d like to pursue.
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:36
Went to Kent County. I’ve been to King County. It’s a you know, that’s beautiful over there. Right. It is. Chestertown Kent County I had I’ve had crab cakes there. You know the place. I’ve never been in Kent County’s Rock Hall because I don’t have a boat. It’s more of like a boating thing north of the Bay Bridge. So Rock Hall when I do the oyster tour with the Maryland lottery which I’m plotting in September I got I can’t do it in October John, we got planning on some playoff baseball, be hanging the bunting. So I’m going to do but I gotta get the Rock Hall. So there you go. Kent County. good reminder to me about the crabcake tour and then the oyster tour that I want to do. That is another
John Martin 19:12
here’s another reminder for fast play players that we have aggressive games which means you know a couple coins go into the pot after every tickets purchased until that progressive jackpot is won and a Prince George’s County woman has a lucky Casino Royale slots game. Even though that slot is in the name, it is a fast play ticket. She took let’s see it was $10 ticket. She won $50 on it. Put 40 in her pocket, took 10 reinvested that another ticket one of the progressive at over $112,000 That’s a pretty nice story to have for someone
Nestor J. Aparicio 19:54
progressive because a lot of your games do have that right and that’s what I always say to my wife. That’s what I say it’s for second chances all the time. And people were like, how do I do that? And I’m like, it’s just, if you have a phone most of us do for playing lottery tickets, usually have a phone. And folks come to me and fade these when I give them away. And they, and I say, just get the app, and then get involved, right, you know, enter your stuff. Every time you play, enter, enter. And don’t forget that second chance. And this is really, I think, at the core of why you and I talk every week is letting everybody knows you can buy to scratch it off. And when something not everybody, percentage wise, surely you could tell me those percentages of how many you sell, versus how many get second chance entered. I mean, it’s the whole basis of the homerun riches right is that there will be a better prize than a 10 bucks that you could win on it, because you’ll have that second chance to win $100,000 And a progressive at some points. The
John Martin 20:52
Homer riches ticket that we’ve spoken of numerous times already today alone has the progressive jackpot attached to it. And right now it’s over nearly $117,000 on that ticket, and you can go to MD lottery.com. Click on the fast play ticket lineup. And you can find those games that are progressive jackpots and you can see what their current totals are and then go to your retail and take a look there and put your money where you think you’d have a good chance at that and enjoy it play responsibly when you do and who knows you might be fortunate enough to win one of these progressive jackpots
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:30
yapping allows you promoting homerun riches for you because like, the whole idea is to get your name drawn out of the hat. So you get the run around and maybe rutschman It’s a grand slam and you win five grand, which isn’t bad. It’s nice. It’s good. Maybe Maybe it hit four home runs at night you win six grand, seven grand. But the idea is to win the 117 Grand right? I don’t say that enough.
John Martin 21:52
Yeah, that’s a nice side side benefit. Here’s here’s a fun story.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:56
Did they say my name with TV if I would? I don’t know. But that’s the
John Martin 22:02
that’s a whole nother episode on the every single bandwagon I don’t know what they’ll do if that happens.
Nestor J. Aparicio 22:10
Well, you know this Come on. Here’s
John Martin 22:12
here’s some fun with our bonus bingo times 20 scratch off game. Again, go to MD Llodra calm to read the stories. But she had to share this last one with your Prince George’s County resident who always plays $5 games, that’s his jam $5 games until he’s standing in a store. When he looks over at the vending machine, and is drawn to it magic got a feeling he had a feel Yes, he had a feeling drawn to a $10 game. Actually, this one is a $20 Bingo game. So he scratches it wins a second year prize of only $50,000. And he’s going to take that money now. From home improvements, going to fund some home improvements, which involve renovating a bathroom and improving his driveway. And I hope those are two separate projects. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:08
Well, they’re both very important as a guy who’s flooded a guy who’s who’s had septic my question to him, does he go back to $5 games now? Or does he you know what I mean? Does he mix in a $20 game every every now and again? It’s probably you know, the $5 games were fun, but this is different 50 grands different.
John Martin 23:26
It is it is you’ll be a change person. Actually, I just realized I can play to two stories together. But you know what? I had to get to the bathroom driveway thing. So that was my, my ear and we’re just
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:37
gonna have a punch line. Listen, I’ve heard bad jokes all week. I was at the alibi breakfast and Dewayne Lucas. Dewayne Lucas came in at with just written material. Oh, crush Kenny McPeak? You know he was he was it this wasn’t the Brady roast. It was I was gonna say wasn’t quite the Tom Brady rose because the kids and the wife weren’t involved in this, but it definitely was roasty it got a little toasty. roasty in the clubhouse over Pimlico John, I wish you I’m taking a little respite, the next week from Memorial Day here and it’s our 25th anniversary. The documentary is up. Hey, I got a beautiful note from Doug Lloyd who watched it Seth and I talked about this a couple weeks ago. So I’m promoting that a little bit through this but but more than that, I’m going to present some of my favorites next week for Memorial Day because you know the other stations do like fight good Memorial Day 500 Countdown and all that. We’re launching a brand new website next weekend all sorts of new things. So courtesy of Jessica Vallis and our partners in Hartford designs here. So love Jessica, we’ve been working real hard on that. So, you know, bigger and better onward and upward. We’re gonna have a new Pimlico right I mean, we’re moving race down the Laurel, we’re going to start doing things. We got Oriole parks going to have renovations camping, the football stadium. This is a beautiful like we’re going into something here we got first place baseball team. We’re going into this Nothing here
John Martin 25:00
we are, we are in Far be it for me not to try to hitch our wagon to this but those renovations brought to you by the Maryland lottery.
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:10
We’ll talk about that two weeks from now. How about that? Yeah,
John Martin 25:12
yeah, we can we can do that. All right, I’ll
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:14
be nice to you. I’ll try anyway, I hope you have a beautiful Memorial Day holiday. I hope Same to you. It’s a crab cake and you Midwestern types with the with the cheeseburgers and a hammer, whatever you’re putting on the grill, you know, whatever you’re doing mixing, mixing something local, you know, some get some crab chips or something like that. John Martin is the Executive Director of the Maryland lottery. He adores me each and every week on behalf of the Maryland lottery, where I bring out things like these PacMan scratches. I had the most fun pictures of me with winners down at the failing I have to send this over to Ross. Last week we gave a few out and people started winning and they were and I want to get mad. I’m like, Come on, take a picture. If you win and they come over the like, I’m ready for my picture. And they do these fun thing and they went two bucks or five bucks and you have a good time and they use their scan. All of it brought to you by the mayor the lobby so I got the dates out cost this Coco’s Cooper’s of fate lease. I don’t leave it Pappas in Parkville. State Fair in Catonsville all during the month of June. Let’s conversations elections over now at least for the primaries, baseball’s in and we got a really nice summer here, where I just think there’s a lot of great things to talk about ball too much we’re gonna be doing around here I am Nestor. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stopped talking 25th anniversary in Baltimore positive stay with us.
John Martin of Maryland Lottery talks winners, numbers and sports wagering integrity with Nestor
