What comes after you hit the big one?

John Martin of Maryland Lottery tells Nestor about aftermath of hitting the big one in Mega Millions or PowerBall.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

maryland, maine, sports wagering, week, lottery, state, governor, people, winner, year, business, win, games, friends, ravens, play, money, john, good, big

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Back at W N S, T Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we were positively into the new year and do a new crab. Casey I put an APB out earlier this week and on social media that I’m looking for crab cakes and oysters I’ve kind of bread crumb the little bit. Some things we’re gonna be doing but we’re ramping up the Maryland crabcake tortoise all presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery slot a handful holiday cash crops be giving these away next week and Catonsville State Fair El Guapo and Beaumont all kind of coming together as well as a new pit beef joint they have over there great great entrepreneurial friends of ours over kittens will be at State Fair all the brought to you by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at when donation 866 90. Nation to buy two you get two free and 60 months zero financing. That’s a better deal than they gave me. John Martin joins us now. It’s playoffs around here. This is playoffs, Steelers. And Browns fans. We still look down upon them about couple five days ago we were in the playoffs and now we’re just all Turi visitors. Yeah, I’m

John Martin  01:06

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saving you a seat next to me. Come on over.

Nestor Aparicio  01:08

We’re all in the draft. And by the way, the draft is in Kansas City. I know you’re looking forward to knowing that. How are you happy new year and offseason for football people and on season for those of us who who picked winners last weekend Luke and I made our picks last week and I did okay. So I feel like you know

John Martin  01:23

what picking winners last week, there was no bigger winner than the $1.3 billion dollar plus winner in the state of Maine. And I’ve not read the details yet, but I’m sure that the winner won the state of Maine. I think I think with the cash value, they just hand them the keys to the governor’s mansion. And now that winner will rule for eternity.

Nestor Aparicio  01:45

Gross Domestic Product now is completely owned by the winner. But you know, last week you and I did some inside poker on lottery. There’s a John Martin sitting up in Maine right now and Maine’s the big winner, right? Because there’s a tax benefit to this right.

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John Martin  01:58

Yeah. Well, you know what each state is different. And I I’d be remiss if I if I acknowledged what each states was. I don’t know that. I don’t know what means tax structures on that. As I mentioned, Maryland tends to be a little bit on the steep side with all the jurisdictions some states tax zero on lottery winnings. I don’t know where Maine is in that whole spectrum. But nevertheless, by

Nestor Aparicio  02:21

Maine, you gotta claim it me. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah, of course.

John Martin  02:25

Right. Although, unless you’re going to Newfoundland, I don’t know where you’re going. If you’re if you’re passing through Maine. Or you’ve been to Maine? No, no, I

Nestor Aparicio  02:34

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had met because Kate bailed me with your main story. I’d never been to me all right. So and I when I was nationally syndicated I was on the air in Portland, Maine, and I was on afternoon drive, and they flew me up. This was the week after the Ravens won the Super Bowl 2001 I had a lobster as big as me, so you know what I’m saying? So I went one time and I did this like promotions radio promotion. I played bubble hockey with hockey players and the Portland pirates did this whole nasty Nester thing. So it had been 20 years and I was in in and out if I had never been to Bar Harbor, I’d never seen the blueberry fields in the mountains and all that my wife and I did it to chasing Springsteen to month in New Brunswick. So I assure you there St John’s there’s New Brunswick, there’s Monckton, there’s Bay of Fundy. There’s cheap lobster in the right time to season a delicious wild Maine blueberry pie. And then there’s Nova Scotia. So I did go and I will heartily recommend that it doesn’t sound sounds like Rocky beaches and lighthouses and all that means okay, in the summer, you should go to Maine. John,

John Martin  03:37

there you go. There. This brought to you by the Maine Tourism Council. Reds great news. That’s great. You know what else is great news. Well, you have winners this week. Let me tell you we always have winners this week. And lo and behold, it wasn’t here in Maryland but right on the Hot on the heels of the $1.3 billion we had another mega million winners last night 20 million. Your resets like that’s like being in the starting block and the gun goes off what false start

Nestor Aparicio  04:02

getting banned when you only went 20 million when the week before was 1,000,000,003 I don’t know because he went 20 million like I would think it would greatly change your life no matter what tax structure which state you’re in, right?

John Martin  04:14

Yeah, but I would say there’s that books going on there you know if they had just been able to hang on one more draw they would have had real big money but yeah, I think they’ll take the 20 million winnings and and and they’ll be alright maybe they’ll go to the people

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Nestor Aparicio  04:27

that don’t pay the dollar and add on and play

John Martin  04:31

with it got one of those in our winner I’m not gonna embarrass the winner we got one of those Winner winner stories but you know, you got to empty lottery.com To hear wonderful stories about winners. And I hope you find one about this look, you know, we these things go in, in cyclical patterns. You know, people when they’re they don’t when they’re, we have an ordinate number of people from Washington, DC and Virginia coming in poaching coming into Maryland, winning our prizes and going

Nestor Aparicio  04:56

home and tributing to the tax space. What

John Martin  04:58

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are we You appreciate what they do for us but Washington DC resident $100,000 and our new $10.06 figure scratch off and in fact, I counted them $100,000 is in fact six figures. So promises made promises kept on that one for a Washington DC resident, you can get all the details at MD lottery dot

Nestor Aparicio  05:19

get on the move to Maryland. Maybe they’ll feel good about our state now, right? Yeah,

John Martin  05:22

yeah. Yeah. And I love stories like this. Talk about persistence there is there is something to be said for persistence. Nestor I know your lovely wife Jen is very persistent when it comes to big jackpots. And, and I hope one day that that that comes she was

Nestor Aparicio  05:37

really disappointed when she she was somebody who’s name one. Yeah. You know?

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John Martin  05:42

Well, that she heard your travel tourism pitch. No, she’s

Nestor Aparicio  05:46

from New Hampshire. thing? No, no that listen, New Hampshire people. They have a term for people from Maine they call them maniacs. I’m not going to tell you what they call the people from Massachusetts. No, that’s not gonna do that. But my wife has an anti name. It’s a New England thing. They don’t like Vermont. They don’t like I mean, Rhode Island. Nobody hates Rhode Island, right? I mean, it’s kind right. I mean, yeah, I mean, everybody’s nice to Rhode Island, cuz it’s tiny, but they have their anti Maine they are Wow.

John Martin  06:19

Well, we had a lovely player from Frederick, a staunch racetracks player who and for those of your listeners and viewers who aren’t familiar with racetracks, it is a simulated horse racing game that is played on monitors across the state. I’m

Nestor Aparicio  06:37

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in cost. It’s it looks like a real horse race. I have to Yeah, I I’m like, Nope, that’s not a real race. That’s that’s racetracks, okay.

John Martin  06:45

And the odds on the horses are proportionate to their number. So the favor to never race is the number one horse and the longest of long shots is the number 12. Horse. And you can bet just like you do in a horse race, you can bet do the trifecta and superfecta us and all those fun things. And

Nestor Aparicio  07:03

I get to do what I do with the track, which is not read the form and just pat on the back. I like

John Martin  07:07

sure I like the color, you like the color of the silks. There you go. So this gentleman buys the 1011 12 trifecta, the longest of the long shots, because when it comes in, it comes in pretty hefty to the tune of $30,734. And he’s done this now twice, once last year, once this year, but you know that that but that’s a commitment, right? He’s gonna play these longest of long shots through the year and when it hits, you know, it’s a nice little

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Nestor Aparicio  07:35

again, imagine you’re just sitting at the bar and you’re playing the game and you know, any of the how many locations 4000 Now how many you got 4400

John Martin  07:43

locations,

Nestor Aparicio  07:44

any of the 4400 locations and you play a long shot and 30 grand comes in and you’re sitting there over some Oysters Rockefeller, right. And that’s a good feeling. They have to come see you when they win that right.

John Martin  07:56

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Oh, yeah. Well, and on their way to Annapolis. So I mean, the prices over $25,000 are paid from, from the Annapolis vault, but up to $25,000. They can visit us here at MD or at Maryland lottery headquarters. They can

Nestor Aparicio  08:14

ask you can you use that Annapolis? I wanted to ask you about this because Wes Moore coming in this week. And we talked a lot about the state fund and where all the money goes. And certainly the sports wagering and all of that for for legislatures, I’ve talked to all sorts of people in different industries. Everybody goes to Annapolis and you’re a state agency, right? So everybody’s been to the hospital association, the cannabis industry, just people that everybody’s waiting on, things to change and laws to change. What is the lottery business in regard to this sort of change? What What should a knucklehead Dundalk like me need to know about how that business is transacted?

John Martin  08:52

Well, you hope that nothing changes? You know, we tend to be a political you know, the our beneficiaries cross both sides of the aisle our our retailers cross both sides of the aisle and and yes, we happen to report to the sitting governor for the last eight years Governor Larry Hogan before that, Martin O’Malley I mean, just you know, so you just you just wait your place in line and when the new administration comes in and the dust settles as to who your new contexts are. You know, it’s not unlike here’s a segue coming Nestor not unlike you know, your beloved ravens in my beloved Browns with now new offensive coordinators wink wink potentially

Nestor Aparicio  09:36

Oh no, no that’s happened No no, you mean hear me Schwartz my buddy got got your job. I am now don’t tell anybody. I’m a closet Browns fan because of family yeah me Jimmy. Oh my dude you know we are recording

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John Martin  09:51

this correct. So if the Browns is a recording working, can

Nestor Aparicio  09:54

I say this? If the Browns win the Superbowl Oh play that’s an if all right. That’s an F. But if the Browns win the Super Bowl, my friend will get a ring out of it. Eagles, and I felt good about it. I felt good about the Eagles winning. That’s, that’s how you will feel good about that happened three weeks from now if it happens again,

John Martin  10:15

you’ve you’ve already sold your soul. So that’s alright, that’s good. But no, but it’s a lot like that, you know, and of course the governor, you’re more likely to the head coach changing. But anytime you have a regime change in any industry, there’s always a lull period of okay, let’s just kind of business as usual. Until we find out what the new cadence is, what’s new rhythm? You know, what are the things that we can do? What are the things we can’t do? What are the things that take a longer ramp up time? Who do we need to work with in the back channels to make sure that, that we understand the directives and the policies in place? And that’s going to take hopefully, not too long, but it’s gonna take a little adjustment period. I mean, we’re right now, we’ve just started the the General Assembly session, you know, that it starts in, in early January runs to early April. And that’s where all the the laws happen. The business of the state happens and, and we’ll go through our budgetary sessions and our hearings, and our command performance is down there over the next several weeks. But yeah, the hope is, by the time the general assembly is done in the second week of April, we will have a couple months under Governor more will kind of know where our marching orders are, and then we’ll be able to kind of hit our stride. You know, sometime in that second quarter of the year.

Nestor Aparicio  11:26

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That’s well, you just said Governor Moore, it rolled off. You’re like I heard it’s the first time I’ve heard it. As governor Moore you know, West. West comes on all the time. And I love Wes and it’s all good, but I haven’t heard. I like to call him Governor now. Moments gonna make me do that because I’m gonna have to do that. But John Martin is here he is. He’s the governor and you’re the director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming. I better that way. Trust

John Martin  11:48

me it works better that way.

Nestor Aparicio  11:49

Well, well, I do I call you Director I just call you, John. I’m not you know,

John Martin  11:54

I think your excellency would be fine. But that’s

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Nestor Aparicio  11:57

okay. Well, Your Excellency, let me think let me expand upon that. Because I want to give you a little oxygen here this week and sort of a slow news week, because you always have so much news making up. And it’s a big sports wagering week weekend, these were the best games of the year, last year. I mean, these were unbelievable games. Your business and the business of the Maryland lottery as a governor would see it completely different than when Larry Hogan took over eight years ago as to when Larry Hogan took over four years ago as to where it was a year ago. Right. Like your business is dramatically different than and then Larry would have even dreamed of eight years ago. She’d be Governor Hogan, I could probably call him Larry now because he’s about to go out. But But I would think your business as much as any other business. And you always, you know, rightfully crow about how much money you put in the pot number four, and the state of all of the places that put money in yours is uniquely different in that it’s changed. Probably like when I talk about the cannabis space, or maybe even the hospital space after after COVID. But your industry has changed dramatically in the last eight weeks, literally with mobile coming on, right?

John Martin  13:05

Yes. And I could go back and get the the contribution we made eight years ago, you know, in Governor Hogan’s first year, I don’t know what it is, but but trust it to be significantly less than the $1.5 billion we delivered at the end of last fiscal year and it will be less than the first check we deliver in the new governor more administration. I mean, that’s that’s kind of the way the lottery and gaming business is structured is that each year, you’re more than likely going to do a little bit better than you did the year before. And you relate it to other industries, whether it be healthcare or transportation, or police. I mean, you look at any other funded program at a state or local level. And those things I mean, there, you don’t always have that. I mean, if anything is more than expenses, right? The expenses keep growing. Here, the revenue keeps growing. So

Nestor Aparicio  13:58

you have an obligation to make it grow. Right. That’s Oh, absolutely.

John Martin  14:01

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I mean, that’s, that’s why we exist. I mean, you know, people think we exist to pay them money. Spoiler alert, we don’t exist, you know, we exist solely to generate revenue, so that the multitude of good causes that the state is obligated to fulfill get some funding to support that.

Nestor Aparicio  14:22

It’s on the up and up and like, Well, I mean, we’re talking about sports wagering here, it was never on the up and up like 52 weeks ago, right. So just the fact that all of these people you know that are wagering, please do it responsibly again. But but all of that now, it’s not a guy in an alley or whatever. The bookmaker guy, it’s it’s under your purview and now gonna be under Governor Moore’s purview as well.

John Martin  14:46

Bill Miller is the is the head of the American gaming Association in Washington DC. And Bill is a staunch believer in the fact that while this is a good start with regulating sports wagering, that there is still a much larger illegal black market on sports wagering that exists in this country. And that was the whole promise. When things started to shift back in 2018, to legalizing and bringing states in on sports wagering was to to address the illegal market where you have no player protections where you have no money coming in for state causes. And today yeah, we’ve we’ve made a dent in that as an as a nation. But you know, it’s hardly time to take a victory lap, you know, the war is not over the the battle still continue, and people still to this day, continue to seek those, those other offshore illegal black market sports wagering options, because they can, they’re out there.

Nestor Aparicio  15:48

So our safety in the up and up that you get your oversight provides when I’m being inundated with any number of the casinos, you know, operating on television, radio, or otherwise. Like, at the end of the day, all this bluster you and I have been after for the last year and a half is to make sure that the bets are paid. And it’s on the up and up, right.

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John Martin  16:10

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I hope all the references and took the points because that would make for it. And you know what, and we won’t see the results again on the December wagers until January 10. So when we talk after January tends to release we’ll see how well the Ravens fleck did this this month. Well, this is

Nestor Aparicio  16:29

why I didn’t bet last weekend because I picked 3716 I thought that would be I thought the offensive line to the Bengals was going to hold up. You know the good news for all of us is I don’t think the Bengals can win. So we won’t have them any more to worry about John Barton is here he is the director of all things Maryland lottery and gaming in the sports game. Anything you want to say about sports wagering in the next couple of weeks because it is going to slow down to some degree from that perspective after the Superbowl but this is sort of the most wonderful time of the year where television whether we’re all captive the games are usually really good. These are the seven best games of the year and I would think that you couldn’t wait you’re on it from your phone a year ago I would think there’d be a lot of activity the next month

John Martin  17:12

there will absolutely be a lot of activity and I heard on the drive in this morning a great radio spot from our partners at the center of excellence on problem gambling that please have a plan budget your time budget your money enjoy it for the entertainment value it is no one should be making wagers to manage financial obligations. So just you know enjoy it but but treat it for what it is and be respectful of the process and then please please play responsibly

Nestor Aparicio  17:43

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I will responsible would be the thing that was circulated on the internet the other day that Darren Revell apparently when it charges rubbed 27 Nothing someone bet like a million dollars that they would win and and and lost I mean obviously somebody probably has some wherewithal you know to do that but it is a it’s an amazing thing where people go in believing something in in game and just be careful everybody cuz I got a lot of people out there that love sports and and have a good time with it. You know be be be Be careful what you’re doing here this weekend. And and if you took the Ravens cash it in last weekend if you got droids

John Martin  18:19

you know what else you’re gonna have some fun with. This is our 50th anniversary year.

Nestor Aparicio  18:24

I’ve heard that shingle and I love that song.

John Martin  18:27

And good, good. Well, you’ll be hearing a lot more. And you can go to MD lottery.com and click on the 50 of the Year button on the website and see all the new games and new promotions coming down the line that people will be able to enjoy new tickets and we’ve talked about more of them as they come out in the weeks ahead. New fun games, promotions and somewhere along the line we could have lucky winners winning up to $5 million dollars. How’s that for a tease?

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Nestor Aparicio  18:55

I think I know some people at the Maryland lottery and I really want to get the wishbone old school 1981 logo for my my crab cake tours in March and April and May and my oyster tours after that. So I’m going to try to talk to somebody at the Maryland lottery see if I can arrange that. I have a few holiday cast drops to the left here. We’re gonna be giving these away next Friday. We’re going to be in Catonsville State Fair, our friends at Oak WaPo and Beaumont, Evan everybody over there. Keith, great family to us from before COVID One of the really the inspiration for the Maryland crabcake tour. It is all presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery in conjunction with wind donation and John and then we’ve had exciting times right here. You’re not gonna give 1,000,000,003 away this week, but we can maybe work our way back to that to get my wife all worked up. All right.

John Martin  19:41

Powerball jackpot. $439 million. So it’s all it’s a good start. All right, but

Nestor Aparicio  19:47

why she won the Powerball now she’s often Mega Millions now. It’s been hit twice this week. Appreciate your challenge John Martin from the Maryland lottery all things Maryland lottery gaming, he could find him as well out of the front of Baltimore positive with these enlightening sometimes Educational and sometimes anti Cleveland anti Raven cause we have a little bit of fun it’s not even guardians it’s baseball season now it’s guardians ORS I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570 Towson Baltimore sporting my drug city shirt for March 3 in the Maryland crabcake tour we are Baltimore positive.com Stay with us