Monopoly Millionaires' Club to air on GSN starting in February

[LetsGoYankees]

A syndicated game show named Monopoly Millionaire's Club, which is an interactive lottery game show hosted by the New York Lottery, will reportedly air on Game Show Network starting in February. 22 states will participate. No details on number of episodes or whether they are 30 minute/60 minute episodes.

Monopoly Millionaires' Club will be hosted by Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly. Fairly big name attached to this show.

[Jamey Greek]

Good for me because my state does not have lottery.

[PYLdude]

A syndicated game show named Monopoly Millionaire's Club, which is an interactive lottery game show hosted by the New York Lottery, will reportedly air on Game Show Network starting in February. 22 states will participate. No details on number of episodes or whether they are 30 minute/60 minute episodes.

Monopoly Millionaires' Club will be hosted by Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly. Fairly big name attached to this show.

Haven't we discussed this, in depth, on other forums?

[Thunder]

Can we ever have enough Monopoly Millionaires Club discussion?

/Yep, crossed the NC border and bought a $5 ticket today
//Why the hell not?

[PYLdude]

Can we ever have enough Monopoly Millionaires Club discussion?

/Yep, crossed the NC border and bought a $5 ticket today
//Why the hell not?

Hell, I watched the video and the dissection of it that somebody posted here and I'm still not sure how it works.

But we are selling the tickets here in Jersey, so we'll see if I'm feeling lucky enough at some point.

I liked the game show games where you actually had to do something connected (DOND, original Wheel from way back). And then there were branded ones that were the typical "match/beat the number and win" (Cash Cab, most recent Wheel).

[Thunder]

Speed Round: The jackpot is either $15, $18, $21 or $25 million. Win the jackpot and they'll draw 10 bonus $1 million winners. If the jackpot isn't won at the $25 million level, they'll add ten more $1 million winners each time until somebody hits the jackpot. Example: Four rollovers at the $25 million level would mean 40 more $1 million winners (a total of 50) if somebody finally hits the jackpot.

Each ticket gets you one Monopoly property. Completing a set of properties gets you an entry into the game show drawing. So that means you have to buy Lots-O-Tickets to finally get lucky enough to complete a set of properties (just to get a draw entry into the contestant pool).



Note that the production company is going to tape six game shows over two days for each of three taping cycles.

[PYLdude]

So in a loose sense, it's McDonalds Monopoly but with higher prices?

[clemon79]

So in a loose sense, it's McDonalds Monopoly but with higher prices?

And lower cholesterol.

[TLEberle]

Fairly big name attached to this show.

Unless you're saying this because it is self-evident, I don't get it. Richard Karn was a "big name" when he was cast to host Family Feud and Bingo America, but he was ungreat. I know it means you have to use your words an' junk, but would it be so bad to explain some of your points?

Terry Crews, on the other hand, is not only well-known, but impressive as host of Millionaire.

[MSTieScott]

Monopoly Millionaires' Club will be hosted by Billy Gardell from Mike & Molly.

I saw him on "Celebrity Name Game" last week -- he was surprisingly low-key. On the one hand, that potentially bodes well if he's filling the role of a host who has to keep the game moving along. On the other hand, the contestants on lottery shows are traditionally... let's say "unresponsive." And somebody on the stage is going to have to show some enthusiasm.

[Unrealtor]

Texas is dropping out of the MMC play-in game due to poor sales. I don't know how it's doing in other states, but that doesn't seem to be a good sign for the GSN show.

[parliboy]

Texas, to be fair, is already in two other multi-state lotteries, so adding a third always seemed like an uphill battle, especially when it's as complicated as this one.

I think there are about ten states that already run PowerBall and Mega Millions, and I have to imagine that this is a hard sell in all of those.

(edit: typo, Mega Millions)

[tvmitch]

I sense that the Monopoly game is not selling well in PA, either, and we have Mega Millions and Powerball also.

Take a look at the payouts for the most recent Monopoly drawing: http://www.palottery.state.pa.us/Payouts.aspx?id=50402

Compare those to the 6-in-49 "Match 6 Lotto" game:http://www.palottery.state.pa.us/Payouts.aspx?id=50455

Not an apples-to-apples comparison due to ticket price and jackpot, but in a state as big as ours, they couldn't hit 10K prize winners for a drawing, that is probably a bad sign. I think the biggest thing is that it's $5 a line, and it doesn't lend itself whatsoever to office pool play or multiple ticket buys. Also, it's super confusing to the average Joe.

[Thunder]

Based on reversing those numbers of winners through the odds of winning, you can see that they sold around 95,000 tickets. That's $475,000 in the till.

The state's on the hook for the $100,000 prize and below. According to the prize fund allocation, Pennsylvania keeps about 18% of the take for their share of the prizes. Based on those sales, that's $85,500. One 2nd level prize winner of $100,000 means Pennsylvania goes into the minus pool that night. If people buy 95,000 tickets, there's only a 3.5% chance (1-((2695217/2695218)^95000)) of that happening.

Pennsylvania paid out about $70,000 without that big 2nd level prize, meaning the lottery earned about $15,000 for that week's work and dodged bullets that the 2nd & 3rd level prizes weren't hit. If either of those had been hit, they're in the minus pool.

TL;DR - At only 100K tickets being sold, it's not financially safe to play or sell this game with the current fixed prize structure. Parimutuel prizes make it safe, but unappealing to players. It's going to have to be retooled to survive the actuaries.

/Damn, I love probability analysis.

[Thunder]

It's dead, Jim.