It's not the jackpot, but a win is a win and who knows where a free play will lead.
Most people who play the lottery are looking to win the top award, the jackpot, the big money, and not the smaller prizes. They want to win millions, not hundreds of thousands, or even thousands or hundreds of dollars. Millions. Tens of millions. Hundreds of millions. That’s what they want. So for many of these players, the thought of winning a free play on a lottery draw is more like an insult than winning noting at all. For the rest of us, winning even a few hundred dollars would be fantastic and make us happy. So we would even be happy with a free play. At least we won something, right?
The real value of Free Plays
Hopefully that’s the way we look at because winning a free play on a lottery draw is still quite difficult to do. To win a free ticket, your ticket may have to match one or two of the drawn numbers, or not match any at all. You would think that would be very easy to do. However, the odds are still against you. Mind you, they are much, much better than trying to match the numbers needed for higher prizes, but the odds still favour the operator and not the player.
Some players laugh at the prospect of winning a free play. They feel it is just a consolation prize for spending their money in buying the ticket, a way to entice them to keep playing. Are they right? Not in the least. Although free play wins are the most prizes available for each draw, only a few of the players will win them. Most players don’t.
And really, what is wrong with winning a free play anyway? When you look at it, you actually did beat the lottery odds and win a prize to play the next draw for free, no money spent on that subsequent ticket. You get another chance to win the big one because you’ve already paid once for it and now you get another chance at no charge.
A chance is still a chance
One of the benefits of a free play is that if we don’t win on the next draw, we are not as ticked off as we would be for a purchased ticket. “Oh well,” we say, “It was a free play. Didn't cost me anything.” You essentially got a free draw courtesy of the lottery.
And free plays do win jackpots. A free play ticket is just as random and valid as any purchased ticket, having in no way, any additional advantage to the player. Every free play has just the same odds of winning a prize as any other ticket.
So what is the point of some people saying, “All I won was a free ticket?” You know what? You could have won nothing, no money, no second chance to try again. A lottery prize is a lottery prize and a free play is a lottery prize.
Get out there and play the lottery. Be happy and grateful if you win a free play, because you never know when a free play becomes a free few million dollars. You’ll then never look at a free play win with disdain ever again.
Experience in gaming industry