Cash WinFall Lottery

Anyone come across anything like this before? According to this article (http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-31/news/29836200_1_lottery-tickets-claim-prizes-massachusetts-state-lottery) there is a Massachusetts lottery game called Cash WinFall where if the jackpot reaches $2 million, the lower prize payouts grow to the point where there is almost no downside risk if you can put down more than $500,000. This seems to be the lottery equivalent of a blackjack dealer announcing when the count is heavily in the players' favor. It will be interesting to see how long this game lasts now that the word is out. The big money groups AND the game itself are still making money with the only losers being the regular players.

It's a 6 number out of 46 lotto game. Normally the non-jackpot prizes are $5 for 3 numbers, $150 for 4, and $4000 for 5. According to the Mass lottery site, during the most recent +$2mil week on 7-14, the payouts were $26, $802, and $19507 for the lower prizes, plus a free bet ($2) for getting 2 numbers. Full rules can be found at http://www.masslottery.com/games/lottery/cash-winfall.html for those that would like to analyze it.

That is already being discussed here.