I feel for Queensland newsagents who have paid out more in Golden Casket prizes this week than they have taken from sales. With a higher payout requirement now, some are considerably out of pocket in terms of cash flow.
The challenge is will Golden Casket support these newsagents when they struggle to pay other suppliers. For example, if this is a magazine account payment week and a newsagent is $10,000 down in cash payouts over Golden Casket takings, will GC go into bat on behalf of the newsagent with Gotch and Network? … not that the Gotch or Network accounts people would care.
WHAT ARE THE PAYOUT LIMITS FOR THE REST OF THE COUNTRY
We have to payout up to $3999.00 in Victoria.
Its not always a huge problem, because it is reflected in the sweep the following week. Although if it was magazine week I can see the point about pressure on cashflow.
What distresses us is that there are many agents who don’t follow the rules. So over 60% of our payouts are to customers who purchased their tickets at a neighbouring outlet.
The enforcement of the rule is very selective. This aspect seems unfair to us.
$1000 in NSW
I don’t know if we were just lucky but in NSW Div 3 paid just over the $1000 threshold we have to pay out to and so far this week we have had 12 winners come in to collect ( good luck to the players, don’t get me wrong).
Thats over $12000 in cashflow that we would have had to find if say the Div paid $999. So far we have paid out $1000 more then sales because of the other draws being small amounts and in a week when other sales are slow due to a large amount of people still on holidays, it just causes headaches we could do without.
We took a little over $40,000 in lotto sales in the week leading up to the Megadraw… thus far this week we have paid out close to $30,000… Its not so much the magazine bill, its actually the Golden Casket debit that is our problem.
This weel they will be debiting $30K from our account, however next week they will have to deposit between $10K – $20k as we revert back to our nomal weekly sales of about $15K…
its not like we dont know about this, it happens every year and with every extra big jackpot, find it hard to believe that most bisnesses cant or dont have sufficient capital reserves to get past one big week of lotto payouts, as already mentioned it will even out with next weeks sweep. Just had xmas and moving into BTS, if no cash this time of year then must be really hard in about march when it gets quiet.
Rick, with all due respect mate a lot of agents rob Peter to pay Paul on a weekly basis. I have paid out $15000 so far this week and GC owe me about $5000. I had actually planned to use that money to pay some accounts that are now due but have to ask the suppliers to try and understand my position. You are obviously one of the ucky ones not too have this problem but believe me there are many that do.
Rick, Lotto does it sweep of the previous week on Tuesday and take all but the commission for the megadraw, leaving nothing in the lotto account to cover payout for the early part of the week, it is not as if we can use the sales of the week before to cover the payouts this week.
if there are newsagents out there that have a spare 30K in the bank good luck to you.
Just to add to that Rick, we used to have a $500 limit but GC put it up to $1500. My store always had a $1000 but at least back then we could choose when we used it. Now we have no choice.
Like how all good fairy tales start off,
Once upon a time, NSW Lotteries had the facility of when you had a lot of payouts you could call on them to credit your account with the deficet during the week. I don’t know if this still holds true.
What i have trouble with is all the large amount of work now being pushed on to us ,same money need at least 11% of turnover to get back to where we were
I have struggled before with payouts. once I had to give an IOU as I had just banked and paid heaps of bills so a cheque was no good. It was really embarassing. Its strange how many pay out we had this week – more than we have ever had I think and it looks like it was wide spred in Queensland. I have had a couple of negative income days. If you do your weekly reports on Monday you know what you need to pay on Friday though. I have found they are swipping my account earlier in the day instead of 5 pm. Perhaps they are doing it daylight savings time. I usually bank about 4pm so they are overdrawing my account on Fridays.
In NSW we get swept Tuesday night, it would be great to have until friday to use the money as cashflow as far as payouts go. I understand it is not our money but it would be nice.
Any way was it just us or was the megadraw way down on last years draw?
We found we sold a lot less megapicks and more of the $5-6 tickets. All up we were down about 30% on last yr for the same draw, maybe people had less money left over but usually they chase the dream.
We were down over 50% on the day as compared to last year but had alot more early purchasers over the prior two weeks which was noticable particularly in our syndicate sales for the big draw. We still ended up short on lotto to same month last year but pretty well dead even month for month overall with more high GP offerings taking the place of the lotto sales and more people through the door reulting in what should be an even more profitable December than the last one. 🙂
Cash flow implications can be huge. I know of outlets in Vic who don’t open on Sundays due to the pay out issues. The small amount of sales are not worth the cash flow woes. Also know of outlets that didn’topen on Monday the 2nd Jan for the same reasons.
I would rather pay out on Sunday even though I have to have the cash on hand ( usually you have not banked Saturdays takings) as this means your next Fridays payment is less. However over New Year we were closed so had to do all payouts this week. It is still just a matter of juggling the cash flow.
Can I ask, and this isn’t intended as a smug comment or to question how people run their own businesses, but are so many people really running their cash flow with so low a margin for contingencies that they can’t cope with the extra payouts etc ?
What happens if you have something unexpected happen (also makes me wonder how many have themselves and their business insured for sickness, death etc) ?
Paul, most newsagents would bank the days takings every day, therefore starting each day with just a small float. We quite often have days where lotto payouts are more in $$ terms than than the cash that comes in to the business, making the day cash flow negative. Especially after a big draw.
Doesn’t mean we can’t pay our bills or we can’t cope if the car breaks down or something.
KEVIN, you said : –
What distresses us is that there are many agents who don’t follow the rules. So over 60% of our payouts are to customers who purchased their tickets at a neighbouring outlet.
The enforcement of the rule is very selective. This aspect seems unfair to us.
What rule is that, I don’t think I understand ( I am in NSW)
H
The discussion is about the rule requiring us to pay out winning tickets up to a certain amount. (it seems to vary from state to state)
Several agents in our area simply do not do this. That is they do not follow this rule. Therefore customers who have not bought tickets from us come to us collect their winnings, especially if it is an amount in the higher levels.
We have informed Tattersalls about this but nothing has changed.
In the last week we have carefully monitored the source of the tickets that we have paid out and we have analysed that 60% were purchased from other outlets.
Accordingly we belive it is unfair that some agencies do not comply with this rule and yet nothing happens to them as a consequence.
Paul, I cannot comment for anyone else but for my business after 3 yrs of hard trading conditions our cashflow is at rock bottom. Yes we have reserves but these are tied up in term deposits and so cannot be gotten at immediately as is the case when you get a run of payouts. Also I am reluctant to lose interest for the sake of lotto payouts.
We just paid all our xmas accounts and got in BTS supplies and with a short week and no real lotto jackpots this is the squeeze on cashflow for us.
Kevin,
In NSW, if the ticket is run through a verifying machine and has a prize on it, the agent whose machine it is must pay it out ( up to the limit).They cannot send the customer away, after the ticket hasgone through the terminal.
I would NEVER pay out on a ticket that had printed on it the prize FROM ANOTHER AGENCY. Is this what you are saying happens? I’m so sorry to be thick over this. Are there agents who simply refuse to check ANY tickets (they can’t know before checking that the ticket is a winner, although the customer may say they think so.) ?!? This seems a bit weird to me and as Tattslotto now owns NSW Lotteries I’m a bit concerned that we are headed in your direction for “rules”.
We have the policy of being delighted to pay out on tickets purchased in other agencies, because it is another interactive opportunity to encourage the winner to shop at our place from now on !!!!
I don’t know how you all cope with all the BS in lotteries. Seems to be so much faffing around, so much machinery, shopfits, undertakings, underwriting, rules etc etc etc, for seemingly very little overall.
As for those coming in to ‘check’ their tickets. They wouldn’t bother if they didn’t know they had something to pay out, most (I presume) opting to wait until the next week when they put their regular cards in. They’d know very well, and aren’t happy when they’re refused their money. Too bad. By coming to our place, expecting a payout, we know they didn’t buy their winning ticket from us.
How do we know?
Because we don’t sell ’em! 😀
personally i do not mind doing payouts as it is a win win situation , customer is happy they have had a win and normally they will come back to you even if the original ticket was not purchased from you . It does concern me when you run a syndicate and 20 people are in it and they all win 1500 each that would be a disaster for cash flow if that was to happen . )it would actual;ly be impossible for me to pay ) so what do you do write out a whole heap of iou’s?
The limit should have stayed at $500 and that way it is up to each individual to decide what ti pay out over that because not all agents are big or i should say the same size so the payout limits should at least be based on a % of your average sales
H
The unfortunate reality is that there seem to be some agents who simply don’t/won’t look at the tickets, especially in the first day or 2 after the big draw.
They do not appear to suffer any repercussions from Tatts.
Although we make the comment that this is unfair in the sense that some agents are allowed to avoid their responsibilities, we are actually quite pleased to have a touch point with every possible customer.
We see it as chance to try to win them over as a regular customer of our store.
Generally speaking we find Tatts quite selective in the way they treat agents. If you’re part of the reps’ buddy network you can get away with almost anything. If you’re a relative newbie you have a lot of pressure to follow the rules.
Here in SA our machines come up with
a “do you wish to pay this now” comment
if the payout is $1000 or more. We are expected to pay out under $1K.
However, if we have just banked or it is
very early in the morning we politely ask
if the customer can return later in the morning and usually we don’t have any problems.
SA Lotteries is up for sale so I hope that
Tattersalls doesn’t buy it because the rules
might change.
Here, it is still government owned and run
at present and the compliance is strictly adhered to regarding problem gambling
etc so we were disturbed to hear last week that online gambling will now be allowed in SA by an SA company to keep the money in our state.
Does that mean that credit betting will now be allowed in all retail outlets as it is
prohibited at present?
Obviously credit cards would have to be used for online gambling.
That would be a massive issue – trying
to control someone’s gambling habits online!
June NSW lotteries was privatised to Tatts last year and the first thing the Govt did after that was change the law to allow gambling with credit cards. They also did this under the guise of “keeping the money in the state”
I OPENED SUN& MON CASHED IN ALL THE $13.30 WINS DESTROYED MY CHANGE FOR THE LONG WEEKEND, OF COURSE THESE ARE THE PLAYERS WHO PLAY THIS DRAW ONLY NO REPEAT BUYERS. BOUGHT EVERYWHERE. THIS WAS MY CHOICE TO OPEN FAIR ENOUGH. COULDNT AFFORD HOLIDAY WAGES TO PAY OUT MONEY & CHECK TICKETS SO IT WAS ME. BUT HOW ABOUT A PAT ON THE BACK FROM LOTTO FOR SUPPORTING THEM & DOING THE RIGHT THING, OR MAYBE SOME EXTRA SUPPORT FROM THEM FOR US WHO DO SUPPORT THEM
The lack of support and commission is terrible (should be at Least 12%). Golden Casket do not look after agents that support them. It would be great if another player cam on boarc in relation to lotto.
Last week we were swept for nearly $50K, this week $13K, swings and roundabouts
Ditto Brett we had a $75 k sweep last week and will get a $22 K credit today due to big payouts this week..i dont understand everyones beef….under your agreements in vic anyway you must make payments up to $5 k on the spot …..you cant treat tatts cash flow as your money cause its not, all thats yours is the commn…actually we also have to have a seperate account to bank tatts’ money only into,again preventing you from using their funds
heleng i think the argument is how high the payout limits are . there are small agents out there just like myself that are forced to do the same size payout that the bigger agents are eg you might turn over 75k and i turn over 20k but yet the payout limits are the same , where do we find that extra cash untill it is credited the following week ,any sugestions
NSW must be only state that the sweep is done the day after the weekly total, we got all our megadraw sales money swept on the first business day after the draw ie the Tuesday night and then we had to use OUR money to make payouts until the sales for the week caught up, being a small jackpot week this took until Friday, so for 4 days we were eating into our cashflow. It seems that other states let you keep the previous weeks cash until the next friday or am I missing something?
Fair call Shaun…i also dont understand why each state ie vic qld and nsw have different payout requirements when we are all owned by tatts….i dont know if its an answer but i try and keep my tatts account one full average weeks turnover in credit to handle these big draw payouts or special large prizes, which in my case is about $50 k…i then offset that amount against a mortgage therefore efectively earning 8% on my money…so still using their money but its always there if called upon…win win
Heleng being this for 12 years ,got a good safe underground hold enough money back Tracy you are dead right need more money Have increased our mag supply for the last 6 weeks now getting more sales ,just push them in and out faster
Cash flow can be a concern here too. In WA Lotterywest close off the weekly account on the Saturday night then sweep your account on the Wednesday night. Weeks like this we will payout around twice as much as we take in, after being swept last week for easily four times our usual. Doesn’t help that our syndicate had a small win, and each individual payout is below the threshhold for auto payout.
Just for the record……i finished up paying out over $24000 for the week….talk about kill my cash flow. Lotto traded back in black as of Saturday…..a little too late to bank that. One thing that has not been commented on is the money we Agents have collectively saved Lotto on Administration costs….WE are doing it for them now, at no extra charge…..gee we are good people!!!!
Being a Queensland newsagent, this post caught my eye as we are experienceing the same issues this fortnight. A bigger payout requirement, closing off on Saturday, or an earlier sweep would make it harder again. I expressed our concern when the compulsory payout limit was increased. We have not had too many problems, but I have been hesitant to run syndicates with a lot of shares for this reason. Reducing your risk by holding less cash can cost you customers to bigger agents on these occasions although I would agree that the ratio of winnings re-invested from these big draws is significantly less. I would love to see an incentive from the lottery agencies to work on that.
This is what happens in a monopoly environment, when TATTS eventually buys up SA & WA it will becom worse, just like Coles & Woolies are squizing their suppliers. Has anyone noticed that TATTS has become more assertive in dealing with Agent? Just look at the new Franchise agreement.
On a side note what u guys think about paying out other outlet’s syndicate prizes?
AG i personally have no problems paying any tickets wether it be syndicates or not i only have a problem with the payout limits
The only time it irritates is either when the customer asks for the old tickets back so they can go to “their” newsagent and enter the second chance draw even though we offer one as well that is better, or they tell me they only buy their tickets once a week from the other place even if I have just paid out a prize.
If it is “your” newsagency then why not let them do all the free work as well as get the cash from the sale.
While I’m having my gripe it also irritates when they do not even buy the tickets here but then tell me that I never pay out or I never sell them a winner.
Apart from that I like having new customers as once they are here they see all the extra stuff we have that the other placed don’t and the majority tend to buy something else again if they have a win.
Just heard of one Agent who had signs in his window saying “sorry, no money left to payout lotto prizes”………$1500.00 is way too much.
Wow what a good read that was, I know this is a old form so not sure if anyone will get this ,but I am considering adding Lotto ( Queensland ) to a new store I intend to open very soon …. Is it worth it and what is the overall margin %
Thanks