1) Now that I think about it, that information doesn't tell you that much about the odds. The odds can be calculated independently. Whether or not people win is kind of irrelevant to the odds. It has more to do with the number of people who play (so the odds of a winner in the group is low). I just found it interesting that the gov't was like "jeeze, nobody is winning, let's just shut it down. And the players (who never win) are like "no!".

2) Yeah, the 1 in 20 winner really jumped out at me. Open a new pack and someone scratches a winner and you know with 100% certainty the other 19 are losers. Or, you sell 15 out of a pack and all are losers (most buyers scratched right away) and of the remaining 5, you know there is 1 winning ticket.