"Regarding the cutscenes / animations I will try to exponentionally speed them up more. Especially spending tickets on the virtual pet / winning tickets."
I just want to reiterate, I do like the slow countdown AFTER you've put the tickets in. Based on my understanding of games like this (once again, thanks to Pony Island), I feel confident in my assumption that the little guy inside is actually the villain. If the game is set up in a way where you have to do multiple times, I think the slowness for the countdown (rather than the count-up of tickets) is good for storytelling. In fact, there's a part of me that feels like it shouldn't even do the countdown until you've put 1000 tickets in (maybe as you put the tickets in, the bar fills up. When you fill the bar, it does the countdown as a moment of "Now you get to think about the choice you made, you foolish person.")