Do you play the lottery/scratchers? Or have you seen people that...

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Vette73

Lifer
Jul 5, 2000
21,503
9
0
I don;t really play that much but am up $90 so far this year. Now for me I spend maybe $5 every couple months for fun. So when I see people feed the machine for tickets it just blows my mind. These are not rich people mostly dayworkers I see.

But the biggest WTF is right now for every $20 in scratchers you buy that are losers you can enter a 2nd chance drawing. Now I know most of the day workers don;t know this as its written only in english and/or lack of computer and/or don't care etc...
So I pick up tickets when i go to the grocery store, ones that are thrown away (they gave up legal rights to). Now this amounts to $5-10 on average with one time I got a little over $100. But today i picked up over $300 in tickets, maybe close to $400. Some guy was just scratching them off as fast as he could.

So do you see/know anyone that really believes they are the ones that are going to win the "big" prize and just blow all their money like this? Just seems crazy to blow this much money when it seems the ones doing it the most are the ones that need the money more.
 
SphinxnihpS

SphinxnihpS

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2005
8,368
25
91
SELF-IMPOSED TAX. Hell no. I think only an idiot would waste money like that, but I thank them for sending my kids to school.
 
V

vonmises

Member
Jan 10, 2009
36
0
0
Working in the courtesy booth at a grocery store for four years, I've seen people blow ridiculous money. We had a family of regulars that I figure spent about a thousand a week at our store, sometimes they'll basically by an entire book which is $1500 and I know they played a lot elsewhere. The most I've seen or heard them win is 500, which they proceeded to lose in about twenty minutes. The worst is a lady who knows where the code is on every ticket she doesn't even scratch the numbers. On two dollar tickets she'll go through about 50 buck in less than five minutes.
 
V

Vette73

Lifer
Jul 5, 2000
21,503
9
0
Originally posted by: vonmises
Working in the courtesy booth at a grocery store for four years, I've seen people blow ridiculous money. We had a family of regulars that I figure spent about a thousand a week at our store, sometimes they'll basically by an entire book which is $1500 and I know they played a lot elsewhere. The most I've seen or heard them win is 500, which they proceeded to lose in about twenty minutes. The worst is a lady who knows where the code is on every ticket she doesn't even scratch the numbers. On two dollar tickets she'll go through about 50 buck in less than five minutes.
Click to expand...

Oh I see that as well. I get the loser tickets but onyl one small spot has been rubbed off.
You know its bad when you know the codes to which is a winner and loser.
 
JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
I don;t really play that much but am up $90 so far this year. Now for me I spend maybe $5 every couple months for fun. So when I see people feed the machine for tickets it just blows my mind. These are not rich people mostly dayworkers I see.

But the biggest WTF is right now for every $20 in scratchers you buy that are losers you can enter a 2nd chance drawing. Now I know most of the day workers don;t know this as its written only in english and/or lack of computer and/or don't care etc...
So I pick up tickets when i go to the grocery store, ones that are thrown away (they gave up legal rights to). Now this amounts to $5-10 on average with one time I got a little over $100. But today i picked up over $300 in tickets, maybe close to $400. Some guy was just scratching them off as fast as he could.

So do you see/know anyone that really believes they are the ones that are going to win the "big" prize and just blow all their money like this? Just seems crazy to blow this much money when it seems the ones doing it the most are the ones that need the money more.
Click to expand...

esplain 2nd chance drawings, and how u get $10 from them each time?
 
K

KoolDrew

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
10,226
7
81
I don't very often, but sometime last year I ended up winning $50 off a $10 scratch off. Went to cash it and decided I'd try another one. Won $50 again. Went in the next day to cash it and bought a pack of gum using some of the $50 I won. The lady handed me $98 and some change back. So I ended up making a profit of $128 and some change or something like that.
 
PCTC2

PCTC2

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2007
3,892
33
91
I used to work in a local pizza place and everyone, including staff in back, got an equal portion of tips. Sometimes we amounted to $50/each per day. I would blow probably about $80/week on $10 tickets. Spent about $700 and won about $1200. Called it quits after I won $500 (largest prize to claim in store). Haven't bought a ticket since.
 
V

Vette73

Lifer
Jul 5, 2000
21,503
9
0
Originally posted by: JEDI
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
I don;t really play that much but am up $90 so far this year. Now for me I spend maybe $5 every couple months for fun. So when I see people feed the machine for tickets it just blows my mind. These are not rich people mostly dayworkers I see.

But the biggest WTF is right now for every $20 in scratchers you buy that are losers you can enter a 2nd chance drawing. Now I know most of the day workers don;t know this as its written only in english and/or lack of computer and/or don't care etc...
So I pick up tickets when i go to the grocery store, ones that are thrown away (they gave up legal rights to). Now this amounts to $5-10 on average with one time I got a little over $100. But today i picked up over $300 in tickets, maybe close to $400. Some guy was just scratching them off as fast as he could.

So do you see/know anyone that really believes they are the ones that are going to win the "big" prize and just blow all their money like this? Just seems crazy to blow this much money when it seems the ones doing it the most are the ones that need the money more.
Click to expand...

esplain 2nd chance drawings, and how u get $10 from them each time?
Click to expand...


No the 2nd chance is for $1000 and you need $20 in losing tickets to enter. I get about $5-10 in losing tickets left behind by the people that buy them. My wife thinks i am nuts but hey I have better odds of winning then the idiots that spend all this money on the tickets which have worse odds then the 2nd chance.

 
ponyo

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,810
126
My brother-in-law owns a newsstand downtown, and he sells about $60,000-90,000 lottery tickets a month. He tells me all kinds of crazy lottery stories. He has regulars that buy like $500-1000 scratch-offs a week and will stand in his store and scratch off each ticket like a madman. He doesn't know how they can keep buying but they do. He has a garbage can in the store where couple of people will come in everyday and go through to double check for winners. People routinely find about $5-10 a day in missed tickets. One person found a winning ticket for ~$56,000 that someone had thrown away not knowing they had won. Of course the person who found the ticket proceeded to buy thousands of dollars in ticket every week for many months til the money ran out. People are seriously addicted to this stuff.
 
V

Vette73

Lifer
Jul 5, 2000
21,503
9
0
Originally posted by: Modelworks
I hope people realize they can go to their states web site and view the scratch off tickets that have already been claimed vs ones still for sale. Helps to know that all the good prizes are not gone if you are going to buy one.
Click to expand...

Yea there was a lawsuit over that in VA. VA use to sell tickets even though the top prize has been won. Now when the top has been won they cut sales. To me that just says the top prizes will be at the end of the batch of tickets and wait until it gets low? But the people I see are like addicts to this so I doubt they even think about that.
 
Andrew1990

Andrew1990

Banned
Mar 8, 2008
2,153
0
0
I do like playing the lotto and will spend $5-10 a week on tickets. It gives me a chance to win a few bucks and the money goes to the schools. I am also ahead since I have been playing.
 
S

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
We play about 60-80 bucks a month in scratch offs. It's fun and I'm even on the win/loss. Free entertainment FTW!
 
IHateMyJob2004

IHateMyJob2004

Lifer
Sep 29, 2004
18,656
67
91
Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
SELF-IMPOSED TAX. Hell no. I think only an idiot would waste money like that, but I thank them for sending my kids to school.
Click to expand...

There are times when it is statistically favorable to buy them.

1) When the "lotto" jackpot gets REALLY big in relation to the odds of winning Rare, I know.
2) When a win for life style scratch off has had alot of its tickets sold and no winners.

This data is available online.

the bottom line is that it is GENERALLY a tax on those that don't understand math.
 
zerocool84

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
So when I see people feed the machine for tickets it just blows my mind. These are not rich people mostly dayworkers I see.
Click to expand...

What a concept? Who would have thought that rich people did not need to win the lottery???
 
Iron Woode

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,227
12,761
136
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
I don;t really play that much but am up $90 so far this year. Now for me I spend maybe $5 every couple months for fun. So when I see people feed the machine for tickets it just blows my mind. These are not rich people mostly dayworkers I see.

But the biggest WTF is right now for every $20 in scratchers you buy that are losers you can enter a 2nd chance drawing. Now I know most of the day workers don;t know this as its written only in english and/or lack of computer and/or don't care etc...
So I pick up tickets when i go to the grocery store, ones that are thrown away (they gave up legal rights to). Now this amounts to $5-10 on average with one time I got a little over $100. But today i picked up over $300 in tickets, maybe close to $400. Some guy was just scratching them off as fast as he could.

So do you see/know anyone that really believes they are the ones that are going to win the "big" prize and just blow all their money like this? Just seems crazy to blow this much money when it seems the ones doing it the most are the ones that need the money more.
Click to expand...
so you're talking about those little scratch tickets?

I used to work in a variety store and sold them. Some college girl came in one night and bought a $1.00 scratch ticket called "double bucks". She scratched and it showed a $50 winner. When I looked at the ticket closer, it also had a double win symbol. I checked the code to verify that she did indeed win $100 on a $1 ticket.
 
zzuupp

zzuupp

Lifer
Jul 6, 2008
14,866
2,319
126
Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Oh I see that as well. I get the loser tickets but onyl one small spot has been rubbed off.
You know its bad when you know the codes to which is a winner and loser.
Click to expand...

In VA, it used to be pretty obvious.
It was a three digit code.
ONE, TWO, FIV, TEN, FTY, etc. Before the bar code readers were standard everywhere, that's how the cashier could simply verify your small prize.

Yeah, I used to spend $1/day before work.
 
JEDI

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
Originally posted by: SphinxnihpS
SELF-IMPOSED TAX. Hell no. I think only an idiot would waste money like that, but I thank them for sending my kids to school.
Click to expand...

There are times when it is statistically favorable to buy them.


2) When a win for life style scratch off has had alot of its tickets sold and no winners.

This data is available online.

the bottom line is that it is GENERALLY a tax on those that don't understand math.
Click to expand...

How do you know alot of tix has been sold already for scratch for life?
I thought the website just lists how many of the top prize has been claimed?
 
geno

geno

Lifer
Dec 26, 1999
25,074
4
0
I knew someone who thought you would always come out ahead if you bought an entire roll of scratch tickets. Hey, genius, why the hell wouldn't everyone just pony up for a roll of tickets and just call it a day? Most people don't know just how stacked the odds are.
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
I never have...

I would rather play the lottery.

1mil+ > 1-100 bucks

Lower odds, of course...
 
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