LOL @ the California Lottery

[ImpulsE69]

The state always wins when it comes to lottery, with that said the store I work @ had $500k in winners last year. And I've personally sold about 25 1 or 2k winners and countless $500 and less ones. I sold an $8k Hot Spot (like Keno) $2 quick pick last week. She hit 7/7 with the hot spot. She plays almost every day, since she hit 7/7 again this time without the hot spot ($500) and last month she hit for $650 iirc. People do win, it's just most don't...

What you don't know is how many other places she's doing that and losing. That is the part most "winners" that play consistently don't tell you.

 

[RossMAN]

Not lotto related but similar - last year I won the max prize on a penny slot at the Oxford ME casino. Lights were blinking like nuts. Music played, etc. I was very excited because the machine said the top prize was $2500. That is, until, a desiccated old woman who reeked of BO and cigarette smoke leaned over and told me that I won a whopping 10 bucks. Turns out on that slot you could play up to 25 lines on that machine (required 25c), and I only played 1 line (1c).

We were in Vegas a few years ago and I won the big one. It was early in the morning (about 9AM) and I was barely awake. So I played the Deal or No Deal penny slot machine, max bets which was $2.50 I think and won the jackpot! It was a whopping $800 something not bad but not really life changing or anything. Would have been nice if it paid for the trip + new car or something.

A few times we saw people win $5k, $10k, etc. but those were on the $1 and how much did they sink into the machine before they "won"?

Next time any of you are in Vegas on their smoothly paved roads remember two things:
1) Go to In and Out first, assuming you're not from CA/AZ.
2) I helped invest into the Vegas economy to make that road so silky smooth.

 

[LTC8K6]

I don't play much, but you just scratch off the bar code and scan it around here. No need to actually play the game.

 

[VirtualLarry]

He's not completely wrong, but I don't think it's as engineered as he states. Ping pong ball lottery could theoretically go forever without a winner. Scratch offs have specific winning tickets in specific quantities, but I don't know how evenly they're distributed.

They are printed in batches. Winning tickets are therefore spread out among those batches.

Not all lottery tickets of one type are sold. That ticket gets pulled, when all of the "big prizes" for that ticket are won.

It wouldn't make sense for them to be completely random. What if, randomly-speaking, the five (say) "big winners" were all found in the first printed batch? Then the state would end up giving out more money than they take in, because once all of those winners were found, they would end up pulling that ticket series. The State's not stupid, so they don't leave their profit up to chance.

Also, for the losing tickets, it's not chance that, many times, "I'm only off by ONE number!". They're engineered that way, with human psychology in mind. It makes people want to play again "because I was SO close to winning last time".

 

[VirtualLarry]

virtual larry you should use a personal finance app to track your expenses. Would shed some light on how you piss money away.

I'm glad that you know me and my lifestyle so well, that you can judge me, and determine that I "piss money away". Why would I need a "personal finance app", when I can just ask you?

Btw, I keep track of my expenses in a text file every month. I save money by not purchasing a "personal finance app", and I can easily keep track of my spending at a glance, because I'm not a monkey.

 

[Tsavo]

I used to occasionally wind up behind this 55+ y/o woman at the local quickie mart. She put down $500 one night. I was told it was a regular occurrence for her.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I used to occasionally wind up behind this 55+ y/o woman at the local quickie mart. She put down $500 one night. I was told it was a regular occurrence for her.

Now THAT'S what I might call "pissing money away". Not less than 10 $2 tickets a month.

 

[Captante]

A slot machine is simply a horrible statistic that is never in your favor.

Almost never!

When I used to go skiing at Tahoe we would stay at Harvey's on the lake. Being fairly broke we would have to economize. The trick was to snag $20 worth of nickles and proceed directly to the nickle-slots. Worst-case we would drink all night for $20 (mostly bottled German beer they couldn't water down) and best-case we would win small amounts of money AND drink all night for free! To be fair most nights we broke roughly even on the nickles, but one year I hit a $350 nickle-jackpot and came home up about $170 on the drinking/entertainment budget!


Lottery tickets on the other hand are always a raw deal.

 

[sdifox]

That is just evil

 

[CPA]

Lottery is evil, a voluntary tax on the poor.

Fixed. And not so evil now.

 

[Ichinisan]

Derp.

http://youtu.be/UYZiA8cEiI4

Had the TV on for 30 seconds this morning and saw this B-roll footage of someone trying to buy a scratch-off ticket from a machine. Couldn't figure out where to put the dollar bill :awe:

 

[Thump553]

Emotionally I agree with the old guy/ticket buyer. The state is free to set up the rules of its lotto as it wishes, but that really sucks. he got the hardest combination possible and they grossly devalued it through the fine print.

I do wholeheartedly agree that lottos in general, and these scratchoffs in particular are a loser's game. A few years back the newspaper published a study the state did about who were the biggest scratchoff winners. Nearly all of them worked at gas stations/package stores (ie, where the tickets were sold) and all told they spent at least three times their "winnings."

I buy a megamillion or powerball ticket once in a rare while, but only one at a time and consider it throw away money.

 

[Fritzo]

Ultimate lottery troll:

Back in the late 70's, the Lotto came to be, marking the first multi-million dollar lottery system. My late grandmother played the same 6 numbers every week for 8 years (they were all the birthdays of her kids and grandkids).

In 1982, my grandfather died at the age of 62 from lung issues. This understandably devastated her, and the week after that she got a severe case of the flu. She could not leave her apartment, and missed playing her Tuesday Lotto numbers.

You guessed it: all 6 of her numbers came up that week. She lost out on $4 MILLION (close to $10 million in today's dollars). The whole family would have been set for life.

She framed those numbers and hung them on the wall by her front door as a reminder to never play the lottery again. She still mentioned that incident every time we saw her and she was haunted with regret until she died in 2002.

 

[Mai72]

Moral of the story: OP works at a gas station.

So? would you rather that he collect SSI and food stamps?

1) You don't know his story.

2) Maybe he's having a difficult time finding work, and this job is just temporary.

3) Maybe he likes working at a gas station.

4) Maybe he owns the gas station.

5) Please stop looking at someone's position in life thru your lens.

 

[Mai72]

My uncle was addicted to the lottery. He played every day since the late 70s. That was when the lottery became legal in New Jersey.

He passed away last year. I can still remember him coming to my dad's house so he could borrow money to play the lottery. After seeing his addiction I have hardly ever played the lottery.

Finally, NJ and other states who promote the lottery should be ashamed of themselves for promoting such garbage. Give your dreams a chance? lol, yea OK. The amount of money that one individual compulsively spends on the lottery can be as much as a small fortune. You want to pursue your dreams? Go to school. Take classes. Open a business. Do anything, but don't compulsively play the lottery.

 

[zinfamous]

Sorry, I guess the vulgarity was uncalled for. I just see someone has either employed and contributing or a lazy bum mooching off others or the government. It's irrelevant to me if someone makes $20K or 200K, they both earn the same amount of respect in my book.

sounds like a personal problem that you could deal with. You might be happier with life.

 

[BUTCH1]

sounds like a personal problem that you could deal with. You might be happier with life.

No, I have no "personal problem", your either a mooch or your not, no "grey" area there. I don't like anyone judging OP in thread because he works in a retail setting, who should give a shit, he's employed and carrying his own self around.

 

[Protoman25]

hell, I might look for a job at a gas station soon.

Judging by your contributions to this forum, you aren't qualified.

 

[Rudee]

Scratch-off buyers are stupid by definition. What's the shock?

Lottery players overall, aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

 

[Craig234]

I used to occasionally wind up behind this 55+ y/o woman at the local quickie mart. She put down $500 one night. I was told it was a regular occurrence for her.

Back in the 90's, I visited Monte Carlo. Massive yachts in the harbor, supercars you never heard of filling the area in front.

One room had one elderly woman in a large luxurious gown gambling at a table, served by one dealer, where both she and the dealer had several assistants standing behind them.

I went to the room with the 'cheap slots' and noticed a $100 machine, where a guy put in fifteen plays, lost each, and walked away.

In a separate building, there was a basement of cement with some neon signs posted, filled with slots and noisy people, it was called the 'Law Vegas Room' and meant for Americans.

 

[Subyman]

My grandpa was one number off the powerball of $22M. He got $1700. He never played again after that.

 

[Sonikku]

And?, he's working for a living, that's all that matters, you the fuck are you to judge someone by where they work.

This.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Joan Ginther, 63, won almost $21 million since her winning spree began in 1993. Ginther was once a university professor. She holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University.

I'm glad that you know me and my lifestyle so well, that you can judge me, and determine that I "piss money away". Why would I need a "personal finance app", when I can just ask you?

Btw, I keep track of my expenses in a text file every month. I save money by not purchasing a "personal finance app", and I can easily keep track of my spending at a glance, because I'm not a monkey.

Here's some free personal finance software:

https://www.everydollar.com

 

[John Connor]

The lotto is such a fucking rip off. The most I have ever won was $3 and it's been at least three years since I won that. I buy on average three tickets a week.

 

[QueBert]

No, it's a tax on people who are bad at math. The poor don't have to play if they don't want to.

In fact, you'd think they wouldn't want to throw away what little money they have in the first place. Go figure.

I play poker, if I have a hand that's an 18% chance to win and guy behind me bets $40 on the river into a $40 pot I fold every time as it's not worth it. Now if the same scenario happens but he's putting $40 into a $4,000 pot I call every single time. Even if you're likely to lose that hand pot odds dictate you play as if you're going to win it. The odds of winning the Lottery are astronomical, but the pay out for a single dollar's also astronomical.