I am guilty of thinking that they will learn if I don't play, or quit going to McDonald's because they have all of those ghetto commercials that seem to be catering to only the hip hop segment of society. I never eat there for that reason, but they still haven't called me up yet to see why I haven't been in for a few years. I guess our few hundreds or thousands of dollars spent there is only a tiny grain of sand in the whole Gulf Of Mexico. Sad to say, they probably don't care if we play.
I actually have some cashiers that have been a little bit of an ass to me, because I take my time buying tickets some of the time, and I study the tickets in great detail. It is like they are like hurry up and get your ticket and get the hell out of here. They like to make excuses like they need to go do some chores, etc. I have worked in retail in a past life, and that is never the way you treat a customer.
This one guy told me that I would win no more than 1 out of the 3 or 4 that I bought, and that it would be no more than $10. I was on a winning streak at that time, so I figured I would scratch them all off to show him he was wrong, but none of them won. I thought they all should have, or at least most of them, especially since I had bought like 5 or 6 in a row and had not won in one book (I think it took 6 or 7), but in the past I had never gone more than 3 without winning.
He said the way to win was to buy multiple tickets from the same book, but I tried explaining to him that if I buy 3 $5 tickets to get an average payout of $15, then I am wasting my time. It is only profitable on a consistent basis if you win more than you pay in. I just cashed in $150 worth of tickets today, but it was at a $17 loss. I don't like it, but I can live with an 11% loss sometimes, and that is better than the average loss of at least 50%. I know it could be a whole lot worse, but I intend on making money, not seeing how many tickets I can win. I study them carefully and take my printouts with the data to the store. I keep an Excel spreadsheet, and I am now keeping the tickets serial number and code on the front, along with the ticket number. Here is an example:
NAME
|
EA
|
FULL TICKET
|
NUM
|
AMT
|
RETAILER
|
DAY
|
DATE
|
PRF
|
SERIAL NUM
|
VAL
|
LTR
|
NOTES
|
HOLIDAY GIFTS
|
(5.00)
|
842-133676-028
|
028
|
$0
|
BP SHA/GOR
|
FRI
|
Friday, December 03, 2010
|
($5)
|
6778[222]764
|
222
|
BSG
|
|
HOLIDAY GIFTS
|
(5.00)
|
842-195317-052
|
052
|
$20
|
BP ROS/JFR
|
SAT
|
Saturday, December 04, 2010
|
$15
|
19952[617]31
|
617
|
GFS
|
$1, $2 WINALL
|
It is prettier in my Excel spreadsheet, but I had to copy it to Word, then copy it to the forum. I keep track of each and every ticket I play, and I keep all of the losers, and winners some of the time. In case you did not figure it out, the columns from left to right are TICKET NAME, COST EACH, FULL TICKET NUMBER INCLUDING THE BOOK, THREE DIGIT TICKET NUMBER, THE WINNING AMOUNT, $0 IF IT IS A LOSER, THE RETAILER NAME AND LOCATION, THE DAY, THE DAY DATE AND YEAR, THE PROFIT (OR LOSS), THE FULL SERIAL NUMBER FROM THE FRONT OF THE TICKET, THE THREE DIGITS IN THE BOX ARE IN THE BRACKETS IN MY SPREADSHEET, THE THREE LETTERS ON THE FRONT, AND FINALLY, ANY NOTES. I also use the SUM function for each column, and can tell how much I have paid, how much I have won, and the profit/loss. =B2+F2 is in the cell I2, and you just copy and paste down the column; it does the math for you, but sometimes you have to highlight the column and hit the SUM button.
You will have to use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the page to see the whole spreadsheet in this post.
I have some redundant data, but I do this so I can sort it different ways. For example, I can sort it by day of the week instead of date, and see if I win more on certain days. I can sort it by ticket number to see if certain numbers consistently win or lose in a particular game, over multiple books. I usually have it sorted by retailer, then full ticket number, and finally, date. That allows me to walk into the store and see exactly where I am in the book, what it has done, and where I have been. I have been amazed at the fact that I have found that I do better at certain games, at certain retailers. Sometimes patterns emerge, other times not, but I am left with better than chance odds, and I am certainly going to do better in the long run than someone who buys 5 in a row, has a winner, and throws the losers in the trash. That is a recipe for usually small, one time gains, but never consistent wins, and never a long-term profit.
I love it when someone spends $50 on tickets, wins one for $20, and says see, I told you so. I bought five tickets and won $20. No, you just lost $30 do-do brain. You have to not only count the cost of the losing tickets, but the cost of the winning tickets as well, when you are calculating your profit/loss.
I have single spreadsheets for some tickets (the ones I play the most), and some spreadsheets for each dollar amount, such as $2, $5, $10, and $20. For games that I play a lot, I go even one step further. I keep them in a stack in the order closest to what they should be printed, or at least the full ticket/book number. For example, in this order: Ticket 123-123456-001, 123-123456-002, 123-123457-028, 123489-001, etc. I study the tickets before and after the winners if I have them, along with the winner, if I have it, so I can look for a pattern. I am trying to come up with the algorithm used by the GLC between the winning serial number, and the full ticket number, including the book number.
It does not guarantee that I will win, but it sure helps keep the odds in my favor. If there are 5 bins with the same ticket, it is much easier to keep up with. I know for example that if I go in and see that I just won on the last ticket I bought in that bin, then there is absolutely no reason to play that game, because you are going to lose 99% of the time.
Is it just me, or are consecutive ticket wins, in exact order almost nonexistent? I keep hearing that 2 tickets in a row do happen, but I am not sure that it has ever happened to me.