I kind of agree. I do usually like to keep my winnings to myself, but I still think clerks can be of help. One thing that occurred in the past has stuck with me for some time now; to this day I still wonder about it. Once upon a time, I was in a store trying to decide on which ticket that I was going to purchase. The clerk suggested Jingle Jumbo Bucks, and he said that it had been doing good recently.
Being that it was the first ticket (029) in the roll, I was skeptical, but I knew it could be a good game. Against my better judgment, I went ahead and bought it. I was wondering if I had made a bad decision, but it turned out to be a $100 winner. I felt like the clerk really helped me out there. Was there any way that he could have known it was a winner? I doubt it, call me crazy, but I will always wonder. Could it be possible that a lottery representative might tell clerks from time to time that a certain roll or batch of tickets has a decent winner, and leaves it at that? Again, I doubt it, but who knows. Stranger things have happened.
It was then that I first had the idea of tipping that clerk. I was counting my money, and I was considering how much I should give him. He said that I just had won big for the day, and he advised me to go home and keep my money. Little did he know that I was not contemplating buying another ticket, but I was thinking of giving him $5 or $10. I was going to give him that if he had only kept his mouth shut. I have felt like he has been helpful and patient. I should have given him the money, and I regret not doing so.
I think I might just give him a little money the next time I have a big winner that he directs me to buy. Once the clerks get an idea that there is a financial reward in the deal, I believe some might try harder. At the same time, unless a clerk is really going out of their way to help me, I don't want to give them the idea that it is automatic and guaranteed. If I spend $110 to make $100, then no, he didn't help me that much, and cannot possibly expect me to give him money when I am losing it. On the other hand, if his advice were to cause me to soften my losing spree, i.e. turning a $60 loss into a $10 loss, then I would be thankful enough for that that I might tip him.
Sully, I really wish I knew your secret. I used to play online games a whole lot for a while there, and I still do from time to time. Although I won Cash 3 on three consecutive Sundays, other than that I have not had good luck with the draw games. My other favorite is Fantasy 5, but the most I have won was around $30 once, and I had paid in $10. I have won 3 out of 5 maybe half a dozen times, and a bunch of free tickets.
I usually play small abbreviated wheels when I play F5, and most times I will pick 7 numbers for a total of 9 tickets with a 4/4 guarantee. I will usually pick another somewhat random number to make the ticket add up to an even $10. I have mostly quit playing them, because I found that I was losing money much faster on the online games than the instant tickets. I wonder why we end up having the opposite luck. You never say you win on scratch offs, and I never do good on draw games.
I believe in using hot numbers for the short term, but I don't think they have much validity in the long term. I have seen the same numbers appear time after time, but not predictably enough for me to win on a consistent basis. The way numbers play out has amazed me. The last few times I have played Cash 3, I did not look at the numbers, I just used quick picks. I have never won on those, but I got 1 correct number on 8 out of 10 lines the last time I played. Not enough to get excited by. On the other hand, the longer I play, the more that I get the idea that the lottery is truly random.
I like to use a program called Lotto Pro 2010. I use the free trials, and have a hack that allows me to use it beyond the 15 day trial, but I am unable to automatically update the drawing files. I had to recently format a computer, so I put a fresh trial on it. I wish there was a "complete" hack for this program. This makes it a pain in the rear, because you have to manually input the dates and drawing info for every game that you are interested in. I should buy it, but it is a bit pricey at $29.95.
Although I do not usually use all of the numbers that it selects, I occasionally will use some of them. It picks hot and cold numbers, and selects them based on how long it has been since the number came up, and uses a hot number cutoff of 5 draws, and it uses numbers from the past 50 drawings. If you haven't tried it, you might want to. It has all kinds of wheels. You can play your own numbers, smart numbers, and all kinds of wheeling options.
It allows you to view data, charts and statistics in so many different ways. There are skip and hit charts, frequency charts, repeating pair charts, repeating triples charts and on and on. It takes a little while to figure everything out, but once you do it is an excellent program. It is the only decent lottery program that I have tried so far. If you already have it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.