You are right on that one. I keep mulling over the idea of getting a job at a gas station. I half jokingly told the owner of one store that I would work for $5 an hour cash, and $5 worth of lottery tickets per hour. He did not like the idea of hiring someone who plays, because he evidently had some problems with people who were in his employ previously.
I have had my suspicions about some of these places where I always seem to lose. What used to be a favorite is now one I rarely play at anymore. I went in and was looking for Georgia Lottery Black tickets. There were none displayed in the bin, and I asked the owner if he had any, and he picked some up from somewhere, and tore one off and sold it to me. It was in the middle of the roll. Unless he was doing inventory, or holding them for someone else, I am left with the assumption that he must have been playing himself. I did not ask, and he did not say anything about it, I just decided to take most of my business elsewhere after that.
Take that with the fact that another local station has about four or five $500 winners from that game posted on the wall, and it really makes you start asking yourself questions, especially when the game has only been out a little over a month. I have never won more than $25 on it, and most times I either lose or win $15, which is not so hot for a $10 game. I suspect there is a way to "read" the books, and tell which ones have a big winner, or a way to tell which ticket might be good in a particular roll, based on the book number. There is an algorithm that the lottery uses, we just need to crack it.