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Quote: Originally posted by Jon D on Sep 25, 2012
"I alos use to buy every ticket in the machine..just one of each..most of the time I lose big this way.."
If you buy just one ticket, you are at a significant disadvantage.
Many players chase wins: playing until a win and then stop. Or some people (and clerks) are ticket hawks: waiting to see a customer hit a string of losers and then pounce on the roll to try and snag a win.
If you play at a store with lots of people like that, and you come in and buy just one ticket, it is more likely to be a loser than buying a single ticket under more fair and random circumstances.
You can minimize this by buying more tickets, specifically at odds or twice odds. Like a 1-in-4 odds ticket, buy at least 4 or 8. I usually do this. Adjust your ticket price based on this amount of tickets. Scratchers are like slots, if you can only play a few pulls, go down to a lower denomination, don't play the $2 slots, play quarter slots . It is also competitive, you are competing with other players in the store for the same wins. So you can try different stores, or ones with high traffic and ticket turnover that minimize the advantage of win chasers and ticket hawks.(or become one yourself...)
Hi Jon D,
You stated that if you buy one ticket you are at a disadvantage, I think it depends on the circumstances. For instance when it comes to my buying a 20 dollar ticket I tend to buy one at a time as opposed to buying 2 in a row of those tickets due to the cost. The few times that I had bought a 20 dollar ticket by buying 2 in a row, had lost on both. I felt it was worse to lose 40 dollars than losing 20 dollars with a no win if I had bought only one. It seems to be more risky actually getting a winner buying one ticket as opposed to 2 or more in a row, but when I think of the money that I have saved by buying less scratch tickets that's a plus.
I'm sure if you buy 4 or more tickets as you suggest it would enhance your odds, unfortunately you still might only win a free ticket or be lucky to break even.
I agree to try going to stores with high traffic because of the turnover with tickets. I'm not a chaser but have noticed chasers when I go and play. I have gone to both places, high traffic stores and not high traffic stores and really think the biggest problem is that it seems impossible to be at the right place at the right time to get a jackpot winning ticket or even a decent win on a ticket. When you think of many tickets that might have 40 million tickets being sold for a particular ticket and only having 10 winners for 1 million it really is a needle in a haystack. I feel compelled to continue to play because chasing that dream keeps me going on bad days, just will continue to play responsibly.
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Good idea just to buy one ticket and save your money. When you think about it, you could easily buy 1000 or even 10,000 tickets at one time and only get back the average return which is about half your money.
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Quote: Originally posted by JAB5 on Sep 25, 2012
Buying the number of tickets per odds hasn't worked for me so far. A week ago I bought five $2 scratch offs from the Florida Lotto because the overall odds were 1-in-4.39. All five tickets were duds, not even a free ticket. Grandfather plays lotto a lot as well. He bought four $10 tickets and all were losers. I'm really not sure if there is a particular strategy when it comes to scratch offs.
Hi Jab5,
Sorry to hear that buying five $2 scratch tix did not give you a win. I feel your pain. It's so random where the good tickets are. One would think buying that many scratch tickets at a time would provide you a winner but it's not always the case. I'm in agreement with you about the fact that there doesn't seem to be a strategy when it comes to scratch offs just random luck.
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Quote: Originally posted by weshar75 on Sep 25, 2012
I bought scratch-its tonight at my local circle k and got hung up on aces and 8's so I chased to no avail and lost $20 bucks. They were two dollar tickets and I won $12 but just put it back into more tickets trying for a nice win. Good luck to you and your scratching.-weshar75
Hi Weshar75,
Sorry to hear about your loss. It happens to the best of us. Like yourself I also put my small wins into buying more tickets but lots of times will not win anything by doing that. Do you play scratch tickets often? Thanks for wishing me luck, good luck to you as well.
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Quote: Originally posted by bigboy90000 on Sep 25, 2012
I usually only buy $20 or $10 tickets depending on the odds .I go once a month to buy scratchers limiting myself to $300 .My reccomendation is go to stores with high volume turnover that way you will always get fresh tickets .I use 6 different stores and I study the state lotteries website to see what jackpot tickets are still in play.The Georgia Lottery is very good at updating there totals at a clip of ever 4 days or so .$5 tickets are usually the worst for me atleast.
Hi Bigboy90000,
I'm curious, how have you been doing on the scratch tickets that you buy? Also when you buy your tickets do you buy 2 or more in a row of a scratch ticket or spread them out. Like yourself I also agree about visiting stores that have high volume turnover. I also look at my states website to see what jackpots are still available. In terms of tickets being good or bad I've noticed that certain tickets are just never winners for me and other's I've had more success with.
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Quote: Originally posted by elynch2218 on Sep 26, 2012
I live in mass too. I usually buy 5 of the same for 2 and 5 dollar tickets. BUT ive tried buying a few singles at random and have one that way too..but only small amt's. I dont buy 20 dollar ones unless Iwin on a 5 dollar one then I roll it into a 20 dollar ticket hoping for a big prize. Ive hit on the mass gold a couple times, the newer pay day ticket, and price is right. And ive won on the new 10,000 a week for life today..100 and 200. I try to set a budget of 25 or 30 and only roll winnings into more tickets and take the rest in cash. Sometimes I might spend another 10 or 20 but that's it bec we have bills. I always ask the clerk if anyone hit anything good on whatever roll im interested in..if he says no I then ask what number it is on and go from there..the last few tickets usually have a decent prize but not all the time. The very beginning as well and the middle. Good luck to ya!
Hi Elynch2218,
Seems we both live in Mass. I can understand why you would want to buy more of the 2 and 5 dollar tickets since buying 20 dollar ones can really be expensive. It seems in your case you have won on tickets either purchasing 5 at a time of the same ticket or just buying a single ticket. Congrats on your wins for 100 and 200 on the new 10,000 a week for life ticket. I've bought 3 of those (not in a row) and one was a loser the other two I won 30 dollars on. So you think the biggining and middle are good tickets, for myself I'm not sure if beginning, middle or end are good anymore. Do you also play Mass Cash?
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Quote: Originally posted by shyguitar on Sep 27, 2012
Hi Jon D,
You stated that if you buy one ticket you are at a disadvantage, I think it depends on the circumstances. For instance when it comes to my buying a 20 dollar ticket I tend to buy one at a time as opposed to buying 2 in a row of those tickets due to the cost. The few times that I had bought a 20 dollar ticket by buying 2 in a row, had lost on both. I felt it was worse to lose 40 dollars than losing 20 dollars with a no win if I had bought only one. It seems to be more risky actually getting a winner buying one ticket as opposed to 2 or more in a row, but when I think of the money that I have saved by buying less scratch tickets that's a plus.
I'm sure if you buy 4 or more tickets as you suggest it would enhance your odds, unfortunately you still might only win a free ticket or be lucky to break even.
I agree to try going to stores with high traffic because of the turnover with tickets. I'm not a chaser but have noticed chasers when I go and play. I have gone to both places, high traffic stores and not high traffic stores and really think the biggest problem is that it seems impossible to be at the right place at the right time to get a jackpot winning ticket or even a decent win on a ticket. When you think of many tickets that might have 40 million tickets being sold for a particular ticket and only having 10 winners for 1 million it really is a needle in a haystack. I feel compelled to continue to play because chasing that dream keeps me going on bad days, just will continue to play responsibly.
I said you *can* be at a disadvantage buying just 1 ticket if there are a lot of win chasers and ticket hawks at that store.
Unfortunately, those tactics can work,(especially for sneaky store clerks) but not in guaranteeing a win, just minimizing losses.
I should clarify that 4 to 8 tickets (odds or double odds) to say that you should buy that many if needed, but stop when you get a win. Single hits are more than twice as common as sequential hits, so most likely the next ticket after a win is a loser. I have analyzed thousands and thousands of tickets, so I can see very clearly the effect of the first ticket in the bunch being slightly less chance of winning than the rest of the bunch. (of course if you buy entire rolls, you eliminate all that)
The trick is stopping. This is why scratchers are so addictive, and why some people blow lots of money chasing big wins. If you play 7 tickets straight losers and then the 8th is a free ticket, you will go AARRRGGGG!!!!! and then blast through the rest of the pack to try and find a bigger win. But how big is big enough?
You always hear to those people that "hardly ever play scratch tickets" and go into the store and buy one, and hit the $2,000,000 jackpot. So buying just one ticket at a time doesn't mean you can't win big.
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I leave town with about $50 -$100 almost everytime sometimes I just break even .I do buy more than 2 scratchers at a time because like everyone else here im after a top prize .I may buy 5 at a time sometimes like the other day I brought 5 $20 tickets and had 3 straight winners skip one and another winner .If I get wins like that I visit 6 other stores and buy more because its most likely that it came from the same distribution center.
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Quote: Originally posted by bigboy90000 on Sep 27, 2012
I leave town with about $50 -$100 almost everytime sometimes I just break even .I do buy more than 2 scratchers at a time because like everyone else here im after a top prize .I may buy 5 at a time sometimes like the other day I brought 5 $20 tickets and had 3 straight winners skip one and another winner .If I get wins like that I visit 6 other stores and buy more because its most likely that it came from the same distribution center.
Did you play the $100 Million Lucky Fortunes? I have had a two in a row hit once but lately I haven't gotten much of anything.
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Oh man! Tell me how that goes. I bought a Millionaire Jumbo Bucks today and got $30. I was excited! LOL! That games has burned me. I just need a $500 hit at least. That will make it all worth it for a bit. I am thinking the bigger hits are in the mid to end of these Fortune rolls. I hit the $50 on ticket 012 and the $100 on 025.
