I was actually an anti- scratch off guy for a long time. I mean look at the odds, they are actually not measureable because of the physical limitations. The tickets are made in batches of about 6 million, on average, and distributed around a given state. I have no idea if it is planned that sizeable prizes are evenly distributed among the many stacks sent to the many stores throughout a state, but basically, we are hoping a nice size prize happens to end up at the few we frequent in our corner of the state, AND, of course, that we select the tickets in that stack that has the winners. Its not like I can walk into any of those stores and chose any random ticket out of any of the stacks of a particular game. It's what's next in the line.
But then it happened. I impulsively bought a ten dollar ticket because it was pay day and I had money to burn and BAM, I won 200. The locations that have a half dozen or more machines are particularly seductive. This was also a high volume location, the turn over is so brisk, their walls are covered in copies of winners. Still, I didn't invest the emotion in it. I continued with the draw games, the "balls in the air" games I call them, where I felt chance was more random. Then i said what the hell, let me buy ten one dollar jobs, that way, I'll be able to gauge if a string of ten in a row will yield anything. i still have no idea if a scratchers that cost ten dollars or more holds any better odds than a one or two dollar one. So after months of occasional dalliances, i won 500 on a one dollar scratch. The retailer at the counter was as surprised as I was! I of course dove head long into scratchers for a good six months, and the thing that ticked me off is, I neglected the draw games and my favorite numbers were coming out left and right! I finally had to just stop going in those stores, the high volume ones with the machines and even at the counter, there's a couple dozen versions of the same games. i get angry that the lottery outfits strategize in meetings how to lure the gambler with a problem in with pictures of money, birthday themes, etc.. on the cards, then say "Gambling Problem"?
i still play draw games, ten dollars a day max, over both draws, and get a couple hundred about twice a month waiting for my favorites and the occasional quick pick to come around. I can't believe I used to let bills go unpaid, even fall short on the mortgage and fall behind. I never had any addiction problems before then, and maybe it could be debated that this is still a problem at a lower level because it does drive me nutts if I lay off and in then in the exact right order, my house number or other favorite rolls out. To top it off, I'm in NJ just a few miles from the NY border without the toll of the GWB, so it can take its toll losing in two states for a dry spell. I wonder what might have happened if I had dumped that much money into the big jackpot games only over the years.