A Dilemma
First, I'm not going to do a recap of why I'm doing the lottery experiment, if you want to find out go back and read the previous blogs.
Now on to my problem. When I let things get out of hand I reined it back in by coming up with the Tip Jar, I only bought tickets with the money people left behind either accidentally or on purpose. (Powerball purchases were separate since there was already a set of rules in place before I started the experiment). Anyhow things worked well until the $200 came along. I'm going to skip the long story but the money is legitimate and I waited 60 full days before I claimed it. Anyhow it technically falls into the Tip Jar and ruins the whole point of controlling the amount I spend on tickets. Right now I could buy one of every game available and have cash left over. So what to do? I decided to set up an Alternative Tip Jar and the $200 would go into that, the money would go towards Powerball tickets and for buying tickets that I know are coming to an end but I don't have enough cash in the regular Tip Jar, but that would have to be a special occasion. It would be so much easier to just blow the entire wad on Powerball and MegaMillions tickets at one go. Oh well, back to the experiment.
Week 15
If you read my last blog you know the lottery people call me every week to ask if I need new games. You also know that they tell me which games they aren't sending out anymore. Last month they told me one game was coming to an end but I had plenty of tickets so I didn't worry about it, now I'm down to three so once again if I was going to buy one of every ticket I was going to have to buy one of these. The problem is that they are $10 per ticket and I only had $2 in the Tip Jar. So, I dipped in to the Alternate Tip Jar for the money. The jackpot was $10,000 and I won, nothing. But once again I've bought one of each ticket. (update, someone came in and bought the last of the big tickets and none of them were winners)
Nobody won the Powerball at the end of August so the first draw in September was for $1.1 Billion dollars. I went ahead and bought another ticket, I got it on the last day of August 8/31 and I decided to buy it at 8:31. We'll see if once again the Universe proves that numbers don't mean anything. I'm hoping someone wins because I'm tired of losing.
The first September Powerball drawing was on Labor Day and nobody won, including me, and it's now at $1.3 Billion dollars. Goodbye to another $2 because it's just too high to not buy a ticket. Once I was playing Texas Hold'em on line, for fun not for money, and I drew two queens. On the Flop the dealer delt two queens. I was holding the winning hand, but I didn't bet crazy because two other people were holding a potential full house and kept betting up the pot, I just checked. When we got to the last card they bet big and I bet even bigger. They paused, did I have a good hand? Was I just trying to buy the pot? The last card wasn't a winning one and they had a lot of money on the table, so they kept going, they felt they had to. It was the biggest pot I ever won. That is where the Powerball is right now, too big to not bet on. Gambling is stupid. Note, the Powerball went up to $1.4 Billion before the drawing. Still hoping someone wins.
I check out the lottery information on the internet as part of the job so I can play in advance. I saw that that one of the games has a second chance drawing that I didn't know about and had been throwing the tickets away, including one yesterday. The good news is that one of the lazy employees worked yesterday and hadn't dumped the trash so I was able to dig it out and enter it on line. The Fates were on my side today.
The lottery sends me emails and today they pulled three games that had big winners. I think I missed playing two of them, oh well. I now have two new tickets in the display case and will order a third tomorrow. One of them is a $15 dollar ticket so fingers crossed for a very generous or clumsy customers.
Woo Hoo! I matched a number in the Powerball, which means I won nothing. And since nobody else won and the jackpot has gone up to $1.8 Billion I'm going to have to buy another ticket on Saturday. Since I'm keeping track of the money I'm spending I've learned to hate the Powerball.
I did a quick pick and the numbers stink. I might as well toss it in the trash now. Heck I might as well have tossed the $2 in the dog charity jar and did something good with it. Oh well, hopefully someone wins and I don't have to buy another one next week.
Week 16
Finally, someone won the Powerball, $1.8 Billion, two winning tickets to be specific. I don't have to buy another ticket and I can go back to the normal lottery routine. In the end I spent $12 and have nothing to show for it. The joys of gambling. The good news is that it may not go up again until after the end of the year.
I guess the Lottery Gods felt sorry for me due to all the money I wasted on the Powerball, when I got to work I did my usual of checking everything before I opened. Well, the trash can next to the lottery kiosk had several tickets in it and when I checked them one was a $10 Winner! Someone had misunderstood the instructions, it said win the amount that matches your number, and none of the numbers matched their number so they tossed the ticket. However there was a second set of instructions, if you got the bill icon you won double the prize money next to it. Yep, the money icon was next to $5.00. Oh well, their loss is my gain.
Perhaps it's all the money I wasted playing the Powerball but I wasn't looking forward to this week's lottery ticket. There was no excitement or anticipation of the big jackpot. Instead I was thinking about how the cost of the ticket would cut into my wins. I had decided that since I found the winning lottery ticket it counted as Tip Money and had to go in the Tip Jar. There was already $9.06 in there so this raised my total to $19.06 and meant that I could buy the new $15 ticket that had just come in (as part of my "buy one of every ticket" strategy) I didn't want to lose that much money. Oh well, this is part of the experiment so I bought it and sure enough it wasn't a winner, my losing streak continues. The good news is we're heading out of the busy season and I will probably find a lot less lost money. Perhaps I can get back to buying the low end tickets thus cutting down on my overall losses. Meanwhile the unknown factor continues to play a major part in my experiment. Also I don't think I have to worry about becoming a compulsive gambler considering I don't like spending the money.
Week 17
Crap, a ticket is calling to me. The numbers line up perfectly, the Lucky Coin came to a stop on top of it. It’s not one I’ve bought before and it’s a second chance ticket. I even have the right amount in the tip jar. The problem is that today is Monday and the rules say I can only buy a ticket on Saturday. Well, if everything still lines up in five days we’ll see.
When I got to work on Tuesday I discovered that the perfect ticket had been bought. Well, I don't have to worry about that anymore, however the next available ticket in the pack had a very close to perfect number and I wondered if I should buy it instead, but then a guy came in and bought it. I guess the Fates were just messing with me, or testing me. So I guess I'll see what happens on Saturday.
Ticket buying day. I had $6.21 in the Tip Jar so it meant I could buy a $5 ticket. There are two that I already bought and two that I hadn't, so I had a choice. One had a jackpot of $50,000 and the other had a jackpot of $200 but there are 297 winning tickets available. I decided to go with the one with the better chances (even though they both have 1 in 4 odds), and I didn't win. Later in the day someone bought the ticket with the better payout but they didn't check it so I don't know if they won or not. Also I've moved into the negative column on my spent to win total. At this point I've proven that no matter how much you win, if you keep playing you give it back. The good news is we're heading into the slow season at work so there should be less money in the Tip Jar so I should be able to spend less. I never thought I would wish I would find less cash.
Week 18
I traded shifts with someone so it meant I had to work all afternoon and then work a full shift the next day with very little sleep. However I found two second chance tickets in the trash. BTW, when I say "the trash" I don't mean some disgusting trash can full of goo and gross liquids and half eaten stuff. I mean a small can next to the lottery kiosk that just has discarded lottery tickets in it, in case you think I'm being gross.
For professional reasons I follow the state lottery on Facebook, to see what tickets have had big winners so I can figure out if I need to order new games when the ones with all the big payouts are being pulled. Anyhow I was checking and discovered that where I work sold a jackpot ticket! I had bought one from that same pack and didn’t win squat. So you’re welcome big winner because I was one of the people who bought a loser ticket before you.
A quick note, I talked to the woman who won the big jackpot. She was telling me about taxes and wants us to save up loser lottery tickets for her. So I won't be "dropping" unscratched tickets around anymore. I figure I'll put a box behind the counter and toss them in there, except for the second chance ones of course.
A guy came in and bought four second chance tickets, one was a winner. He left the other three so I brought them home and entered them on line.
This week I felt like the Tip Jar plan was finally going to work, we hat hit the slow season and the only customers we had were hunters, who pay with credit cards, and Snowbirds, the retirees driving their huge RVs to Arizona after spending the summer up north, and they hold on to every penny with a tight grip. By the middle of my work week I only had two dollars and change. I even picked out the ticket I wanted, then the last day of my week rolled around. Normally it's super slow but for some reason I was overrun, there were people everywhere and they all had an aversion to coins. I was amazed a how much money I had collected in just one day.
When Saturday rolled around I had $9.56 in the Tip Jar. I had a second problem, the lottery had called and said the new Christmas themed tickets were coming out and I have to make space for them. I decided to let a couple of the games run down rather than ordering a new pack, and one of them is a ten dollar ticket. I decided, once again, to bend the rules, since I said I was going to buy one of every ticket and one was going to run out within a couple of days I kicked in the extra .46¢ out of the Alternate Tip Jar. This game has the highest jackpot payout at $100,000 and is a Second Chance ticket with a prize of one million dollars. Needless to say I lost but entered it on line. So I'm ending the month on a losing streak but that is the experiment. Also next month I'm gonna have to buy the Christmas tickets.
So what did we learn this month, In the short term you might be a winner but in the long run the house always comes out on top. I also learned that I'm not a good gambler because I think more about losing than winning. And I should have had made this a 6 month experiment instead of a full year because I'm not enjoying it anymore, and neither is anyone else because nobody is reading this. (Hi if you're reading this) If it wasn't for the Disney boycott I could just go back to The Simpsons and nobody would care. I wonder what will happen next month?
ps, the Disney boycott is over. So, keep wasting money on the lottery? I guess I have a week to decide.
At the end of September:
Spent $127 (including the Powerball tickets)
Won $70
Found two tickets worth a total of $40
Got a $5 lottery related tip
Won three free tickets (the free tickets all turned out to be losers)
Entered 21 Second Chance tickets on line (I only bought one)
Currently I am down $12.
And I have $186.54 in the Alternate Tip Jar
