The Lottery Experiment December

 So here's the recap, I've started an experiment where every week, or so, I buy a lottery scratch ticket. I'm keeping track of how much I spend verses how much I win and at the end of a year, 52 weeks, I plan to see what the plus or minus total is. I also have a bunch of rules to control my spending and on a regular basis I violate those rules.

Week 28

I've been watching a Christmas scratcher game and it finally reached ticket number 24. I know numbers don't mean anything but come on, it's a Christmas ticket, I had to buy it. I still had $10 in the prize tickets I had won from the lottery so I figured I would use them. I cashed the prize tickets in and got the Christmas ticket #24 and #25. They have a potential jackpot of a $1000 each, however I didn't win. The good thing is they are second chance tickets so I'll enter them on line. Maybe the Christmas magic will still happen. Also since I used the free coupons it didn't add to the amount I spent.

GRRRRR, a guy came in and wanted various draw tickets. I read back what he had asked for and printed them out, and that's when he told me they were wrong. I had to redo the tickets but the thing is since they were already printed out I ended up having to pay for them, $42. I don't know why these people don't use the slips, you fill them out, the machine scans them and you get exactly what you want. If he wasn't such a good customer I would have made him pay for it. The next time I'm going to go through ticket by ticket and make absolutely sure it's what he wants. Some people. It would be bad Karma to wish he doesn't win squat, right? I figure I'll take the $42 out of the Alternative Funds. And since they were multiple draw tickets I might count them as my lottery spending for the next two weeks.

the first drawing came up for the tickets I was forced to buy and I won a $1 back. And then I lost on all the other tickets. Oh well, I wanted to know how this gambling thing would turn out. 

A guy came in to buy multiple lottery tickets and had several bills stuck together. He was grateful for me being honest and giving him his money back and tipped me $2. Since it's lottery related I'm counting it in my final totals.

Week 29

In the middle of the week one of the games ended so I had to pull the tickets from the case and the placard from the display. As I was doing that one of the other tickets fell on the floor, I guess the perforation had given up. I could have just put it back in the display case by pushing it on top of the next ticket in the pack but perhaps The Fates wanted me to buy it. The ticket was a $1 and had a potential jackpot of $500, and I hadn't bought one out of the game pack. I had $15.07 in the Tip Jar so I figured what the heck and bought it, and I Won!....a free $1 ticket. I decided to go with another ticket I hadn't bought but it had a low payout of $25, but more chances to win, and I lost. Oh well, it was just a dollar.

Oh great, the Powerball just hit a billion dollars. This means I'm gonna have to buy one. Well, I'll take the $2 out of the Alternative Funds to pay for it. Of course if I win the billion dollars it will ruin my experiment. I guess I'll have to take that risk.

I decided to go ahead and buy a Saturday ticket, even though I had bought one this week. There was $14.07 in the Tip Jar so I could buy a $10 ticket, I had a choice of two new ones. I decided to go with the one that had a potential payout of  $5000, I even spun my lucky coin and it landed on on top of the ticket I was planning on buying. And, it was a loser. Also the Powerball is up to $1 billion dollars so I went ahead and spent the $2, from the Alternate Funds. When I checked the ticket on Sunday I matched a number! But since it wasn't the Powerball it doesn't mean anything. I shouldn't buy anymore Powerballs.

I didn't work yesterday on 12/12 so I wasn't tempted to buy $12 worth of tickets at 12:12. Today I was considering buying my sister in law one each of the Christmas tickets as her present this year. I figured I could buy them at 11:11 since the total for the tickets would be $11. I then realized the date is 12/13 and I should buy a Powerball ticket based on the date and time, however the optimum time would have been at 10:11, 10:11 12/13, get it? However it was almost noon. Later I considered I could do it at 12/13 14:15 military time. But I didn't do it. Instead I decided that for once I was going to ignore the numbers and didn't buy any tickets.

Week 30

The Powerball went up to $1.1 billion. I spent all Monday being tempted to buy one even though I promised myself I would only do it on Saturday. I came up with a time/date combination but just then a mob of people showed up and it passed. Then I got one of the forms and randomly picked numbers "to see what would happen" but again, a mob of people showed up. I figured it was the Universe telling me to wait until Saturday. I did one more test with my Decision Coin and it said "No", twice. So I finished out the day without buying a ticket.

Like I said before I had decided to buy my sister in law Christmas scratchers for her present. Since I was going to spend the money I went ahead and throw in the extra $2 to get myself a Powerball too. The jackpot is up to $1.250 billion. We'll see. Also I didn't count my sister in law's tickets among my spending since I wasn't going to win anything from them, they are outside of the experiment. (btw, they didn't open their presents while I was there so I have no idea if she won or not)

There was one ticket left in the display, when I sold it I could put out a new pack, but today is my "Friday" and I doubted anyone was going to buy it before the end of the day. So, it's $5 with a potential payout of $200. I had $15.83 in the Tip Jar and I figured what the heck, I bought it, even though I broke two rules since it wasn't Saturday and I had also already bought one of these tickets. And...wow I won, $10. So breaking the rules paid off for once.

Powerball update, didn't match a single number. Why the heck so I keep buying these things? Worst of all the jackpot went up to $1.5 billion. Yep, I'll buy another one. 

So Saturday came around and I didn't need to buy a ticket since I bought one earlier in the week. I had decided to go ahead and buy a Powerball ticket, after all it is up to $1.5 billion dollars and then I can tell my boss to screw off. (Yeah, we all know that isn't happening). Then I put out a new game, it was at ticket number 000 and I had to know, it was only a $1 and had a potential payout of a thousand dollars and I had And I had $10.93 in the tip jar, I lost by the way. If this wasn't enough there is a game I figure is going to be pulled by the end of the year and I had planed on buying it this week. When I got to work someone had pulled one of the tickets from the display but had just set it back in so when I was doing my paperwork it fell on the floor. I figured what the heck so I bought it. The ticket was $2 and the payout was $5000, and I won! $5. So between the Powerball, the dollar ticket and the two dollar ticket I broke even.

Later in the day I realized that one of the games was down to the last ticket. If I could sell it I could put out a new pack, however I doubted anyone would. So, what the heck I had ended the day even so I bought the $5 ticket, it had a potential payout of $1000 and even when I lost it was a second chance ticket and they were probably going to end that in two weeks so I could do one more entrance on line. And I won! Another $5 So even though I spent $10 today I won $10, it was a push.

Well, I matched two numbers in the Powerball, which isn't worth anything. And it went up to $1.6 billion. I know I'm going to buy another ticket, I'm not even going to pretend. I matched a number and as we know, that means nothing.

But next week, I'm gonna stick to the rules, one ticket based on what I can afford from the Tip Jar only.

Week 31

This will be the last ticket buying week of the year. If I can hit a ticket for $50 I can end the year even.

So recently it seems the universe has been sending me tickets, two were loose in the rack and one was the last ticket in the pack, and they were winners. I went into work and as I was writing down the numbers on the inventory sheet one just fell off, I guess the perforation had given up. However I just wasn't feeling it so I worked it back into the rack. Later a guy came in and bought that very ticket. He then went to the end of the counter and scratched it off, but he couldn't tell what he was suppose to do so I scanned the bar code and....I'm glad I didn't waste a dollar on that losing ticket. 

The Powerball went up, I said I wasn't going to buy them because they are a waste of money and are only pushing me farther into the negative. However it's over $1.7 billion dollars so I bought one. I decided to play the Universal numbers game again so on 12/23 at 12:23 I bought a ticket. I almost wasn't able to do it because during the countdown some guy came up to the register and was taking his time. However he finally left with just enough time to buy the ticket. The numbers suck by the way. Woo Hoo! I matched a number! Which means nothing.

Sometimes people drive off without their change and that happened today. However the guy had prepaid $100 and his change was $35. I rang it out, printed a receipt and put it aside. After a week I figured he wasn't coming back. I count this as Tip Money but I decided that anything over $10 will go into the Alternate Funds. It makes up for what I lost on the tickets I had to pay for when the guy gave me the wrong information. However the money isn't lottery related so I can't count it in the Win column. 

I know I shouldn't but I bought a second Powerball ticket for the Wednesday drawing. I was trying to see how close to the closing of the tickets sales I could get. I had to work the afternoon shift because my coworker was going to travel to see relatives she hadn't seen in a long time. The machines shut down at 8PM just before the drawings so I decided to see how close to the deadline I could get however as I was reaching the end of the count down someone came in and was going to screw the whole thing up. I ended up buying the ticket at 7:59:32. 28 seconds before I wanted to. I came close to several numbers, but didn't match any.

When I got to work for my afternoon shift I was checking the building and there was a ticket in the trash next to the lottery kiosk. It's a force of habit but I check them to make sure the person who tossed them didn't pay attention. And the ticket was a $10 Winner! So that worked out. Almost half my lottery winnings came from found tickets.

On Saturday I had $5.29 in the tip jar. The original rule was to spend the maximum amount on the a ticket but I already bought all the five dollar ones. On Wednesday I got a new pack of $3 tickets and I was tempted to buy the first one but I sold it right away. OK, the second one then, but a woman came in and bought three. So on Saturday I bought the fifth ticket with a potential payout of $500, and I didn't win anything. Later in the day the woman who had bought the ticket I had considered buying came in and she had won $30.

OK, I hadn't planned on it but I bought one more ticket before the end of the year. It was one of the Christmas tickets and yes it was number #025. How could I pass it up? It was a $5 ticket (which I've bought before) and had a potential payout of a $1000 and I had $20.46 in the tip jar. It wasn't a winner, I should know by now that numbers don't mean anything. The only good thing is it's a second chance ticket so I got that to look forward to.

My total for the end of 2025

I spent $273 on tickets. (people lose a lot of money in the course of a year by the way)

Won $169

Found five tickets worth a total of $75

Got $7 in lottery related tips

Won four Lottery Bucks tickets worth a total of $20 in free tickets.

Entered 45 Second Chance tickets on line (I bought seven)

I ended the year down $22 (I'd be up $20 if it wasn't for that one guy)

I also have $174.46 in the Alternate Fund

So far my experiment has proven that the house eventually wins. Lets see what happens next year. 

The Lottery Experiment November

A quick recap, I'm doing an experiment where every week I buy a scratcher lottery ticket, I am keeping track of the amount I spend and compare it to the amount I win. At the end of a year I'm going to see what the total is.

Week 23

In order to control the spending I came up with a set of rules and a plan to buy one of each available game. This week I'm buying the last of the $10 tickets and since I doubt they are going to come out with new games before the end of the year I should be able to spend less for the next two months. On ticket buying day I had $17.20 in the Tip Jar ( a term I use for any money I find or is left behind by customers, the money controls the amount I spend) so I had the funds for the ticket. It has a jackpot of $20,000 dollars so here's hoping....and I lost. So I'm starting out the month in the minus column.

And then I cheated. I had considered buying the Halloween themed ticket in honor of the holiday but decided to go with the $10 ticket instead. But on Monday I kept thinking about it. I looked at the ticket's numbers and they were really great, they made a gambling sense and it was Dios de la Muerte so I was still within the Holiday zone. Then I realized I was looking at the numbers on the wrong ticket and the ones on the Halloween one weren't gambling positive. And yet, I still bought the ticket. There was $9.25 in the Tip Jar and the ticket was $2. The jackpot is $500 and...I didn't win anything. Every time I break the rules I come up on the negative end. Oh well, for the rest of the month I'll be working my way down on the cost of tickets. I think any large access in the Tip Jar will be rolled over into the Alternative Funds for next year when new tickets will be coming out.

Week 24

I was tempted to buy two tickets, they were the last out of a pack and when they were gone I would have room for a new game. However I had already bought one from this game. Then a woman came in and bought the remaining tickets and solved that problem. Then I was tempted to buy the first out of the new game. It's a holiday ticket and the game and pack numbers were perfect and it was the first ticket, number 000. However I then realized I was reading from the wrong game and the numbers were just random and had nothing to do with the holiday. I guess I'll keep an eye on it and if ticket number 25 becomes available I'll have to buy it, but that is in the future.

Lately I haven't been looking forward to the Saturday purchase, I think it's because I knew well in advance which ticket I was going to buy due to the high amount of money in the tip jar. A certain randomness had been taken out of the game, and this week was no different. I had $11.04 in the Tip Jar and normally I would buy a $10 ticket but I'm doing one of each game and I already bought all the ten dollar tickets so it was a $5 ticket for this week. I had already bought all the other $5 tickets so there was only one left, the randomness of the game was missing. But from here on is low end tickets and there are plenty of them. I also don't mind losing a dollar or two a week. 

Anyhow I bought the $5 ticket, with a potential jackpot of $50,000. And I lost. Later in the day a guy bought the next one in the pack and won $10, that figures. He thought he won $100 so I had to run off a receipt for him to prove I wasn't stealing $90. Next week I have my choice of several $3 tickets so the randomness of the game will be back. And I have plenty of money in the Tip Jar for it. 

Week 25

Someone had been checking their tickets at the kiosk and tossed them in the trash. I dug them out to save for the woman who is collecting losing ones for tax purposes. The person had folded two together and threw away an unchecked one. It was worth $3 and had a potential payout of $30,000. I was saying that the experiment had gotten a little boring but it was actually exciting to see if the found ticket was worth anything. It wasn't but for a few seconds there was a but of the old thrill. Plus it didn't cost me anything. 

I found a Panama Balboa coin in a roll of quarters. The exchange rate is equal to a $1 U.S. Since I bought it out of the drawer that means I'm 75¢ up so I tossed that into the Tip Jar.

This week I cheated and bought a ticket on Tuesday instead of Saturday, however there was a good reason, or at least a rationalization. You see it was 11/11, the wish day. So at 11:11 on 11/11 I bought $11 worth of tickets. I got the $10 draw ticket combo, one Powerball with Power Play for $3 (and a jackpot of $512 million), one Mega Million for $5 (jackpot of $900 million) and two state tickets for a dollar each ($6.8 million and $161 thousand). To bring it up to $11 I also bought a $1 scratcher, with a ticket number of 111. The jackpot is $1000, see all the ones? The scratcher was a loser and I have to wait for the drawings on the other ticket. But I don't have to buy a ticket on Saturday. btw, I had $10.82 in the Tip Jar so I had to take 18¢ out of the Alternate Funds to pay for the tickets.

I had been complaining about the game getting boring but buying the tickets had been a little exciting. The day at work had been slow but when 11:00 rolled around I got busy, were people going to be at the register at 11:11 when I needed to buy the tickets? There was one guy wandering around and he finally came up to the register, good he was gone. Then other people came in but they went to the restroom and didn't buy anything, whew. It was almost time when the first guy came back in, Oh No, he's going to screw up my plans but he went to the restroom and walked out before the purchase time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, lucky numbers don't actually mean anything. They can speak to you, they can represent something good in your life, they can be your lucky number since you were a kid, but the randomness of the tickets will always be the same. Heck, Las Vegas loves gamblers with "a system", they never work. Having said that I checked two of my 11/11 tickets, I matched the Mega Millions number and won $10 and two numbers on one of the state tickets and won a $1. I didn't match any numbers on the Powerball or the other state game. Yes, I won $11 dollars on the $11 worth of tickets I bought on 11/11 at 11:11 AM. The universe is messing with me, right? Anyhow it's a push, I didn't really win, I didn't really lose, I broke even. Oh, and by the way, my winnings are up to $111. 

I was once again tempted to buy more tickets this week. There is a Christmas ticket and I figured if it reached ticket number 24 or 25 I would buy one. However today is the end of my week and it's only at 22. Chances are when I came back on Saturday the pack would be past those numbers. However if I wanted them I would have to buy 22 through 25, four tickets. They are only a $1 each but that would be $4 more that I lost this week. It was a real internal battle but then I realized the maximum payout on the tickets is only $20 and the chances of getting one of those is pretty slim. In the end I would spend the money and at best win a free ticket, which would be a loser. I would be out $4 simply because of the numbers and if the universe wants me to buy them they will be there waiting for me. So I didn't waste additional money this week. 

And then I did. When I got to work on Saturday I was logging in the lottery ticket numbers and discovered that the Christmas ticket was at number 025. Once again the universe was messing with me so I figured what the heck, it was only a $1 and happened to have a $1 in the tip jar. So I did it and I won! a free ticket. I considered just cashing it out and putting the dollar in my pocket but I said I was going to follow some of the rules so I got another $1 ticket. This one had a potential payout of $1000 dollars and, I didn't win. So even though the universe sent me another winning ticket I was down another dollar at the end of the week.

Someone won the Mega Millions before it hit a billion dollars. Now I won't be tempted to buy another one of those tickets. Of course the Powerball is up to $546 million and climbing. 

Week 26

Halfway there. Since I planned to do this for a year this week is the halfway point. I had $11.04 in the tip jar but I had bought all the tickets over $5 so I could buy a $3 one. However I realized one of the games was down to the last two tickets and I wasn't going to order anymore since it had been around for a while and only had one more big jackpot left. As soon as someone claimed it they would pull the game. So I bought a $2 ticket with a jackpot of $50,000. I could use that money. However I didn't win. When I do replace the game it's going to be another $10 ticket so we'll see where we are Tip Jar by then.

I was going to stick to the rules, I wasn't going to buy more than one ticket, I was going to base buying tickets on the amount of money in the tip jar, I was only going to buy one ticket from each game pack. Yeah and then the Universe decided to mess with me. There is a truck driver that comes through several times a week, however he was in a bad mood and skipped his usual ticket this week. His other purchase came out to an even total of $27. And one game was on ticket number 27. It was a $5 ticket with a potential jackpot of $10,000, so I bought it. And the universe laughed at me. 

The lottery also ordered a draw date for one of the second chance tickets, it will be in February. Fingers crossed.

Week 27

The state lottery has a Facebook page and they have a weekly contest. They ask a lottery related question, usually the answer is "don't become an addicted gambler" but one week they asked about all the fall activities people were involve with from hay rides to carving pumpkins. They had it like a tic tac toe board so I answered honestly "well, I got the Free Space" that was in the center, and I won. The prize is Lottery Bucks, basically 4 tickets worth $5 each that I can cash in for lottery tickets. So for the next four weeks I'm not going to have to pay for tickets, I got that going for me. I'm not counting them in my "win" totals since they aren't money but the same thing as winning a free ticket on a scratcher.

I found a $5 ticket! Perhaps I should have just kept track of the tickets I find for a year instead of buying tickets. Of course the money is found so it goes into the Tip Jar. 

I decided to use $10 of my lottery prize on one of the new tickets we just got. (remember when I said there probably wouldn't be any new tickets before the end of the year? I was wrong) So I pulled the ticket, paid for it and scratched it off, it had a potential $20,000 jackpot but I didn't win, but not only that but it was the wrong ticket, I meant to get the one next to it. If that wasn't bad enough a woman came in and bought the ticket I meant to get, and won a free ticket. And if that wasn't enough a guy came in and bought the next ticket from the pack I had got the wrong ticket out of and won $20. The universe was screwing with me that day. The only good thing is I didn't spend any money to get the ticket. 

They held a drawing for one of the Second Chance tickets, didn't win. 

My total for the end of November

I spent $188 on tickets.

Won $112

Found four tickets worth a total of $65

Got a $5 lottery related tip

Won four Lottery Bucks tickets worth a total of $20 in free tickets.

Entered 43 Second Chance tickets on line (I bought four)

At the end of the month I am down $6

I also have $181.46 in the Alternate Fund

The Lottery Experiment October

 Recap: People always tell me about their big gambling winnings but never talk about how much they spend. I decided to keep track for a full year, buying one scratcher a week and counting how much I spent vs. how much I won. We'll see what the actual total is at the end of the experiment.

Week 19

The month started off good, I found three unchecked lottery tickets. None of them were winners but I didn’t pay for them so no loss for me.

The MegaMillions went over $500 million which is usually my starting point for buying however they raised the price to $5 per ticket, I decided to pass. The Fates decided to tempt me though, today is 10/01 and I considered buying the $10 draw ticket combo, a Powerball with Power Play for $3, a MegaMillion for $5 and two state games for a dollar each. I was going to buy them at 10:01 but instead I went outside and swept up trash until 11:00. So I won't be losing that money. Thankfully I have 10/10 off and can avoid that temptation again.

Last week I had used up all the money in the Tip Jar so I was starting this month at zero. The week was really slow and people were keeping a tight grip on their money, by the last day of my work week I only had $1.46 to buy a ticket which was great because I would only lose a dollar. However, just like last week, people suddenly got generous, or clumsy, at the end of the day I had $4.06 to spend on this week's ticket. I figured I would buy a $2 ticket and roll the rest back into the Tip Jar and even planned out which one I was going to buy. Later I realized that the rules say I have to buy a $3 ticket. I was worried the amount might go up when I found a ticket but it turned out to be a loser, "whew". On to the purchase.

So Saturday rolled around and it was time to blow another $3 on a ticket. I figured I would go with the one that had a second chance option, that way I could enter it on the internet in hopes of winning $3000. The regular jackpot for the game was $15,000 by the way. I decided I should check it on the kiosk scanner and save paper on the main machine, but it told me to see the cashier. When I scanned it on the ticket machine it turned out to be a $20 winner! So because of the small amount of money people left behind I won this week and for now I'm back in the positive column. Let's hope for No Tip money again next week.

Week 20

The boss came in today and surprisingly he bought a scratcher ticket, I didn't know he was a gambler. Anyhow yesterday someone had bought four tickets from one of the games and lost, so he bought the next one and won $20. Today he bought another ticket from the same game even though he had bought the last one and the odds of two winning tickets in a row is very rare. The good news for me is that it was a second chance ticket and he tossed it. I had to wait for him to leave before I retrieve it. If I win the million dollar prize I'm not telling him about his ticket. 

I found an unscratched ticket, the entire thing is brand new and untouched, even the scanner code is still intact. However there were several problems. Number one is that it's a Colorado ticket so I'll have to check it when I make a trip up there. Second, I found it outside, in the rain, the thing is very wet and if I try to scratch it the paper will tear and I won't be able to cash it in, so I checked the internet for advice. The general consensus is that rubbing alcohol will take off the scratch part and preserve the numbers underneath. And it worked. The ticket turned out to be a $20 winner! Now I have to plan a trip to Colorado and figure out where I can cash it in. It also means that once again the Tip Jar shot up and I can buy a high end ticket. Perhaps I'll change the rules again and put the $20 in the Alternate Tip Jar and keep spending on the low end. I'll decide after I cash in the ticket. 

Thanks to a really bad two day headache I didn't go to Colorado to cash in the winning ticket so I'm putting off claiming it in the Tip Jar which means I had $5.07 available for this week, and I got a new Christmas game. I decided to buy the very first ticket out of the pack, number 000. The game has a potential grand prize of a $1000 and...I didn't win. However they are having a second chance drawing for a $1000, I brought the ticket home and entered it on line. Perhaps I should have gone with the other $5 ticket and let this one run for a while. Oh well.

Week 21

The Tip Jar was working out great, there was around $2 in it, then a woman left behind her bag. She had bought some snacks, a bottle of water and a pack of donuts. The problem was that a couple of hours later I noticed it was sitting by the pump untouched. The amount of the sale came to $6.04 and it counts as "found money" I put the cash in the Tip Jar and it pushed the total over $8.

This week I cashed in the Colorado lottery ticket which increases my "found money" by $20. I debated if it should go in the regular Tip Jar or the Alternate Tip Jar since it was such a big amount. Perhaps anything over $10 should go into the Alternate Funds (name change). But since the regular Tip Jar was now over $8 perhaps I should just buy a $10 ticket, sure the loss was going to alter my spent/win total but that was the idea of the experiment. I have a couple of days to decide.

Ticket buying day rolled around and I had to make the decision, put the $20 in the Alternate Fund or the Tip Jar. In the end it went into the Tip Jar which brought the total up to $28.41. The original idea was to buy the highest value ticket but I also decided to play one of every available game and I already bought the $15 dollar ticket, so instead I went for a $10 ticket from a game that is about to run out and I was going to replace with a new one. The game had a potential payout of $5000 and I didn't win anything.

About halfway through the day I started thinking about the $18.41 in the Tip Jar. Next week I could buy another $10 ticket and the week after that I'd still have over $10 for more tickets. My plan to reduce spending wasn't working so.....what if I just pretended I hadn't bought the $10 ticket this week, rolled the $20 into the Alternate Funds and bought a $5 ticket instead, one of the games was a new pack with a 000 ticket number. The Tip Jar would reset and I wouldn't have the problem of too much money for the next three to four weeks. However I started this experiment to see what the result of tracking the cost to win outcome of gambling would be, and I had already spent the $10. So I guess I'll live with the problem of too much free money. 

The MegaMillions has been creeping up towards the Billion Dollar amount. I said that if it ever hit that level I might purchase the $10 ticket combo (Powerball with Power Play, Mega Millions and the two state games). Then I did the math, the MegaMillions increases by around $25 million per drawing. If nobody wins it would top out on Dec. 11th, and I don't think it will go that long.

Also everyone at the station have been saving losing tickets for the woman who won big on a scratcher (tax reasons). Anyhow one of the other women likes to enter the second chance drawings so she wants those tickets. However, she seems to be unaware that one of the new Christmas tickets has a second chance option and left several behind the counter. So naturally I took them and entered on line. I hope she doesn't find out and I can keep getting them.

Week 22

I reached the last official ticket buying week of October. Next week Saturday falls on the First Of November and we start over. Why did I do this for a full year again?

Oh no, a perfect ticket was coming up and I was going to have to break the rules. It is a special Christmas scratcher and it happened to wind up in the number 12 slot in the display case. When I was doing the paper work I saw that the tickets were up to number 22. That meant it would be the Christmas ticket number 25, in slot number 12 (12/25). But then there are the rules of the experiment, rule number one is buy one of each ticket and I already bought one from this game pack. Rule number two, only buy tickets on Saturday however it was Monday and what if ticket 25 came up right away? Rule number three, buying the highest value ticket I can afford with the money in the Tip Jar, there was $18 and change. So, in order to buy the ticket I was going to have to break three rules. However when I went to work on Tuesday someone had bought 6 tickets out of the pack and number 25 was long gone. I wonder if it was a winner?

I found 60¢ outside today. However the coins were really rough, I had to get out my magnifying glass to find out the denominations. The best I can tell is that they were in the car fire last year and nobody noticed them since they look like the pavement. I didn't put the actual coins in the Tip Jar but swapped them out for better ones. BTW, the Tip Jar is now over $20 again, I should have put the Found Ticket money in the Alternative Funds and I'd only have small change for the next purchase.

Saturday rolled around and I had $20.95 Tip Jar and I had decisions to make. I could still roll the $20 from the found ticket into the Alternative Funds and balance out the Tip Jar. I could then float a nickel back into the Tip Jar to bring the total up to a dollar and buy a low end ticket, thus cutting my losses.

There was a pack that only had four tickets left in it, when I sold them I could put out a new pack, they were $3 each so I would spend $12 and again reduce the amount in the Tip Jar.

There was also a Halloween ticket and I could buy it in honor of the season, it was only $2 so I could roll the $20 into the Alternate Funds and pull a $1.05 back out and again would cut my losses.

Since I was buying one of every ticket and had already bought the $15 ticket it meant that I would buy a $10 ticket this week and then there would only be one $10 ticket left which I would buy next week. There probably won't be any new tickets before the end of the year which means until January I can focus on buying low end tickets thus cutting my overall losses.

On Saturday I decided to keep to the rules and buy the $10 ticket. It had a payout of $500 (but more available jackpot winners) and I had just put out a new pack so it was ticket number 000. It turned out to be a $10 winner, which in gambling terms is called a push, you win back what you bet so the outcome is zero won but zero lost. I considered looking at it like winning a "free" ticket and get the other available $10 ticket but again I went back to the rules, one ticket a week. Plus it meant I could end the month in the positive column. 

On Monday I violated the rules. There was one ticket left in a pack, once it was sold I could put a new pack of the same tickets out. It was only $3 and it had a potential payout of $1500 and it is a Second Chance ticket. The problem is that first it went against the one ticket per week rule and second it was a ticket I had already bought. There was $11.11 in the Top Jar, a potential sign? I finally decided that I was going to do it, and it was a loser. I should stick to the rules.

My total for the end of October

I spent $158 on tickets.

Won $100

Found three tickets worth a total of $60

Got a $5 lottery related tip

Won three free tickets (all turned out to be losers)

Entered 33 Second Chance tickets on line (I bought four)

At the end of the month I am up $7

I also have $186.54 in the Alternate Funds, formerly known as the Alternate Tip Jar. It would have been $206.49 if I had put the money from the found winning ticket into the Funds.

The Lottery Experiment September

 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

The Lottery Experiment August

 A quick recap (if you didn't read the two previous blogs) after years of people telling me how much they win when they gamble, and never talk about how much they lose, I wondered what the actual numbers wold be. I decided to do an experiment, every week I would buy a lottery scratch ticket and keep track of how much I spent compared to what I won. At the end of the year I would calculate the final plus or minus total. 

So far I spent $33, won $55, found a $30 ticket, got a $5 tip from someone on a winning streak, and I won two tickets worth $5, which means I had to get a second ticket instead of cash, both second tickets were losers. After two months I was up $57 dollars. I've also entered 8 tickets in the second chance drawings. In June I was up $69 so in July I lost $17. At first I stuck to the rules and bought one ticket a week however in July I went outside the basic rules and started acting like a real gambler. I bought tickets based on how the numbers lined up or because the universe was talking to me, or I had sold a number of tickets from one pack so it was about to hit big, I ended up buying more than one ticket a week and none of them were winners. 

I decided that I needed to find a way to stick to specific rules in order to control my spending and I had an idea, Tip Money, any extra money I get at work, either what people leave behind or what I find laying around. I decided to put it aside and use that to buy a lottery ticket at the end of the week.

And, almost right away I started thinking of ways to break my new rules. The cost of scratct tickets breaks down to $1, $2 and $3 tickets, but then jump to $5, $10 and $15. There is also a $20 ticket but I don't have any. Anyhow I started to think, what if the Tip Money comes out to $4, do I buy a $3 ticket and roll the money back into the Tip Jar (which is really one of those little zipper coin bags that banks would hand out) or do I spend all the Tip Money for that week by buying a $3 ticket and a $1 ticket. And if I could do that could I buy four $1 tickets increasing my odds of winning. Suppose I want to go for a higher priced ticket, for several weeks could I stick to buying $1 tickets and saving up the money until it reached the amount where I could buy a more expensive ticket? In the end the answer was no, I needed to stick to a set of very specific rules for the Tip Money.

Rule #1, one ticket a week. (if there wasn't a full dollar in the Tip Jar I'd make up the difference from my own pocket)

Rule #2, I would buy the ticket based on the available money in the Tip Jar, If there is $3 I would buy a $3 ticket, and any change would roll back into the jar, even if I had $4.95 in the Tip Jar I'd still buy the $3 ticket and the leftover $1.95 would go towards next week's ticket, I wouldn't toss in the nickel and buy the $5 ticket. 

Rule #3 No buying outside of the rules. If the Universe sends me all the signs, if all the numbers line up, if the ticket is guaranteed to hit, if I don't have the money to buy the ticket in the Tip Jar and it's not the end of the week I'm not going to buy it. If the Sister's Fate want me to buy a ticket they'd better come up with the money and make sure it's available to me when it's time to buy a ticket.

Something else came up, is Tip Money limited to the station? Turns out the answer is no. I found fifty cents on my morning walk and it went into the Tip Jar. All found money is now available to buy tickets.

Also I was talking with a friend and we were discussing how to pick tickets. He suggested that I buy one from every game pack. That is a great idea, there are 22 games so as I go I'll keep track and see if I can work my way through all of them. 

So, time to put July behind me and restart the Lottery Experiment.

Week 10

I came up with the Tip Money idea a few weeks ago and started saving right away, by the time August rolled around I had $15.81and since I was going to try to buy one of every game it meant that I could start with the highest price ticket available, which just happens to be $15. The positive is that there are more high end prizes and a jackpot of $75,000. The negative is when I lose the $15 is really going to cut into my final total. Oh well, that's what the experiment is all about. Since I had already hit the top end in the Tip Jar I decided to shift my purchase day to Saturday, plus August ends on a Saturday so I can buy 5 weeks worth of tickets and then start the September experiment on the first. Hey, it's a good excuse. 

So I bought the high end ticket, there was a bit of anticipation, what would I spend the money on? Who would I tell that I had won? And...Well I got that out of the way and I don't have to buy another one. Perhaps next week will be a winner. (note, by quitting time on the first day there was already $3 in the tip jar)

While cleaning out the office I found four old lottery tickets. When I checked them they were from a game that had come to an end and the claim period was over. So I tossed them in the trash can next to the lottery kiosk as bait for someone else checking tickets. It didn't work. 

Week 11

On Monday a ticket was calling to me becasue all the numbers meant something special. However I am sticking to the rules so I'd have to wait until Saturday and have enough money in the Tip Jar to afford it. By Tuesday it didn't matter because someone bought it.

A customer came in to buy some stuff and decided to get a lottery ticket. When he was finished I went back to what I was doing but when I got back to the counter I noticed he left his ticket. Since he bought it on a whim I figured he wouldn't notice it was gone until he was far away, but that would be bad so I ran it outside and gave it to him. Later his wife came back in to check it and it was not a winner. So I didn't waste good Karma by pocketing a losing lottery ticket, lets hope it pays off later. 

I had $7.40 in the Tip Jar which means I could buy a $5 ticket and put back $2.40 for next week. Usually I would try to decide which one to buy but this week I knew exactly which one I wanted to go for. This game has been around for a while and it has to be close to someone buying the $25,0000 jackpot ticket. When all the top prizes are claimed they end the game and we can't sell anymore tickets, you have 90 days to claim any prizes. I get the feeling that someone is on the verge of cashing in the jackpot winner, so I better get a ticket while I can. Thankfully it's a Second Chance ticket with a grand prize of $100,000 so after I didn't win I brought it home and entered it on line. Fingers crossed. (I sold the last of the pack I had and didn't order new ones. When someone wins I won't have to pull the tickets)

I also found that someone had stashed four tickets behind the counter. I checked them but they were all losers. Why would you leave them at work instead of just tossing them in the trash? Beats me but I put them back where I found them. (and yes, an evil thought crossed my mind, if one of them was a winner I could buy another from that game and when it turned out to be a loser I could put it in the stashed tickets)

A Question Of Powerball

When I decided to buy one of every scratch ticket the question came up, what about draw tickets? The problem with draw tickets is there are a number of games, some of which are instant wins and others are drawings that take place multiple times a week, and they run different prices based on how you want to play. There are too many rules and too many options and the odds are a lot higher, so I figure I'll stick with the scratch tickets, I buy one, scratch it, check it and move on with my life. However something came up that brings this into question, the Powerball Jackpot. Years ago I bought too many draw tickets so I set a restriction upon myself, I could only buy one when the hit the $300 million mark. Then they changed the games, the MegaMillion went up to $5 a ticket so I'm not going to buy those anymore. Powerball went up to $2 a ticket so my new rule was only when it hit a $500 million jackpot. It takes a long time for the lottery to hit that amount and then someone usually wins within a week or two so I don't spend that much money. Well, the Powerball is almost at that amount and some decisions have to be made.

There are a number of questions, is the Powerball considered part of the experiment? The answer is yes, if I'm going to include tip money people give me when they win I'll count any money I lose while gambling (if I win a trip to Vegas and blow $20 at Black Jack it's counted as part of money spent.) Also, do I buy a draw ticket instead of a scratch ticket or do I buy both? Does the cost of the Powerball come out of the Tip Jar? And if I don't have enough money in the Tip Jar do I forgo a Powerball or a scratch ticket?

I decided that the Powerball is a separate vice from the scratch tickets and since I already have a set of rules in place I'll still use the Tip Jar for the scratchers and I'll buy the Powerball out of my regular money. I'll count the loss towards my overall total (you can see how confident I am in winning the jackpot). The interesting thing is that on Saturday the Powerball is at $482 Million, just short of the purchase amount so I won't have to worry about it until then, unless someone wins and then I can put it off for months again).

Week 12

August has been a total bust so far, I'm down $20 so hoping for a win, even a small one.

A conundrum, a customer bought a bag of chips and about a half hour later I noticed that they left it on the counter. I knew it was them because the place had been empty (thanks to an RV fire on the interstate) and they were the only ones to buy that type of chip. Since it's a found thing of a specific value does the cost count as money in the Tip Jar? It will bump me up to another level of games. I can think about it for a few days.

I was tempted to buy a Powerball ticket in the middle of the week, it's at $526 million. But I'm sticking to the rules, only on Saturday. Perhaps someone will have the winning ticket for the Wednesday draw and I won't have to buy one. The experiment is really changing the way I think. 

Holy Crap, I won a second chance drawing! Well, I won a ticket to the Zozobra festival in Santa Fe. I don't know what the dollar value would be so I'll have to count it as a separate thing from my grand total.

So I said I was going to buy a ticket on Saturday however today, Wednesday, I talked to the lottery official, they call to see if I need any tickets. I asked about getting more of the big $10 tickets and they said they are ending those games, when they're gone they're gone. So I figured I had $12.25 in the Tip Jar and since I was going to buy one of every ticket, and there are only four tickets left in the one game I might as well buy it early. The positive is that it has a potential payout of $10,000, the negative is the tickets are twice as big as a regular ticket so when I lost I couldn't pretend I just dropped it somewhere for someone else to find. Of course just as I was about to buy it a crowd came in, was it a sign from the Lottery Gods that I should wait until Saturday? However, when work slowed down I remembered, I bought the ticket and it was a $15 winner! Yeah, I only won $5 but I won! And if someone comes in and buys the last of the big tickets I can still say I bought one of each. And I won't be buying another scratch ticket until next week. 

So since I had bought a scratch ticket on Wednesday I didn't need to buy one on Saturday, however. The Powerball had $565 million dollars, beyond my "don't buy until" threshold. I had resisted buying one on Wednesday but I said I would buy one if it was still up on Saturday. I debated using the money in the Tip Jar but I spent my regular money on it. On Sunday when I went to work the Powerball was up to $605 million which means I didn't win the jackpot, and when I scanned the ticket I hadn't matched any of the other numbers, so nothing new was added to my winnings. Also since I'm only buying on Saturdays I didn't buy one for Monday's drawing. If someone wins I won't have to buy another one for months. Fingers crossed.

This week someone threw away a second chance ticket but the web site kept telling me it was an invalid number. The next day someone threw away another one and I checked it out, it worked. I guess it was just that one ticket. (I double checked, the ticket had gone through the first time but the site failed to tell me so the second time I entered it, they say it was "invalid", I got the entry.)

Week 13

A guy left a loser Second Chance Ticket so I took it home and entered it on line. It worked so the previous problem was just my error.

Someone left behind the fortune from a fortune cookie and it said your luck was about to change. Was this a message from the Lottery Gods that I should buy a Powerball? I decided to use the numbers on the fortune and find out (31 15 45 50 64 31 by the way). So I went to the machine where you can put in your own numbers and, none of the bonus balls on the draw tickets goes up to 31 and there are two on the fortune slip. Turns out it was a sign to save my $2. Also I reread the ticket and it says "Your Luck Has Been Completely Changes Today." I don't think the Lottery Gods have bad grammar.

I found a 5 Peso coin and joked, to myself, that it all goes in the Tip Jar. Then I got to wondering what the exchange rate is for the dollar. The internet, so if I'm wrong blame Google, says it's around 26¢, so I dug some coins out of my pocket and tossed them in the Tip Jar. And I tossed the Pesos into my "coins of the world" jar. 

On Tuesday the Lottery Guy came by and updated the machine. Later a customer wanted to buy a Powerball but the machine wouldn't connect with the lottery headquarters so I had to tell him sorry.  I did a hard reboot on the system and it was letting me upload information like the current jackpots and how many scratcher tickets are still active. I was tempted to buy a Powerball to see if that was working but I decided to stick with the rules and I'll only buy a ticket on Saturday. Currently the Powerball is at $643 million for the Wednesday draw so it was hard to keep from justifying the purchase. I hope someone wins so I don't have to spend an extra $2 on Saturday.

On Wednesday I tempted to buy a Powerball ticket and I even came up with a plan, buy at ticket at 11:11. If I bought it during the wishing minute perhaps it would be a winner. However I forgot what I was doing and when I remembered it was 11:13, so I didn't buy one. However it went up to $700 million so on Saturday I'll blow another $2.

I went to Denver on Friday and I was tempted to buy a Colorado lottery ticket just because. However Denver traffic wore me out and I just wanted to get home. So I'll buy one here according to the rules.

Finally Saturday rolled around. I had $6.77 in the Tip Jar so I could buy a $5 ticket. The lottery sent me several new games so I decided to buy the one with the 000 ticket number, the potential payout was $10,000. And I won!, a free $5 ticket, it was a push. So I went with another game with a potential payout of $5000 and, it wasn't a winner.  Maybe I should have used my lucky coin to pick the next ticket.

The Powerball has hit $700 Million dollars so I bought another $2 ticket. Last week I took my ticket into work and scanned it on the machine instead of looking at the numbers. I decided that I needed to see how close I got so I checked it on line, I came close to matching a number. It went up to $750 million but there are two more drawings before I have to buy another ticket. Come on people, buy those winning numbers so I don't have to waste another two bucks.

Week 14

I said I wouldn't do it. I didn't want to do it. However, the Powerball is at $750 million so yes, on Sunday I broke down and bought a ticket. I am so rooting for someone to win so I don't have to buy a ticket for Wednesday's drawing. Oh well at least I'm keeping it separate from the Tip Jar.

I found two more Second Chance tickets so I have more entries.

Temptation. I came up with the Tip Jar to reduce spending and letting the Fates guide me into a bad purchase. The problem is I also said I wanted to buy one of each game, and these two ideas clashed this week. There is a game they are going to discontinue even without a big win, and we are down to the last three tickets. They cost $10 each and as of Monday, when I'm writing this, I only have $3 in the Tip Jar. So which part of the experiment do I go with? The one where random strangers being careless with their cash fund my bad habit, or do I buy the ticket while we still have them and pay for it outside the Tip Jar? At the end of the day I decided that if the Fates wanted me to buy the ticket they'd come up with the money by Saturday and nobody would come in and buy all three of the last tickets, ever. I hope I still feel that way for the next two working days, if someone buys one, or two I might panic and break the rules. 

On Monday I was just two numbers off the Powerball, and nowhere near any of the other numbers. Worse, it went up to $815 M which means that yes, I bought another ticket. This time I got a pick your own numbers slip and randomly picked 6 numbers. It was about the same as just going with a Quick Pick. Wish me luck, or someone luck so I don't have to buy another ticket. 

I was tempted to add another $1 to the Tip Jar. A guy's total came to $8 and change, he paid me all in singles, which he counted out but when I recounted it I discovered he gave me $10. I could have just shoved the bills in the drawer and gave him his coins back, but, Karma. Yeah I gave him the extra dollar along with his coins. We'll see how that pays out in the long run.

Update, I didn't match any of the Powerball numbers and nobody won so now it's up to $950 million and yes, I bought another ticket. Come on people, win this thing so I don't have to spend anymore money.

On Wednesdays the lottery calls to see if I need any new tickets, I have a nearly empty pack so I asked if I could get new ones but they told me that they aren't printing anymore tickets, what is out there is all there will be. The problem is that I said I was going to buy one of every game and considering we're heading into a holiday weekend, with a lot of lottery playing travelers, plus I have Thursday and Friday off they may be gone before Friday. So I violated the rules and bought one early. I had exactly $4 in the Tip Jar and the ticket is $3 so I had the money. The potential payout is $500. It wasn't a winner by the way. 

Since I bought this week's scratch ticket early I considered posting early, however nobody won the Powerball and it went up to $950 million. The drawing is on Saturday so I have to wait til then to see if I lost. A quick update, enough people bought a Powerball ticket this week that the jackpot jumped up to a Billion Dollars. I really hope someone wins on Saturday so I don't have to buy another one.

Well crappers, nobody won the Powerball so it has gone up to $1.1 Billion. And once again I didn't come close to any of the numbers. I guess this will continue next month. I don't want to spend $6 a week. 

I had the opportunity to be evil today. A woman was buying scratch tickets for someone out in her car, probably an elderly relative. Anyhow the person sent the woman inside because she had won a free ticket. when I scanned it on the lottery machine it popped up that the ticket was a $10 winner. For a nanosecond, from the time the winning message popped up on the screen and the receipt printed out I considered giving her the new $2 ticket and putting the extra $8 in the Tip Jar. Yeah, I told her she misread the ticket and was a $10 winner, I just couldn't do it. Perhaps I'll be rewarded with the winning Powerball ticket. 

Today I noticed that one of the tickets had the perfect numbers on it, they all lined up, once again the Universe was trying to tell me to buy it, but I am trying to stick to the rules, buy a ticket on Saturday and only with the money from the Tip Jar. Later a woman came in, bought a bunch of tickets including the one with the good numbers, and lost on it. Thank goodness I didn't buy it.

At the end of August my total is:

Spent $83 (including the Powerball tickets)

Won $70

Found a $30 ticket

Got a $5 lottery related tip

Won three free tickets (the free tickets all turned out to be losers)

Entered 15 Second Chance tickets on line (I only bought one)

Currently I am $22 up.

Oh how Tip Money saved my experiment. 

My job is boring, it's the same thing every day. And when something different happens it's usually a disaster that has to be fixed right now or an annoyance. I felt like Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill only to have it back at the bottom the next day. The lottery became a fun distraction from all that, deciding which ticket to buy, anticipating the win or loss and keeping track the money. The problem was that I wanted that thrill more and more, a potential addicted gambler. I had to find a way around it. That is when I came up with the idea of Tip Money, the only money I would spend on the lottery was money that people lost or left behind. There was an unexpected change to the dynamic also, every customer was suddenly involved in my experiment, would they pay with cash and leave some coins behind? Would they prepay cash on the pump and then drive off without their change? Would they be klutzy and drop some coins somewhere? The anticipation of adding to the Tip Jar suddenly made the days go by faster and every interaction either more thrilling or disappointing, kind of like buying tickets.  

Also I was going to buy the highest priced ticket I could afford with the money in the Tip Jar, and the extra would be rolled back for next week. There was another thrill, the change adding up to where I could level up. As I got to the end of the week I would start to anticipate waiting on customers just to see what the result would be. I was no longer trying to figure out which ticket to buy but instead seeing how much money I would have towards the purchase. It cured me of wanting to come up with an excuse to buy a ticket because I had to wait to see which ticket I could afford. The experiment became balanced out and every day, every customer had a direct effect on the outcome, life became interesting again. 

So I heard from the lottery about the event I "won" a ticket to the Zozobra burning in Santa Fe. They swear they sent it but I never got it so they sent it to me again. The problem is they sent it to me three days before the festival and I don't have time to arrange for someone to cover my shift so I'm not going to bother. Since I'm not going to be able to use the ticket I'm not going to count it in my winnings. I wonder if the other "winners" got the same run around.

The Lottery Experiment, July.

 The Lottery Experiment, July.

So a quick recap, people are always talking about how they win big when gambling, but they never talk about the amount they have lost over the years. I decided to do an experiment, buy a ticket once a week and keep track of how much I spent vs. how much I win. At the end of June I was up $69.

Week Five

I started the month off with a $2 ticket calling to me, the numbers all lined up and the jackpot was $5000, and just like in June the Sisters Fate were telling me to buy it. However, when I pulled it out of the rack I discovered that one of the other employees had pulled two tickets and then pushed them back with the higher numbered ticket on top (a customer probably changed their mind). The problem is that we sell tickets in order so they can track them and match up the total at the end of the shift with the sales on the register. Also if someone broke in and stole tickets we could contact the lottery officials and let them know which ones had been legitimately sold and which ones to block. Since the tickets weren't in proper order the Sisters Fate numbers were no longer calling to me. I decided to let my lucky coin pick so I spun it on the glass display and it landed on a dollar ticket with a potential payout of $800 and I bought it. The thing turned out to be a $5 winner! I'm off to a good start.

btw, a woman came in and bought 4 of the tickets from the same game so if I didn't go with my lucky coin she would have gotten the $5 ticket. I find those little twists of fate interesting. 

I had to go to work on Saturday and I found a Second Chance ticket with a potential $50,000 jackpot so covering someone else's shifts worked out, it would be even better if I win the jackpot. Meanwhile another scratch ticket was calling to me, a customer's total came to an even $8.00, the next customer needed a receipt for pump #8 and there was an 8 on the ticket in slot number 8. However I'm sticking to my rules and only buying one ticket a week on Friday so I passed. However if some time in the next week I hear a customer bought a big winner ticket at the station I'm gonna be pissed at myself.

(update, no sign that someone bought a big winner)

Week Six

I'm always mentioning tickets that are calling to me and this week was no different. On Monday the date was 7/7 and if you added up the numbers of the year it comes to 7 (if you skip the 20 part). The ticket in the number 7 ticket slot was the number 007. It's as if the entire universe was telling me "you have to buy this ticket today!" It was $2 and the potential payout is $5000, again, 2 plus 5 = 7. So even though I vowed I was going to ignore the whole number thing and only buy a ticket on Friday I broke the rule. And the Universe then reminded me that numbers are just a human construct and don't really mean anything other than keeping track of stuff. So I was down another two dollars.

I was watching a travel show and the hosts stopped at a "lucky statue" to touch it on the well worn spot. I figured it would be a great idea to find some lucky thing and put on the counter by the lottery display, but what? At first I thought about going with a classic, the Laughing Buddha, however considering the current political climate I thought I might get accused of being religiously insensitive or doing cultural appropriation so I kept looking. Next I considered an animal figure or a Norwegian troll, however in a store full of stuff it might get lost in the background of visual noise or people would think that it was for sale. Perhaps the best way to go would be the most simplistic, a lucky rock. I started looking around my house (for reasons I won't go in to I have a number of interesting rocks at home) but none felt right. I decided the best thing to do was to go to the mountain and look around. The Sisters Fate must have felt that it was a good idea because my brother called and he was heading up the mountain and invited me to come along. I went to a spot where I knew there were exposed rocks due to erosion and within 10 minutes I had found it, the perfect lucky rock. It wasn't too big so it took up too much room on the counter and it wasn't too small so people wouldn't notice it. It was oval-ish and flat on the bottom so it wouldn't roll around, it was mostly smooth but had a few wrinkles for character. And it is quartz so it has a translucent quality plus it has small flakes of pyrite so it has a glittery effect. I wrote Lucky Rock on it and underneath I put the disclaimer "Luck Not Guaranteed" so nobody could sue me. When I went in on Monday I put it on the counter next to the lottery display. Several people commented on it, one guy touched it, one guy offered to buy it and a couple of people picked it up and saw the disclaimer followed by a good laugh. (A few weeks later a guy bought a scratcher and then rubbed it on the Lucky Rock but he left before checking it so I don't know how that worked out)

The problem with the Luck Rock was it was untested, if anyone asked if it worked what would I say? I know, I promised I would only buy one ticket a week but this is for science. So I put my left hand on the lucky rock and spun my lucky coin with my right hand and then bought the ticket it had landed on. It was a $2 ticket with a potential payout of a $1000. Anyhow, perhaps the rock is lucky in other ways, perhaps we were going to get into a horrible car crash on the way back from the mountain but just as I picked it up the car that would have smashed into us had a flat tire, thus changing the timeline. You don't know, you weren't there and you can't say that didn't happen. Anyhow I spent $4 on tickets this week even though I said I was going to stick with the original plan of just one ticket per week.

Meanwhile a regular customer came in with a series of winning tickets and she was pretty happy about it. She decided to share her good fortune and gave me a $5 tip. I told her she didn't have to do it but she insisted. So, since it was lottery related do I count it in my lottery fund? I decided I might as well. 

I also found another second chance ticket in the trash and have another entry for the $50,000 jackpot. I'll find out when they do the drawing at the end of the regular game. 

Week Seven

On Monday I was bored so I spun my Lucky Coin on the display glass. It jumped over the frame and came to a stop on the counter. I figured that was its way of telling me to not choose a ticket today. Later a woman came in and bought a stack of random tickets thus reshuffling the packs. Is it a sign or just coincidence?

You'd think I had learned my lesson, numbers mean nothing and I should just randomly pick a ticket. However this time the signs were clear, everything was there, the numbers, the general atmosphere, several matching numbers from outside sources including customer's purchase, I even spun my lucky coin over the display case and it came to a stop on the very ticket with the good numbers, that I didn't buy earlier in the month. So I bought the $2 ticket with a potential payout of $5000 and, lost. Of course believing in "all the signs" is one of the pitfalls of gambling and why there are mega casinos in Las Vegas.

Week Eight

The Universe is messing with me again. On Monday I noticed the numbers on a ticket almost lined up perfectly. The Game Number ended in 39, the pack number ended in 39 and it was ticket number...38. In order to get the perfect ticket I would have to buy two of them, and they are $3 each, but have a jackpot of $50,000. Do I want to spend that much money to once again have the Universe laughing at me? Then a customer drove off without their change and how much was it? $2.39 cents. Well, I have a week to wait and see if someone buys the lower number ticket and then I'll just be spending the $3.

OK, I give up, I gotta follow this experiment wherever it may lead. I said I was going to only buy low end tickets however this week something happened that falls into one of the pitfalls of gambling, believing that "something is about to hit, and big." I was still waiting for someone to buy a ticket so that the good numbers would line up on the one pack, meanwhile several people came in and started buying tickets out of a different game. In the end they bought a total of 15 tickets, and one of the customers kept scratching them off and checking them. She won a couple of times and lost on more. It set up the problem of "this pack is about to hit". I knew that it probably wouldn't but I'm doing an experiment and sometimes I have to go with the cliche the Universe hands me, plus it was pretty exciting for a few seconds. So, I bought a $10 ticket with a potential payout of $500. That may seem low but these tickets have more winning prizes and thus better odds. I justified the purchase as part of the experiment and, lost. 

Also, they are changing my schedule so I'll be buying tickets on Wednesday instead of Friday. I don't think it will change the outcome of the results but you never know, I mean gamblers do believe in following a pattern. I'm not really a good gambler.

Someone told me there was a key for the shed out back, and it was somewhere in the office. The room is a giant mess by the way. I did a quick search but didn't have time to do a real deep dive. Anyhow I found an unscratched lottery ticket hidden in the back of the desk so I checked it on the machine. The game had come to an end so it was invalid. I went ahead and scratched off the boxes and followed the instructions. Not a winner. But at the same time it didn't cost me anything. 

Towards the middle of the week a guy came in with a stack of tickets he wanted checked. He had two winners and a stack of losers. He asked what we do with the tickets after we check them, I said I tear a gap out of the bar code on the winners so they can't be scanned again and the rest get tossed in the trash. I asked if he wanted his loser tickets back (I didn't call them 'loser tickets' btw) but he said no. And that is how I got two more second chance tickets to enter on line. It could be worth $25,000 (I may not have mentioned that to the guy but there are ads all over the building and information on the ticket so it's his own fault)

Week Nine

With the schedule change I'm buying tickets earlier so it means this month I'll buy a ticket before Friday and will end the month with 5 weeks worth of purchases. 

Someone finally bought the ticket out of the pack I was waiting for, the one with all the numbers that lined up. The game number ended with 39, the pack number ended with 39 and the individual ticket number was 39. And last week there was even a customer who left their change on the pump, $2.39. I felt that I had no choice, I had to buy it, a $3 ticket with a potential payout of $50,000 and, once again numbers don't mean anything.

Later in the day when I was cleaning I found an unchecked ticket in the trash by the kiosk, the barcode was still covered, so I scratched it off and it was a winner! A free $3 ticket. I wish I had found it before I spent the money on the other ticket. Anyhow I decided to get one of the Second Chance tickets, it's $3 with a potential payout of $5,000 and...I didn't win. But it's a Second Chance ticket so I entered it on line for a chance to win $3000. Wouldn't that be fun, winning on a ticket that someone threw in the trash.

I also have been thinking of keeping track of what I refer to as "Tip Money", cash I find at work or when people say "keep the change". Anyhow this would be a way to pay for tickets without using paycheck money. One year I kept track of everything I found and it came out to over $400. I ended the week with $2 in coins so I figured I would do a test, I bought a $2 ticket, it's a lower end one with a potential payout of $50 but there are more prizes, and I won! Except it was another free $2 ticket and couldn't get the cash, I had to get another ticket. I decided to go for a different $2 ticket with potential payout of $5000, and lost. Perhaps doing a Gambler's Justification, coming up with reasons to spend money on gambling, wasn't worth it at all.

At the end of the month I had spent $33, won $55, found $30 and a free $3 ticket, got a $5 tip and won two "free" tickets totaling $5. My lottery pot is up to $52 dollars but that is down $17 from the start of the month. And I've entered 10 tickets in the second chance drawings.

This month was mostly about experimenting, playing the numbers, buying a ticket that were due to hit and spending extra money that had come my way. It was a losing month. I also started to think about the Gambler's Rush, the reason people become addicted to gambling. Basically every ticket in the display case is a Schrodinger's ticket, every unscratched ticket is both the big jackpot winner and a total waste of your money at the same time, the only way to know which is to buy and check it. There is a moment of anticipation, an adrenaline rush as you wait for the reveal, your heart beats a little faster and you imagine what you'll spend your winnings on. When you actually do win, regardless of how small you get a thrill, and even if you lose you still have that slight leftover buzz. Addicted gamblers want more of that rush and are willing to spend more and more to get it, it isn't the amount won or lost but the thrill of it all. I started coming up with reasons to buy tickets but by the end of the month I wasn't getting that buzz anymore. I think by the time I get to the end I'll be tired of spending money and scratching tickets. I'll probably go back to ignoring the numbers and the payouts, other than keeping track of the value of the ticket. I'll just write this month off as experiments that proved systems don't work.

And now, on to August. 

The Lottery Experiment June

 The Lottery experiment, June.

So, I kind of fell off on the whole Simpsons thing. I keep trying to get back into it but it became such a slog that I wasn't looking forward to it. I needed a new project to blog about and thanks to a change at my job I find myself working at a place that sells scratcher lottery tickets. What was meant to be temporarily filling in for someone turned into a full time position with a lot more responsibility, but no pay raise.

Anyhow I was bored at work and started to wonder, can you actually win at scratcher tickets? I have a few regulars who come in and buy a lot of tickets, and win some, but what is the win to loss on their purchases. I figured I would try for myself, however I don't want to waste a lot of money and I came up with a plan.

Here's the plan, once a week I'm going to buy a scratcher ticket although I'm not going to play the actual game, I'm going to scratch off the confirmation bar code and then scan it on the main lottery machine. Then a little bit of evil, take the losing ticket and drop it somewhere, someone will come along and find a ticket that hasn't been played and think they found a potentially winning ticket. I'm making someone happy for a few minutes until the finish and find that ticket is a loser. I consider it a life lesson.

Meanwhile here's the breakdown on price range of the scratch tickets:

$1

$2

$3

$5

$10

and 

$15

Several of the tickets have a "second chance" option, if the ticket isn't a winner you can go on line, enter the scratch off code and you have a chance to win a future drawing. Right now there are three second chance contests, a $3 ticket with a second chance of $3000, a $5 ticket with a second chance of $5000 and a $10 ticket with a second chance of One Million Dollars! I check people's tickets for them and when they aren't winners they want me to toss them, which somehow wind up in my bag and then bring them home to enter them on the lottery web site.

So, onto the experiment, 

June

Week One

I decided to start off with a $1 ticket that had a potential jackpot of $1000. And, it was not a winner. So the result of my first try was $1 spent, $0 won and I'm at -$1 in my experiment. I'm off to a....start.

Week Two.

The ticket display has cards of the various games under a large glass sheet. People can look in it, see what the games are and how much they cost. I figured I would use my lucky coin to pick a ticket for me, I spun it on the glass and it landed on a two dollar ticket with a potential payout of $1000. I bought it and, didn't win anything. My total so far was $3 spend, $0 dollars won and I'm at a -$3.

That should have been how I ended the week, however, each ticket has the game number, pack number and individual ticket number printed on them, for control and legal reasons, plus they are in numbered spots in the case so people can say "gimme a number 5". For some reason all these numbers lined up on a ticket in a way that meant something to me and I felt that the Sisters Fate were encouraging me to buy it, I had no choice but to do it. So I spent an additional two dollars and...the Sisters Fate were laughing at me for believing that random numbers actually meant something. I officially ended the the week having spent $5, won $0 and was at a -$5 in my experiment.  Why do people do this?

Week Three.

This started off to be an interesting week. There is a small lottery kiosk off to the side of the main counter. It has brochures with game information, the forms to fill out if you want to pick your lucky numbers, a small counter to scratch on and a scanner connected to the main lottery so you can check your bar code and see if you're a winner, although I always encourage people to double check at the main machine even if the thing tells them they didn't win. Anyhow on the side is a small trash can to toss your loser ticket in. When I find tickets in the trash I check them on the main machine, just in case. On Tuesday I found a couple of tickets so I checked them, the first one was a loser, the second ticket gave me a "Bar Code Error" message so I took a closer look, they hadn't fully uncovered the code so I got out my lucky coin, cleaned it and scanned it again. Holy Crapppers, it's a $30 winner! Someone had scanned it, didn't read the screen but just listened for the happy little tune it plays for winners, thought it was a loser and tossed it in the trash. Since it had been tossed in the night before I don't know who did it so I couldn't give it back to them and basically found $30 in the trash.

At this point i had spent $5, won $0, and then found a winning $30 ticket so I'm up $25 and my experiment is funded for at least a couple of months, if I don't get too crazy.

Friday rolled around, which has become my official purchase day. I spun my lucky coin and it landed on a $1 ticket with a potential payout of $1000. I scanned the barcode and, Holy Crap, it was a $50 winner! You know, that little thrill you get when you actually win? This is where the danger of becoming hooked on gambling comes from, however I'm pretty cheap and hate throwing away good money on stupid stuff so I'm not planning on a Vegas trip to invest my current winnings on the craps tables. 

So at the end of week three I had spent $6, won $50, found a $30 ticket, which puts me in the positive category of $74. 

Week Four

I ran out of a pack of tickets and there was a second pack that was almost empty. Once a week the state lottery office calls to see if I need anything so I told them to send me a pack of $5 tickets and more of the popular $10 tickets. By the time I got the new tickets the pack that was almost empty was down to two tickets. I was thinking, I'm ahead on my lottery funds and I could buy both of those tickets and then I could put out the new pack, especially since it is a second chance ticket and I could get the tossed ones to enter on the internet. However, as I said before, I'm cheap and the tickets were $5 each, I would have to spend $10 out of my experiment fund. If I stick with low end tickets I could buy four weeks of tickets for the $10. After weighing the pros and cons I decided to not buy the two tickets and just wait for them to run out before putting the new tickets in the rack.

However, when I walked in to work on Friday I discovered there was only one of the $5 tickets left. I figured that once again the Sisters Fate were trying to send me a message, "buy the last ticket", so I did. I spent $5 on the ticket, it had a potential payout of $50,000, and, it was a loser, once again the Sisters Fate were laughing at me.

I've also managed to get a number of Second Chance tickets. As of the end of the month I have entered one ticket with a potential of winning of $3000, one ticket with a potential of winning $5000 and four tickets with a potential jackpot of $1,000,000. The first two end next month and the big jackpot will be drawn at the end of the year. So I'll have to wait to find out about those one.

The web site also had a survey that will have a drawing worth $1000 so I filled it out. I mostly answered the questions based on what my customers tell me (mostly that they hate the crossword games), and to say it's better to buy at the counter than at a vending machine. I doubt they care about my opinion.

June Total

I ended up the month spending $11 on tickets, won $50, found a $30 ticket and have $69 in my lottery fund.

If I was a smart gambler I would say that the experiment was only for the month and walk away happy, but I had decided to do it for at least until the end of the year and potentially for a full year, until July 1st 2026. We'll see, perhaps my lucky coin will actually pick a big winner next month.

Stay tuned. 

(every time I read this I rewrite it so I'm just gonna go ahead and post it. If there are any really dumb errors, well so be it)