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.