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.
