The Lottery Experiment January

So I came up with a plan, I'm always hearing about people who won big at gambling but they never talk about thier losses. So I wanted to see what would happen if I kept track. The plan was simple, buy a lottery ticket once a week and track my spending compared to how much I win. Of course I didn't stick to the plan and started spending too much based on "good numbers" or "someone just bought multiple tickets, this pack is gonna hit" and other gambling traps. And at the end of the year I was in the negative, but that was because some guy came in, asked for specific tickets and after they were printed decided they were all wrong so I was forced to pay for them, honestly I would have ended they year with a $20 profit otherwise. Anyhow I've decided for 2026 I was going to restart the experiment and stick to the rules, very specific rules:

One scratch ticket a week to be purchased on Saturday only. No good numbers, no strong feelings, no distractions.

The tickets will be purchased based on the amount in the Tip Jar, the money that people leave behind on purpose or by accident, including any money found outside of work. 

If I find more than $20 the money will roll over into the Alternative Funds, which was created when I had a windfall of $200 which could be counted under "found money". 

Buy tickets from games I haven't purchased before. I plan to start off including last year's tickets, if I already bought them I'm go for a new one.

I'll also buy Powerball tickets but only when the jackpot exceeds a billion dollars and the money will come out of the Alternative Funds. 

So, for the rest of the year I'm gonna try to stick to the rules and see what the total is in December of 2026.

To start the year someone won the Powerball so I won't have to buy any for a while, so I won't be going into the negative column right away, until I lose on my first scratch ticket.

Week One

I started off the new year and the new experiment by sticking to the rules. I had $20.66 in the Tip Jar (Christmas people were either really generous or forgetful). There was a $10 ticket in the rack I hadn't bought, no magic numbers, not "someone just bought 5 so it's due", nope, just the one I needed to buy for the experiment. It had a potential payout of $500 and I started off my new experiment with...a $40 win! It's a great way to kick things off and if I don't get crazy this time I might end up in the positive column.

Week Two

So, just one day after buying a ticket to start my new experiment I was horribly tempted. There are a series of Christmas themed tickets and I realized one of them was at #25. Get it, Christmas, the 25th? Plus it was a ticket from a game I hadn't played before. However, I was four days into my new experiment and I vowed to not fall into gambling traps. Then a customer came in and wanted $21 in gas on pump #7. 21, the winning hand in Blackjack, 7 the winning roll in craps. It was as if the Universe was screaming at me "Buy The Ticket!" But no, I refused to give in to temptation, I was going to stick to the rules and if the ticket was still there on Saturday I would buy it. The next day the ticket was gone, someone had bought it. I asked my coworker if she knew if it was a winner and she told me the person checked it before leaving and sure enough, the Universe had lied to me, it was a losing ticket, I saved three bucks. The next day I got a message from the Lottery, someone had cashed in the last jackpot ticket and they were pulling the game. In the end I didn't buy any tickets from that game. And I still have a Saturday ticket to look forward to.

I made a decision that if the Tip Jar exceeded a certain amount I would transfer some of it to the Alternate Funds so that I wasn't tempted to get crazy with the spending. Well, at last count there was $31. 77 in tips so I moved $20 and left the $11.77 for future ticket purchases. Plus it made up for the $42 I had to spend on tickets I didn't want.

Ticket buying day rolled around. I made it without breaking the rules. Since I rolled the $20 into the Alternate Funds jar I had $11.87 in the Tip Jar. I got a new $5 ticket but instead of buying it I had decided to buy the $2 ticket from a game that might soon be coming to an end since there was only one unclaimed $1000 ticket left. Plus it was loose in the the case, I considered that a sign from the lottery gods. So I bought it and... didn't win. but I've stuck to the rules so I don't mind having lost. Now if I can just resist temptation for the next 7 days.

Week Three

This was a week of temptation. Sunday was January 11th, 1/11. One of the games was at #111 and I considered buying it at 1:11. It is a $2 ticket with a potential jackpot of $500, but it was a game I had bought before. I kept reminding myself that numbers don't mean anything and let it slide. 

One of the things that bug me is when a game is down to the last ticket in the pack, if I could sell that one I could put out the new pack. It is a $10 and has a potential payout of $5000, however I had bought the game before so it was a multiple violations of the rules, so I didn't buy it. Later my coworker told me she had sold the ticket and it wasn't a winner. See, obeying the rules paid off.

The lottery has a new second chance game with a potential jackpot of $4000 and someone left behind a ticket so I've started entering those. It doesn't cost me anything and we'll see. I need to go through the tickets I had saved from past games and see how many of them already had the drawing so I can throw them away.

Ticket buying day finally rolled around and I had $14.18 in the Tip Jar. I had recently got a new game, a $5 ticket with a potential $5000 jackpot. It wasn't a winner but it's a new second chance game with the chance to win $4000. As of this point there are no games over $3, for now.

Week Four

I'm starting to think that Sunday the day after "ticket buying day" is the most dangerous of the week. There is a set of tickets and they have interesting numbers, the Game is 659, the Pack is 6594. When I first put them out I was tempted to buy ticket number #004 however I said I was going to stick to the rules and not buy the first 5 tickets, a total of $25 by the way. When I came back to work it was well past ticket #004 and I forgot about it. This week I realized it was up to ticket #054 but I figured I would wait to see if ticket #059 came up, then the number sequence would be 6596594059, but I can't justify spending the money to get to the last ticket. It was a slow week so I figured the ticket might pop up on Saturday and even though I already bought one from the game and I know that numbers don't mean anything it would still be fun just to find out. Then, towards the end of my shift two guys came in and went nuts buying tickets. They kept winning and losing and buying random tickets. In the end they walked away $50 up and had bought multiple tickets from the packs. The game with the good numbers was up to ticket #058, I could break the rules, buy two tickets for $10 and see what happens. However just then my coworker walked in and we did a shift change so I left the tickets behind, to see what would happen tomorrow, however... Tomorrow rolled around and I came down with the flu, and didn't go to work. I was going to have to wait for another day to see if it was still available or did I miss the opportunity.

The good news is the guys on a buying spree bought five second chance tickets but left them behind. So now to enter them on line and see if I wen anything extra. Bad news, the entry deadline for one of the games has passed so that is four less tickets entered for the second chance.

Ticket Buying day rolled around. I had $10.36 in the Tip Jar but I didn't spend it all, I had bought all the available higher priced tickets so I went for a $3 one. I had several choices but I figured I would go with the one that had a potential jackpot of $30,000. I checked the ticket and, holy cow it was a $10 winner! I actually came out ahead. I guess following my self imposed rules worked out after all.

By the way, someone won the Powerball so I won't have to worry about that coming around for a while, probably for at least 3 months. That's money I'll save.

Week Five

This has been a really slow week and the ticket with the "perfect number" is still in the case, behind a ticket with a not perfect number. All week long I've been tempted to buy both just to see, and all week long I've managed to avoid buying them. Thankfully the next time I am at work will be Ticket Buying Day and so no matter what happens I'm not spending an unnecessary $10. There was another ticket that had an interesting set of numbers but someone bought it then checked it and it wasn't a winner, once again proving that numbers don't mean anything.

When I went in on ticket buying day rolled around the game with the good numbers was gone, someone had bought it. Now I'll never know if it was a winner or a waste of money. That could be the worse thing about gambling, wondering about the bets you didn't make. 

On ticket buying day I had $8.32 in the tip jar. There was a $2 Christmas game I hadn't played so I decided to go with that one. It has a potential jackpot of $500 which would be a good payoff. I didn't win, but it's only $2 so I'll actually end the first month of my new experiment in the positive column.

My January Total

I spent $22 on scratch tickets.

I didn't buy any Powerball tickets.

Won $50

Didn't find any winning tickets that someone else had lost.

I didn't get any real tips.

I entered 5 Second Chance tickets on line

At the end of the month I am up $28

I also have $194.46 in the Alternate Fund

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.