I lamely Pit lottery-ticket buyers at convenience stores

[BrainGlutton]

Look, lady, I just wanna buy a can of soda! You think I feel like standing in line five minutes while you fill out that stupid sheet just so you can stupidly waste ten bucks?!

[Hung Mung]

Even more annoying are the clerks who need to be guided to the precise ticket.

"The green one. No, no. Up. Nope, nope. On the left. No, your LEFT. Yeah, gimme ten o' those. Wait, no. Gimme the Cash 5. No, on the bottom..."

It can go on for a while. But hey, them kids gots to go to college somehow!

[Sal Ammoniac]

Originally Posted by BrainGlutton

Look, lady, I just wanna buy a can of soda! You think I feel like standing in line five minutes while you fill out that stupid sheet just so you can stupidly waste ten bucks?!

But wait, she's not finished yet! She still needs to throw her losing scratch tickets on the ground outside the convenience store!

[What Exit?]

A lot of local convenience stores have done away with the lottery machines near where I work. The were too inconvenient for their more profitable customers.

I feel a little sorry for these people getting their gambling fix at a Kwik-E Mart.

Jim

[Jayrot]

Originally Posted by Hung Mung

Even more annoying are the clerks who need to be guided to the precise ticket.

"The green one. No, no. Up. Nope, nope. On the left. No, your LEFT. Yeah, gimme ten o' those. Wait, no. Gimme the Cash 5. No, on the bottom..."

Yeah this is great! As if the lottery isn't mathematically against you enough as it, it's as though you've somehow got better chances when you're scratching off the little dog bones versus scratching off the American flags.

These are the same people who spends (what feels like) hours considering and laboring over the placement of the cut-card playing blackjack in the casino!

[corkboard]

Originally Posted by Jayrot

These are the same people who spends (what feels like) hours considering and laboring over the placement of the cut-card playing blackjack in the casino!

Hey man, everybody knows if you place it in just the right spot, your odds of winning go way up! Sheesh.

[Jayrot]

Originally Posted by McNew

Hey man, everybody knows if you place it in just the right spot, your odds of winning go way up! Sheesh.

And everybody knows that if you make the wrong decision while playing 3rd base you'll screw the whole table over!

[aktep]

Originally Posted by Jayrot

Yeah this is great! As if the lottery isn't mathematically against you enough as it, it's as though you've somehow got better chances when you're scratching off the little dog bones versus scratching off the American flags.

The dog bones might have overall odds of 1:3.41 and the flags odds of 1:4.04, or differences in available prizes left or something so, yeah, it could matter, if you were obsessed enough.

I once bought 70 scratch offs at the gas station (5 of this kind, 5 of that) and got a moral lecture from a customer in line. The fact that I was buying them as prizes for a weekly bingo game run by my Alpha Phi Omega chapter at a nursing home, and only buying them because the residents chewed out everyone they could find when they weren't on the prize table the week before, didn't seem to matter to her.

[Guinastasia]

I've mentioned that when I was in high school, I worked at a local grocery store. Well, one part of my job was working the service counter/office, and I used to sell lotto tickets. DAMN, some of those people were nuts. They'd spend 50 bucks on tickets, win 25, and think they were ahead. Or they'd have huge checks cashed just to spend on tickets.

The sad thing was, a lot of them were elderly, probably on fixed incomes.

[Will Repair]

They don't seem to realize that their chances of winning are only marginally improved by actually purchasing a ticket.

[BrainGlutton]

Originally Posted by McNew

Hey man, everybody knows if you place it in just the right spot, your odds of winning go way up! Sheesh.

That is, as a matter of fact, quite true.

Now if only there were some way for the player to know where the right spot is . . .

[Hugh Jass]

Originally Posted by Will Repair

They don't seem to realize that their chances of winning are only marginally improved by actually purchasing a ticket.

Their inevitable response? "Well, someone's gotta win."

[elbows]

Yeah, but it's also true with scratch tickets, someone has probably already won the big prizes.

But they keep selling the tickets until they're all gone.

Sometimes it seems like lotteries are just a way to tax dreams!

[Orual]

Originally Posted by elbows

Sometimes it seems like lotteries are just a way to tax dreams!

Or rather, they're Stupidity Taxes.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

I saw some stand-up comic on TV when the California lottery was introduced in the '80s say, "Let's play the home version of the California State Lottery!" Then he pulled a dollar out of his wallet, crumpled it up, and threw it over his shoulder.

I got a lottery ticket as a party favor a few months ago and actually won $7. Cashed it in at Sears. It took them about 15 minutes to get me my seven bucks. Thank Og there wasn't a line behind me.

[Sage Rat]

Originally Posted by Will Repair

They don't seem to realize that their chances of winning are only marginally improved by actually purchasing a ticket.

And their odds of losing increased even further!

[Jayrot]

Originally Posted by Biffy the Elephant Shrew

I saw some stand-up comic on TV when the California lottery was introduced in the '80s say, "Let's play the home version of the California State Lottery!" Then he pulled a dollar out of his wallet, crumpled it up, and threw it over his shoulder.

There was also the comedian (don't remember who) who said:

"Instead of playing the slot machines at the casino, I like to just spend my whole trip up in my hotel room. I hang out in the bathroom and flush my quarters down the toilet one by one. It's basically the same as playing the slots, except that every now and then the toilet backs up, overflows, and I hit the jackpot!"

[Scissorjack]

Originally Posted by elbows

Sometimes it seems like lotteries are just a way to tax dreams!

Naw, gambling is just a tax on people who can't count.

[Little Plastic Ninja]

For what it's worth, my parents used to play the California lottery in the 80s and actually won fairly regularly. Never more than about three hundred dollars, mark you, but the number of times we got at least three numbers right (which was five bucks, and as recently as 1986 five bucks was nothing to sneeze at considering it could probably halfway fill the gas tank) was non-trivial.

That said, gah. Back in the day they had a little kiosk. You could fill out the card for however long it took and then carry it up to the register. "One of these and a quick-pick." They were scan-trons, IIRC, and you got a little print-out when you were done. Didn't take that long.

[Guinastasia]

Yeah, but there's a difference between playing just for shits and giggles (like my dad used to do, and my grandmother still does), and actually seriously thinking you're just a ticket away from a jackpot.

Although, when I was little, I thought my dad really WAS going to win someday, and I'd get a horse. Probably because he'd always say, "When I win the lottery" when I'd ask if I could have a horse.

[tashabot]

Yeah, we don't have a state lottery here in NV, but when I go to the California side of Tahoe I've been known to buy a scratch off ticket or occasionally the six-spot when I'm stopping to get a soda. I don't honestly think I'm going to win, it's mostly just for shits and giggles. I have a better chance of winning the nickel machines back home.

Although one time in PA I bought a ticket for a buck at a machine and won like $60. I was like "sweet, carton of cigarettes."

~Tasha

[Nzinga, Seated]

I just mentioned to my best friend yesterday, " I know it is irrational, but everytime I am just trying to get a paper and a pack of gum, and someone in front of me is blowing mad money on lotto, I just have to say something."

I know I shouldn't. And I am usually a very polite person. I swear. But almost every time I am stuck behind a lotto person, I mumble and groan and say flat out, "Grrr. You are NOT gonna win!"

[black rabbit]

Originally Posted by tashabot

Although one time in PA I bought a ticket for a buck at a machine and won like $60. I was like "sweet, carton of cigarettes."

What a waste. You could have re-invested that money. In 60 more tickets.

[interface2x]

I used to work in a convenience store and I had to deal with these people. We finally had to make a rule not to scratch them off right there on the counter by the register, primarily because of one woman who would literally stand there and scratch the damn things off for an hour or more.

One time, she hit a couple hundred bucks on one - over the course of the rest of that day and the next, I watched her buy the entire rest of the roll (300 tickets). Needless to say, she did not profit in the end.

[Mr. Goob]

My last company sent me to training for 6 weeks. The morning lectures were so dull and painful that I started buying $2 bingo scratch off tickets with my coffee each morning.

I could waste an hour taking my time rubbing off a number and looking forward to the antipication of seeing the possibilities of winning.

I hate the mouthbreathers that have no concept of probilities and odds that hold me up getting my paper and coffee in the morning. Buying one of this two of that and forty seven of the other thing. They stand at the edge of the counter partly in the way, scratching off the codes at the edges of the cards just to see if they won or not. To me the fun of a scratch off ticket is the game itself.

[What Exit?]

Originally Posted by tashabot

Although one time in PA I bought a ticket for a buck at a machine and won like $60. I was like "sweet, carton of cigarettes."

~Tasha

I am beginning to feel like my Dad when he tells stories about paying 20 cents for the movies. The last carton of cigarettes I bought was only $4. I cannot comprehend paying $60 on a carton of cigarettes.

Jim

[Caridwen]

I've actually planned what I'd do if I ever won the lottery. The only trouble is I've never once bought a lottery ticket. I've gone in on tickets with people for one of the big jackpots but I've never bought a ticket.

[Sublight]

All through high school and college I had a part-time job a drugstore that sold lottery tickets. The pharmacist/owner appreciated the money it brought in, but thankfully kept it as the bottom priority of the store ("we're here to save lives, not sell lottery tickets"). The cards to fill out were off in the far corner, and the ticket area was separate from the cash register. Otherwise, we'd have had people trying to get medicine stuck behind mooks buying a hundred tickets at a time. Seeing how much money came in and how little money went out cured me of any interest in gambling unless I can be on the house side.

I remember one elderly woman who'd come in every afternoon and spend an hour (and about $20-$50) on scratch tickets. She'd write a check to pay for them, then use the few dollars she'd win plus some of her own cash to buy more, then eventually she'd write a larger check to buy back her original check plus a few more tickets. She'd spend the whole time muttering and giving us dirty looks (because we were obviously keeping the winning tickets for ourselves), and leaving silver shavings over everything. Man, the look she'd give you if anyone else won something while she was playing.

Then there was the guy who always had his stack of daily lottery cards. Hundreds of them, already filled out. At least he was considerate enough to only buy them on Sunday afternoons, when he knew the store would be dead and nobody would be waiting behind him. Nice guy, too.

[ReuvenB]

I always hate it when people rag on lottery players. Mostly because lottery proceeds in my state go towards paying my tuition (Hope Scholarship).

[Sublight]

Originally Posted by XWalrus2

I always hate it when people rag on lottery players. Mostly because lottery proceeds in my state go towards paying my tuition (Hope Scholarship).

Does it really though? I was under the impression that while lottery proceeds went to education funding, the states then typically reduced education funding from other sources by a similar amount to spend elsewhere.

[Klaatu]

Don't scratch at the fucking register, and don't hand the clerk 20 powerball or whatever tickets and say"Check this for me" when I am trying to buy gas during work.

If you don't know the numbers, you fucking dumbass moron, wait until the clerk is not serving customers who want to get in and out.

And also don't turn in ten bucks of scratchers, and then say "Well let me have one of those, no wait, two of the..no wait, one of the.....

Goddam rude fucks, I am gonna jack one of you lame motherfuckers one of these days.

[Klaatu]

Missed the edit, but wanted to point out that you can get a ticket that shows the numbers for powerball. Ask for that, five seconds, instead of "check these tickets for me"

[DesertDog]

I buy lottery tickets (not the scratchers) when the pool has accumulated enough to be more than the odds of winning. Then I don't feel quite so stupid. I got five out of six once, $1,000. At the rate I'm buying, I'll be playing with the house's money for quite some time.

[bbs2k]

You all sound like a bunch of losers to me.

[DrDeth]

I buy a couple Lotto tickets a week. At that price, the daydreams of "what would I do if I won the Lotto" are worth it. But buying more than a couple is idiocy.

[Darth Nader]

Originally Posted by Camper Van Beethoven
When I win the lottery gonna buy all girls on my block
A color TV and a bottle of French perfume.
When I win the lottery gonna donate half my money to the city
So they have to name a street or a school or a park after me.

..

[Guinastasia]

Originally Posted by Klaatu

Missed the edit, but wanted to point out that you can get a ticket that shows the numbers for powerball. Ask for that, five seconds, instead of "check these tickets for me"

What's worse is the dumbasses who never believed you when you told them they weren't winners. "What do you mean-check it again!"

[BwanaBob]

The only ones who piss me off are those who buy daily numbers. Instead of filling out a handful of slips beforehand they show up with a hand written list of 20 numbers and make the clerk punch them in one at a time. I once challenged a person on this, asking why they they didn't fill out the slips. The reply was "I don't pick the same numbers everyday". So? Fill out the damn slips, don't waste everyone else's time.

They're just like the bozos inevitably ahead of you on line in a fastfood joint. Standing on line for 10 minutes, it's finally their turn, and then they decide to look at the menu to figure out what they want. Asshats.

[Sailboat]

There's a store I go into solely because it's in the same building in which I work. They sell lottery tickets. The store is small and cramped.

People stand in a long line by the door to get tickets. When they get them, they step out of that line into the only available space -- the entranceway and the path to it -- and start scratching.

Never mind that now no one can enter or leave the store.

When you ask them "excuse me," and politely dip you head to indicate "you are literally playing in traffic -- you're standing in the traffic lane, playing the lottery," they move only grudgingly.

Sailboat

[Otto]

Originally Posted by BrainGlutton

Look, lady, I just wanna buy a can of soda! You think I feel like standing in line five minutes while you fill out that stupid sheet just so you can stupidly waste ten bucks?!

The proper course of action is to walk up to the counter and pay for your soda. She's not in line and she's not being waited on. She's just standing at the counter. If she squawks about it, ignore her. Hand the clerk your money and walk out.

[Will Repair]

Originally Posted by Caridwen

I've actually planned what I'd do if I ever won the lottery.

No one buys a ticket without first already having dreamed how they'll spend the winnings.

[BrainGlutton]

Originally Posted by Sublight

Does it really though? I was under the impression that while lottery proceeds went to education funding, the states then typically reduced education funding from other sources by a similar amount to spend elsewhere.

That's how it worked out in Florida, despite contrary promises made when a state lottery was first proposed.

[flight]

Originally Posted by Will Repair

No one buys a ticket without first already having dreamed how they'll spend the winnings.

And that is the only valid reason to play. I imagine a ticket in hand lends some feeling of legitimacy to your daydreams.

DrDeth, not to be overly rude, but I think even buying a couple is idiocy. That first one may serve you as fuel for your fantasies, but there is no benefit to the second one.

[What Exit?]

Originally Posted by flight

And that is the only valid reason to play. I imagine a ticket in hand lends some feeling of legitimacy to your daydreams.

DrDeth, not to be overly rude, but I think even buying a couple is idiocy. That first one may serve you as fuel for your fantasies, but there is no benefit to the second one.

But it doubles your chances.

[ReuvenB]

No, most of the proceeds from the lottery actually do go towards the Hope Scholarship in Georgia. Probably this is because of the huge uproar that would happen if the funds for it were depleted and the scholarship was eliminated. It's not a risk many politicians are willing to make. In fact, there was a newspaper article yesterday talking about how the funds for the scholarship are increasing because of increased lottery playing. Note, though, that I'm talking about the Hope specifically, not education funding in general.

[fruitbat]

While living in Massachussets I noticed that more people seemed to play the lottery than where I grew up in Virginia. This turned out to be not just my perception, the Boston Globe ran a long series on the people spending money on the lottery and how the poorest locales were the biggest spenders. I was staggered by the numbers.

Check out this link, http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1302.html. The average Rhode Islander spends $1,373 annually on the lottery. With the state vig they get back roughly $686 in winnings. So they are volunteering to pay an additional tax to the state of nearly $700 bucks a year. I find it even more frightening when I wonder what the average expenditure is per capita once you exclude people who never buy a ticket. It is just amazing.

I always thought this was dumb, but once I started to play poker seriously I started to understand just how larcenous the lottery is. If you go to a casino the house has an edge that is tiny compared to the state sponsored edge on the lottery. Even the sucker games are excellent bets compared to buying a lottery ticket. When you look at poker it is an even finer line. Good players work on their game relentlessly to squeeze another 1/10 % of advantage from their play. I pay the house (Poker Stars or Full Tilt) around 2% to run the game and make it up from my edge over other players by being more skilled. The lottery player gives a 50% edge to the house with no chance of developing superior skill.

This is why anti-gambling laws are the basest hypocrisy. The state creates a monopoly on gambling and grants itself an unconscionable edge through the use of force and coercion. They are essentially robbing people too stupid to fend for themselves on one hand, and preventing them from being robbed more slowly on the other. If private legal lotteries were allowed I guarantee you the edge would be somewhere around 5%.

[Justin_Bailey]

To all the anti-lottery folks:

FUCK ALL OF YOU. You self-righteous pricks look your noses up at all lottery players whether they buy 200 tickets or 2.

I buy maybe one scratch-off every few weeks and a "Mega Millions" ticket when the jackpot is $150 million +. All told I probably spend around $30 a year. Less than most of you spend on crap I'm sure I disapprove of. But I'm polite enough to know it's your money so it's your business.

So once again, fuck you all, I think I'll buy a lottery ticket during lunch.

[Annie-Xmas]

There is a check cashing place across the street from my office that cashes welfare checks. There is a convenience store down the street from them that sells lottery tickets.

There is a very well worn path between the two places.

[GaryM]

Originally Posted by Sublight

Does it really though? I was under the impression that while lottery proceeds went to education funding, the states then typically reduced education funding from other sources by a similar amount to spend elsewhere.

That's the way it went in Missouri when gambling came in.

Before: 100K from the state to a school district from the general revenue fund.

After: 50K from gambling and 50K from the general revenue fund.

Advertising: Money from gambling goes to support education!

[What Exit?]

Originally Posted by Justin_Bailey

To all the anti-lottery folks:

FUCK ALL OF YOU. You self-righteous pricks look your noses up at all lottery players whether they buy 200 tickets or 2.

I buy maybe one scratch-off every few weeks and a "Mega Millions" ticket when the jackpot is $150 million +. All told I probably spend around $30 a year. Less than most of you spend on crap I'm sure I disapprove of. But I'm polite enough to know it's your money so it's your business.

So once again, fuck you all, I think I'll buy a lottery ticket during lunch.

Well this finally makes it look like a Pit Thread at least and not IMHO.

I do not think many of us would condemn you for the $30 per year. It is more the very poor who spend $30 per week that are being pitted for their stupidity.

I think it is only a few that would condemn you for your very minor purchases. I probably drop $10-15 per year in company mass purchases for huge prizes. That is almost defensive and it is superstitious. I do not want to be the one left behind and I would rather chip in my $2 or $3.

Jim