The place I’m currently temping has free Dole juices in the kitchen. Dole is running promotion where you can win up to $25,000, with lesser prizes of $1,000, $500, $100, $50, $20, $10, and $5. They claim there is a 1 in 12 chance in winning at least something.
So, like a dumbass, I peel off the label day after day to see the words “please try again.” It’s been 20 days people.
Where’s my money?
I know the lottery is a “tax on stupid people.” I bought one Powerball ticket a few years ago, on the way home from being fired from a job. I figured the universe owed me some kind of poetic justice.
It didn’t.
Are any of you luckier than me? Do you have interesting tales of woe? Will you be my Sugar Daddy (or Mommy)?
Well, back around 1994, while the gal I was dating at the time and I were at a gas station, we both decided to buy some scratch-off tickets. As I recall, she spend $10 and won $12. I spent $11 and won $84. One ticket was a $70 winner. I’d promised the clerk who sold the tickets a 10% commission on my winnings, and I paid up. Anyway, I reckoned I was ahead of the Texas lottery at that point, and I never bought another ticket. Perhaps I should…
I won a jar of peanut brittle in the sixth grade. It was really good. The California Lottery was at ninety million dollars last night. I got the “Mega” number. I don’t know if I actually get anything for it. No one won this time so it will be even higher next week. I intend to play again. Wish me luck.
In grade 2, I won first prize at my primary school’s end-of-year raffle. Actually, it was my parents who bought the ticket, but they would buy six and give three to me and three to my younger sister. During the drawing (which had been held in the church), I hadn’t really been paying attention, so when my school principal called out my name I thought I was in trouble for talking.
I was so incredibly frightened walking up the aisle of the church, but when I got to the end, she picked me up and said “you’ve won this! I could almost fit you in that hamper!”
The hamper was cool - champagne, wine, cheese, toys (including a little green elephant on red wheels that I loved) and general hamper goods.
Even with a 1 in 12 chance of winning there is a 17.55% probability of 20 consecutive losers. Cheer up. There’s a 7.35% probability of 30 consecutive losers.
I’ve only ever won little prizes in lotto.
One year a friend and I bet a lottery ticket every week on some sporting event. We never won anything and stopped the futility.
I was in 4th grade and I went to the school fair. I thought I was giving them a ticket to play some sort of game. They put me and a bunch of other people in a big circle with numbers under our feet. They played music and we were suppose to stop when the music stops. Well I stopped, they handed me a cake, and that was the end of that.
Except I didn’t understand why I won the cake and I was told that I shouldn’t accept food from strangers. So I ended up leaving the cake behind before coming home. The end.
I’ve won loads of silly, pointless prizes from national sweepstakes (a few baseball caps, a kite, a few t-shirts, etc.). The only BIG prize I’ve won in a drawing was from a local Austin car dealership. The prize was a trip to Curacao (nice enough trip, but not an ideal vacation spot).
On the other hand, I’ve won numerous BIG prizes through puzzles and trivia games. Back when the Family Channel used to do interactive trivia games over the phone, I won a trip to Hawaii and a trip to St. Martin from them.
There’s always a lot of sheer dumb luck involved, but you increase your odds of winning when the contestants have to do MORE than just fill out their names.
The dude in the above story participated in a Japanese “reality TV” show, essentially without his knowledge. He was stripped naked and dumped into a tiny apartment with nothing but magazines and postcards (not even any food) so that he could enter contests by the thousands, living only off what he could win.
In 1990 I won a trip for 2 to Cancun. IIRC, it was sponsored by the Girl Scouts. I paid a few bucks in a mall to get a key and try to open a box with it. This was about 5 days after taking delivery of a new pickup. I had borrowed some money for the down payment. There was no way I could even pay for the tax and spending money, so I just didn’t go
OK, not me, BUT a woman I work with, her brother won the Lotto. Something like $5 million. He bought her a house. Pretty cool.
I won a pumpkin from the Tastee Freeze when I was 8. And I won a hundred bucks off a radion station when I was like 18. and I won $100 at a casino this year.
Not quite $5 million, but who cares?
I win small prizes in raffles all the time. Nothing major. I never win anything big though. When I walk into a casino, I would be better off handing my money to an employee…it would be faster and less painful. My wife on the other hand can win big regularly at the casinos. She has all the luck in the family.
I won two KCBQ Streak Team T-shirts when I was a kid in San Diego. Also when I was a kid, I won a transistor radio at a CB “coffee break”. And at a company party I won a $25 Ron John’s gift certificate. (I used it to buy a gift for a friend.) Two of us at work won $70 playing Lotto. How much did we spend to win that?
My dad won $100,000 in Laughlin, NV a couple of years before he died. He put a large downpayment on a house for my sister, gave me $15,000 to fly helicopters with, and bought himself a new JetSki.
Here’s the funny part: There was a wind storm at Lake Havasu. We were out to dinner when it happened and when we came back we discovered that some samaritans had moved the JetSki onto the beach, but in the process the intake was filled with gravel. Rather than clean it out right there, dad decided to pack it in and just go to Laughlin. He walked into the Flamingo Hilton and sat down to play keno. He picked up a brochure that said, “Win $100,000 playing Keno!” He followed the directions and played one game. He won $100,000. Then he didn’t gamble anymore the rest of the trip.
My only luck was winning a trip from a local travel agency. Anyone who had purchased a ticket within the year was put in the drawing. Funny thing is, it was for corporate tickets and my supervisor had booked a flight for her and her son to Disney World through the company, she just got the corporate rate she actually paid for the tickets herself.
The trip was for four days and three nights anywhere in NC, SC, TN, or VA. I ended up going to Charleston. It was a blast. I got $250 in spending money, plus the hotel and breakfast was paid for by the agency.
I won an all expense trip for two for the b]Richard Petty Driving Experience***, Experience of A Lifetime.* Thirty laps at the track of my choice.
Here’s how it happened: Jiffy Lube was taking too long with my car one time so I filled out 5, literally five, sweepstakes forms and thought no more of it. Months later, I get this call from a woman saying I need to get my wavers turned in by the end of the week?
“Wavers?” says me.
“Why, yes,” says the kind woman, “the wavers for the prize.”
Since I had no idea what she was talking about so we went over the info and found they had juxtaposed some numbers on my address, but she faxed over the forms and all was good.
$3,000 prize, but the best part was driving 161 mph in a 600hp stock car.
I’ve only won one thing in my life. There was a bookstore that had drawings for their grand opening. When you filled out the ticket, you selected what prize you wanted. One of the prizes was a three volume history of physics. I filled out an entry and checked the box for the physics book set. I planned on filling out another entry when I left (There were several CD sets that I would have liked), but I forgot. Anyway, I got a notice in the mail that I had won. I went by the store at lunch time and picked it up. I was so excited, I could hardly talk. I showed it to my boss, who did not realize how much I love physics. She looked at the set and said “Physics??!!! Aw, well, maybe you can sell it or something. Were there any good prizes?” I explained to her I chose that prize and I wanted it. It’s a great set that has articles by every name in physics.
