If you’re serious? I knew/of two people with serious gambling problems. My uncle died, leaving my aunt with nothing, thanks to his late-in-life fascination with scratch-offs. My aunt is now 83, with nothing except a small Social Security pension and a crappy house with land and rising taxes that threaten her ability to support herself in even a modest way. And my husband’s ex-wife forced him/them to file for bankruptcy, because the next ticket was gonna hit big. It never did. After six years of marriage, my husband and I have helped him establish enough credit to keep a small charge card and hold a small mortgage. The ex-wife moved to a different state, where a casino has now garnished her wages due to gambling debts. But she apparently still believes that the next ticket, or nickel in the slot, or whatever she plays now, will be her deliverance. (And, before the bankruptcy? She gambled away a half-million, took out a second a third mortgage on the house, and finally embezzled money from a social group - felony amounts, but she got lucky and avoided prosecution.) If your question is serious? Do the math. Lottos don’t stay in business because the house loses.
It’s quarry, ffs
Throw yourself in it.
Take me with you. I dug two graves down there. We can be neighbors.
Hard to say. Many people like gambling because they find it entertaining. I believe at least a substantial number of - but not all - people when they say that. Gambling for this reason is not inherently foolish, assuming the people who do this understand the price they are paying and consider it good value.
Other people gamble because they think they will win. This makes them fools by at least one definition. You can adopt the perspective that the human brain’s ability to accurately assess probability is deeply flawed, and it is unkind to call people fools for being the way they were born.
Use my plan for winning the lottery jackpot. I don’t buy any tickets. I plan on finding the winning ticket lying on the sidewalk.
You might think my plan is unrealistic. But in actuality, the odds of winning the jackpot are so astronomically bad that not buying a ticket doesn’t make them all that much worse.
Hold’em player here, and only halfway decent. The reason I like to play Hold’em is not for the money, but because it’s fun. You have somewhat of an idea of what you can do with the cards you’re dealt. I’m drawing a flush, so there’s x probability of hitting this flush if not outright on the flop, still this chance on the turn, and river. Play by assessing the full scheme of things and enjoy.
Scratch-offs are like slot machines. I look at people playing slot machines and all I can think is “wtf are they doing?”
and every time I see someone buying scratch-offs, I think, WTF ARE THEY DOING?
So I guess the question is… wtf was I doing?
Being a fool is what I was doing. Fuck scratch-offs.
Thinking I’d make at least $10 back was outright stupid.
BUT SERIOUSLY… ONLY $2?
Reparations demanded!!!
The least the scratch-off makers could do is make them scratch-n-sniff. Give them the same aroma that’d be stained on your skin after boinking a hooker… cigarette butts and Sweet Pea by Bath and Body Works, the universal smell of bad mistakes.
Let’s call the whole thing off.
I think betting, in general, is just a bad thing for most people, fools or not. Hell, even I buy the two scratchers thinking I have a really good chance of winning an extra $100. I know I don’t. Hell, the odds are written on the ticket.
How about all the people who fall for the half point thingy in sports betting? That brings in more bets automatically. And our scratchers are based on things we like-- poker, crosswords, Wheel Of Fortune…
No. Cochrane. If that’s even your name.
Just no calling anything off, ever.
You say “to-may-to,” I say “to-mah-to.”
You say “po-tay-to,” I say “po-tah-to.”
Let’s call the whole thing a whoosh!
And get off my lawn. 
Here’s a way to gamble on becoming a millionaire that has no risk of losing your original stake:
I win something every month. 
The difference between this and a lottery is simple:
- Premium Bonds are the UK Government borrowing our money and paying us tax-free interest in the form of prizes up to £1,000,000 ($1,520,000)
- Lotteries are private companies making a guaranteed profit (e.g. The UK National Lottery only pays out 50% of income as prizes)
Which is better for you - an expected profit of 1.35% or an expected loss of 50%?
As bad as the odds are for scratch-offs, they’re better than for the lottery tickets, probably because a greater % of winners aren’t cashed due to incorrect play or invalidation of the ticket. If you can hold your losses to a reasonable amount, it’s not a bad way to give yourself a chance at being rich. If you buy just one or two $1-$5 each grocery/gas trip, that’s a lot less money spent than a few hours at a slot machine.
How long have you been doing this?
The saddest thing about people who buy scratchers is their inability to comprehend exactly how stacked in favour of the house their tickets can really be.
When you buy into a numbers lottery, you COULD win the big prize, just get the right number. But the scratchers are different. They keep selling the tickets until they are all sold. Even though all of the large prize amounts were won last week! Yep, they just keep selling those tickets, till they’re gone!
Think about that the next time you’re inclined to purchase some scratchers.
Lotteries are just a way for them to tax your day dreams! But, before you play, at least make some effort to understand how the damn thing works!
You didn’t play enough then, just buy some more.
Is there a way to find out whether or not a big prize has been won from that roll of tickets? of course not
I should’ve bought more that day from the same roll, if anything. But that opportunity is gone.
Too bad, you will need to start over again then.
That opportunity is gone.
If your state lottery functions like mine, you can actually go to their website and look up each scratcher game.
It will TELL you how many tickets remain, and what prizes have been claimed.
So really, you can improve your odds a bit by playing games with fewer remaining tickets and more unclaimed prizes.
Likewise, you can see if that million- dollar prize has been found and not play that game.
I like the Bingo scratch-offs. That way, at least I get to play a game for the money.
I love the people who come up to the register with a stack of the things and just scratch off the little space to see if they win; don’t even care about the fun of playing.
Actually, you got exactly what the odds predicted. Assuming you live in Florida, here is the $1 scratcher page on the Florida lottery page. Just pick out the game you played, and check the odds for a $2 winner. I’ll save you the time; they range from 1:14.29 to 1:15.
That’s how you won $2 on $15 worth of scratchers.