My wife and her sister have been de-cluttering the house (finally) in small areas. Today she found an old Valentines card that she had misplaced a couple of years ago. She gave it to me and inside I found a Cash For Life scratch ticket. It states on the back ‘PRIZES MUST BE CLAIMED BY SEPTEMBER 30, 2009’.
My wife says not to scratch it. She couldn’t bear to know that we have a winner that we can’t cash in.
I want to scratch it to see what I would have won, knowing full well that I can’t do anything with it.
What would you do if you found an old lottery ticket (any lottery ticket, scratch or Pick6, etc)?
I’d scratch it because I couldn’t stand not knowing. I would rationalize it by thinking, “well, the prizes on scratch-offs are usually so small it wouldn’t bother me.” Then, of course, my unscratched ticket would be the Grand Prize and I’d pout for a week.
Don’t scratch it. You can’t win you can only lose.
I know a guy who makes his living betting on sports. One of his principles is, if he picks team A as a good bet and then due to later injuries/suspensions/whatever he believes they will lose to team B, he refuses to back team B. So he just passes the game.
Of course you should scratch it. Odds are excellent that either you didn’t win or you won a negligible amount, and you’ll feel much better removing that trace of doubt.
If it was a winner, and you were a dishonest type of guy, you could always sell it to some sucker way below face value. If you pretend like you just scratched it off, they probably wouldn’t notice it was expired. Then just tell 'em that you owe money to the IRS and since they would take it all, you just want some quick cash.
Funny idea, rachelellogram. That’s basically what my wife just did to me.
My wifes sister had bought a ticket for the LottoMAX which tops out at $50MM and then extra money in the pot is set aside for $1MM prizes. The extra prizes must match on all 7 numbers with no chance for partial wins. She got 6 out of 7 numbers and the last number she missed by one. Worth nothing. I told her to frame it…she didn’t.
Maybe I should just frame the unscratched ticket and see what peoples reactions are to it.
I used to keep an instant lottery ticket in my wallet. I had scratched off everything except the last square and had two Win For Life symbols. So if the last one was Win For Life I won $100,000 a year for 25 years.
I knew my chances of winning were virtually nil but I would show it to people and tell them I was saving the last square for a really bad day when I just wanted to quit work.
Both of these perspectives make perfect sense to me. I think I’d have to scratch it, though - we didn’t come down out of the trees because we aren’t a curious species.
Leave it on the kitchen counter, with everyone in agreement that it will stay in the same spot, never to be moved or scratched. I give it a week before it is mysteriously scratched or tossed away.
Something like that simply cannot be ignored. Sort of like staring at a hot mosquito bite, there is no human strong enough to endure that itch without giving it even just a little scratch.
There is nothing I can do with it so it doesn’t bother me one way or the other. It’s just a fancy piece of paper. I am a little curious to see, but it wouldn’t make any real difference what is under it.
My wife on the other hand simply does not want to know, with the fear that it was a big win.
I don’t think she should be too worried. She’s been buying Tim’s Roll up the Rimcoffee at an alarming rate and only won 2 coffees. The odds stated are 1 in 6, but she’s probably at 1 for 25. Of course that doesn’t count the 2 or 3 coffees she’s bought for her sister that were winners.
