Give Up and Go Home Already

[Gaki]

I'm sure we've got a ton of these already.

SC: I want two powerball tickets. I want them uhhh, with the number 25. The powerplay number 25. Errr...yeah.
Me: You want the powerBALL number to be 25?
SC: No. Powerplay.
Me: So you want the powerplay but you wanted the powerBALL number to be 25?
SC: No. No no no. I want the two. The two dollar. Two of the two dollar...uuuuuh...with 25.
Me: Ma'am I'm not quite sure what you want. If you would like me to print you out two two-dollar powerball tickets and one to have the powerball number of 25, I can do that.
SC: Um...yeah? But...
Me: There is some kind of powerplay number but we can't do anything with that. I don't even know what it is and I've been working here four years.
SC: .....???
Me: *prints tickets*
SC: There are two??????
Me: Yes. You said two.
SC: No...I didn't...I didn't want this.
Me: *sigh...* You'll have to TELL ME CLEARLY what you want.
SC: Nevermind.


My CW had another who was kind of like her and he told her, "Well you have to ask me what you want in a logical manner and I'll answer you." She then proceeded to bluster.

One guy after several attempts at telling me what he wanted said "YES" after I said, "So Twenty Dollars worth?" When I said the total he proceeded to say, "Oh...I only wanted TWO dollars worth. I don't want these." My response was this:

Me: That's fine, I have a ton of other ones over here that people didn't want.
SC: Uh...really?
Me: Yeah. We can't cancel them so they just kinda rot back here and we lose money on them if they don't sell by the draw date.
SC: Oh....uh....I didn't know....you can't cancel them?
Me: We can only cancel *three games* and other than that we have to hope that they'll sell but most people don't want the ones that are just sitting there.
SC: .....oh. Uh...sorry.
Me: Right. Have a good day.

Selfish bastards sometimes take our jokes too seriously. We usually just joke around and say "Hey when you win that, you come back. I got school loans that need to be paid!" Most people are like, "HELL YEAH, SCHOOL LOANS PAID!" But we get a few who are a little denser than most:

Me: Hey when you win that you're paying off my school loans right?
SC: Hahahahaha! As if! You won't need it.
Me: Uhhh?
SC: Doesn't your store get some piece of it?
Me: Actually our chain refuses cash prizes for selling winning tickets because of a complaint that occurred a few years ago. We get nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. If we get anything at all it would be because someone who won it came back and gave it to individuals. Besides, the paltry sum they WOULD give us if we weren't at *store* wouldn't pay off my school loans.
SC: ..................oh. Well SUCKS TO BE YOU GUYS.

Oh the curse of explosive diarrhea...it is one of my favorites.

The worst was at 9:50 when a guy walks right on in and the lottery is DONE at 10. He has the incorrect playslip versions and gets huffy when I tell him that we might not get his lottery all through in time because we will have to put it in manually. He started getting snippy about how we were out of the playslips and was even worse when I told him that there was nothing I could do about it and I'd been hearing about it all day. My CW is typing in all his stupid numbers and he's busily giving me shit while I'm TRYING to get everything counted and put away for the end of our shift.

I had to tell at LEAST three people who were standing in line behind him that they weren't going to be getting tickets that night and to go somewhere else if they thought they could make it in time.

Worst part of it is that he's a regular customer and he thinks we're all "hunky-dory" after he got what he wanted. He told me to "be good" when I was leaving and I told him, "YEAH RIGHT." I then proceeded to get completely schwasted at the bar underneath my apartment and curse the day he was born.

People didn't really understand my reaction when I heard that the lottery had been won. I started celebrating. They asked me if I'd won anything and I said, "Yes, a peaceful fucking Saturday."

[Food Lady]

I hated selling lottery tickets when I worked at the C-store. I wasn't a cashier, but had to help out occasionally. I still have zero ideas about any kind of lottery. That goes for cigarettes. And who doesn't know the difference between 2 and 20?

[depechemodefan]

Well, if any of these asses win a lottery, they will be too stupid to hold onto the money.

Me: Actually our chain refuses cash prizes for selling winning tickets because of a complaint that occurred a few years ago.

I'm curious about that.

[AngloSaxonViking]

When you are selling Lottery tickets...

Remember this reason to rejoice...

LOTTERIES ARE A TAX ON PEOPLE WHO ARE NO GOOD AT MATHS.

[In this country, you are 14 times more likely to get murdered than to win the national lottery. And this is a quiet country, murder-wise]

[Merriweather]

Remember this reason to rejoice...

LOTTERIES ARE A TAX ON PEOPLE WHO ARE NO GOOD AT MATHS.

[In this country, you are 14 times more likely to get murdered than to win the national lottery. And this is a quiet country, murder-wise]

True. In many cases, people spend way too much money thinking they have way too much chance of winning.

But for those of us who know the odds, and still buy a ticket now and then, there's another way of looking at it. I know when I buy a ticket, realistically, I'll get nothing back. And I know even the odd ticket now and then can add up - over a full year, I probably spend enough to buy myself dinner at Applebee's. I'm willing to give up that once a year dinner to buy a ticket now and then. Because even though I know the odds, it's also true that people do win large amounts on a regular basis. Their odds were the same as mine are.

If I actually buy a ticket, I feel I've bought the right to have a 10-minute daydream about what I'd do with the money if I won - can't legitimately dream that if you don't buy a ticket, cause your odds are zero. You may only have one chance in millions, but that allows you to dream a few minutes, where zero chances in millions doesn't. Since $1 hardly buys 10 minutes of a movie at the cinema (excluding popcorn ) I figure it's worth the $1 as "entertainment" now and then.

So for some of us, the odd lottery ticket is simply a voluntary entertainment tax And actually, I can cover the cost of it by what I save buying a coffee at a convenience store where I get the ticket instead of at Starbuks

[Teskeria]

I will occasionally (like when the pot is over 100 mill) spend the whole 2 bucks on a ticket. Don't smoke, drink extremely rarely (even less now I can't get heather cream in the States), Can't physically get out of the house often.. so yeah $2 for a dream. Although I have my plans just in case. Annuities, charities I would donate to (kids and animals.) and perhaps a visit to Ireland, Stonehenge and Scotland... yeah. dreams.

[KatherineB]

I read somewhere that approximately half of all Americans (and probably a large number of people in other countries, but this was the only statistic I saw) are basing their future financial security on them winning big in the lottery.

That scares me.

[Ben_Who]

Sounds to me like the first lady just didn't know what she was doing. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of people buying tickets had never played before, but the Nigerian-scam-letter levels of jackpot awesomeness got them down to their local Circle K in a hurry.

I went to buy a lottery ticket for the first time this week, and just to show how pathetic I am, I had to go to the Powerball website to figure out how they worked. I didn't bother choosing any numbers or anything, and when I got to the convenience store, I didn't see any signs advertising Powerball or anything - just Tri-State. Well, it doesn't cost anything just to ask. When I asked the man behind the counter if they sold Powerball, his face lit up like a traffic signal, he grinned a massive, spinach-eating grin, and he cried out, "Of course we do!"

He asked if I wanted PowerPlay; when I asked what that was, his explanation flew over my head like a bird. So, that would be "no," then. I felt dumb enough buying the thing, but now I seem to be officially too stupid to partake in Maine's state pastime.

[mharbourgirl]

And I know even the odd ticket now and then can add up - over a full year, I probably spend enough to buy myself dinner at Applebee's.

That's exactly why I didn't join the lotto pool at my last job. Not just because they never won more than the odd $10 or a few free tickets, but because that $10 a week I'd have to contribute added up to almost an entire month's rent payment at the end of the year. That's money I can't spare, and no kidding.

[Argabarga]

I've found that the fancier the car our repo agent brings in, the more and more spent lotto tickets are in it when we have to clean the personal property out of it and ship it off to auction.

[Beckpatton]

I know when I buy a ticket, realistically, I'll get nothing back. And I know even the odd ticket now and then can add up - over a full year, I probably spend enough to buy myself dinner at Applebee's. I'm willing to give up that once a year dinner to buy a ticket now and then. Because even though I know the odds, it's also true that people do win large amounts on a regular basis. Their odds were the same as mine are.

If I actually buy a ticket, I feel I've bought the right to have a 10-minute daydream about what I'd do with the money if I won - can't legitimately dream that if you don't buy a ticket, cause your odds are zero. You may only have one chance in millions, but that allows you to dream a few minutes, where zero chances in millions doesn't. Since $1 hardly buys 10 minutes of a movie at the cinema (excluding popcorn ) I figure it's worth the $1 as "entertainment" now and then.

So for some of us, the odd lottery ticket is simply a voluntary entertainment tax

This.. I only buy the occasional ticket when the lotto is really big (we don't get those massive $500million jackpots like in the US, around $100million comes up now and then though.. My thoughts being someone has to win, and my odds are just as good as everyone elses. You've gotta be in it to win it, and in the meantime it's fun to daydream about how it's all going to be spent!

More often than not I will win the cost of the ticket back anyway so it's not breaking the bank.. I'll spend about $14 on a ticket (that's about 18 chances I think).

What I don't understand are the people who win, and go on the news to rave about it! I'd be staying as anonymous as possible, I can only imagine the crazies who track the big winners down! I have plenty of family & friends I intend to share with if I ever win, without having strangers show up at my door with some sob story or scam..

[siskaren]

What I don't understand are the people who win, and go on the news to rave about it! I'd be staying as anonymous as possible, I can only imagine the crazies who track the big winners down! I have plenty of family & friends I intend to share with if I ever win, without having strangers show up at my door with some sob story or scam..

Here in the States, some states' lottery commissions state that lottery winners have to allow themselves to be shown publicly accepting the check. Last spring there was a multi-state lottery that had a huge payout (something like $600 million) with 4 people in 4 different states buying the winning tickets, and I think 2 of the states allowed the winners to stay anonymous, but the other 2 had to go public.

ETA: I just checked the Illinois Lottery website (where I live) and the reason for them having multi-million winners go public is to basically prove that the jackpot was paid out.

[Pagan]

This.. I only buy the occasional ticket when the lotto is really big (we don't get those massive $500million jackpots like in the US, around $100million comes up now and then though.. My thoughts being someone has to win, and my odds are just as good as everyone elses. You've gotta be in it to win it, and in the meantime it's fun to daydream about how it's all going to be spent!

Exactly. This year I've spent $4 on the lottery. One for that big-ass half-billion we had earlier this year and for last week's Powerball. My reasoning is, someone's got to win it, might as well be me!

[Shalom]

In this country, you are 14 times more likely to get murdered than to win the national lottery. And this is a quiet country, murder-wise])

The way the guy on the local "news"radio put it, you're more likely to be struck by lightning while being attacked by a shark, than to hit the big prize at the Powerball. That about sums it up, I guess.

Still bought a ticket. Didn't get not one single number. Worse, every one of my (randomly assigned) numbers was above 30, and all six winning numbers were below 30, so I wasn't even in the right ballpark. Oh well.

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

What I don't understand are the people who win, and go on the news to rave about it! I'd be staying as anonymous as possible, I can only imagine the crazies who track the big winners down! I have plenty of family & friends I intend to share with if I ever win, without having strangers show up at my door with some sob story or scam..

I occasionally brush shoulders with SERIOUSLY well off people - once I was chatting to a chap and I joked that a lot of my problems would disappear if I had LoadsOfMoney, he asked me if I worried about kidnappers when my son goes to school...