Why I hate lottery...

[Primer]

I usually have better luck checking tickets left behind by the lazy litterbugs who can't be bothered to throw their trash away. If I have to pick up a mess, I keep the winnings

So how much, on average do you make this way, and have you found any "big" winners?

[MoonCat]

This is why I stay out of casinos. Well, that, and the fact that the one at the local fairgrounds has this horrible droning background buzz that would drive me insane in about 3 minutes (I went in once to use the ATM and the restroom). I just occasionally buy a lottery ticket...never win anything, though.

I went to the horse races once with some friends, came out about even, and realized I could get to enjoy it way too much. Haven't been back since.

[Sapphire Silk]

Gah. Lottery whores. Glad to hear they drive the clerks as nuts as they drive me.

It makes me steam when I'm trying to pay for my gas, and I can't get to the counter because some twit insists on playing and redeeming his scratch offs right there and won't move so other customers can be served.

Some get outright nasty when politely asked to move aside.

My father gave me good advice for gambling.

Your dad's a smart man. I wish I'd followed that same advice the one time I went to a casino in Reno. I went with a pre-determined amount, and set my winnings aside, fully intending to take it home no matter what. Spent about 8 hours playing blackjack at a $1 table, and won about $800. Went to bed. Woke up next morning and decided to try craps.

Craps is an exciting game. It's easy to lose your head.

I lost that 800 bucks in 15 minutes

[wolfie]

That way, if you did win anything, you take it home. And if you didn't, you only spent what you'd allotted for the entertainment anyway. No different from seeing a movie, or buying a book, or any other form of entertainment.

I'm a bit weird regarding "any other form of entertainment". About 15 years ago, I was browsing at a camera shop, and saw a 35-200 mm zoom lens with the right mount for my camera marked down to $20 - turns out it had fungus growing inside on the elements, so it wasn't usable. I'd wanted to see what went on inside to make a zoom lens work, so I bought it. Spent an afternoon taking it apart, seeing how it worked, cleaning it, and putting it back together - wound up with a working zoom lens and an afternoon's entertainment for $20.

I had so many idiots buying lotto tickets holding up the line, being indecisive, blaming ME for wasting their money and losing on every one of them, blaming ME for not knowing which ones were "hot" and were going to pay out (I'm smarter than you, I don't gamble on these things often, moron), and they'd always have the best lines. "Pick me a winner, herherherher!!!" "Hyck hyuck this better be a winner!"

If you knew which ones were "hot" and were going to pay out, it wouldn't help them. After all, you'd have bought those ones for yourself.

[Argabarga]

I think I've mentioned before how frequently the repossessed cars we handle are just STUFFED FULL of spent scratch off tickets.

One person had gone through so many, the entire interior, steering wheel, armrests, sunvisors, dashboard, EVERYTHING was coated in a thin film of that greasy silvery stuff..... ick.

Now, in a chicken-or-egg kind of way, I wonder if they got so far behind on their payments they started playing the lottery with reckless abandon hoping to get a big win and get out of debt, or if the hope for a big win caused them to play with such reckless abandon they can now no longer make their payments.

[aurelemsrealm]

I work at a gas station. We have scratch off tickets under a glass display case. Lottery drives me absolutely crazy. ... I really hate lottery.

I feel your pain. I refer to lottery as "cardboard crack." Some of our regular lottery addicts don't bother me because they are friendly and polite while getting their fix. However, my store also has its share of "cardboard crackwhores," as I call them. The "cardboard crackwhores" are the ones who make me despise lottery and lottery players.

Edit: I forgot this one...

Customer: I'd like a winning ticket please. Hahaha!

Yeah I only hear that one about 5 times a day. Shut up.

One of my standard responses to this type of nonsense: "If I knew which ticket was going to win, I certainly wouldn't be working here."

Another of my standard responses: "Sorry, we don't sell winners here."

I'm also fond of saying: "They call it gambling because no one knows which ticket will win next."

I don't remember who said it but lottery is a tax on people bad at math - no surprise they are less than stellar in other areas as well including manners.

I'm not sure who said that, but Dave Ramsey calls lottery "stupid tax." I must agree with both statements, though.

My father gave me good advice for gambling.

Treat it as entertainment. Select how much you want to spend on the evening's entertainment. Put that in your left pocket. That's where you spend your gambling from...

Good advice! I rarely play lottery, but once in a while I will try it. I usually play the drawings if I get numbers in a fortune cookie at one of the Chinese restaurants, but I never realistically expect to win anything. Occasionally, I'll play a scratch-off if I see one that piques my interest, but that's a rare occurrence. I usually have better luck checking tickets left behind by the lazy litterbugs who can't be bothered to throw their trash away. If I have to pick up a mess, I keep the winnings even if I might know who purchased the ticket. Some people might consider that wrong or dishonest if I do know who left the ticket behind, but I figure I deserve some extra compensation for having to pick up after the slobs. I'm certainly in no danger of being overpaid for doing my job.

I used to have people ask me which one I'd play. And I'd always reply "Oh, I don't play those things."

One person replied, "Well, you can't win if you don't play."

My response: "Spending more than you win ain't winning."

I've also had similar conversations with people, and my response usually goes something like, "You also can't lose if you don't play."

I especially hate the ones who want to know what number X ticket is on. I've been known to make up numbers if they take too long making a decision. None of them seem to notice when I tell them the wrong number.

I could go on and on about my hatred for the cardboard crackwhores, but that would be a novel.

[blas]

There's a number on the back of scratch offs that you can call if you think you have a gambling problem.

I was at a casino last weekend. All I can say is, I'm glad the nearest casinos around here are 45 minutes or more away. Not that I have a problem, but I got a tad carried away and I know of people who cannot control themselves for even a matter of an hour or two. There are people I work with who go to the casinos every damn weekend.

I came out ahead because within 10 minutes of being there, I won $250something, but I was foolish and kept going. I couldn't just stop gambling and just watch others play. I left with $80, which is more than I came with, but $250 would have been so much better.

[ShootMePlease]

Heh.

I worked with the lottery for 12 years and it never ceased to piss me off when folks who clearly couldn't afford to be spending the money they were spending would buy hundreds of dollars worth of scratchies or regular lottery. I always kept my mouth shut about it. Until one of our regulars became way out of control with the scratchies and would beg for credit to get some. It got so bad I finally yelled at her that she needed to get help when she called one day. She got really angry and hung up. This of course did not prevent her from coming in an hour later to ask again.

I'm not sad I don't have to deal with that anymore.

[blas]

Well, there was another conspiracy that if there was white by the perforation, that either that one or the one below it (since they are attached, you can't tell which one without scratching) is a winner. That proved to be false SO many times, but so many idiot customers swore by that dumb theory.

I had so many idiots buying lotto tickets holding up the line, being indecisive, blaming ME for wasting their money and losing on every one of them, blaming ME for not knowing which ones were "hot" and were going to pay out (I'm smarter than you, I don't gamble on these things often, moron), and they'd always have the best lines. "Pick me a winner, herherherher!!!" "Hyck hyuck this better be a winner!"

Oh, and the fact that we had a single booth area over by the coffee area, and that's where all the gamblers went to scratch in peace after I'd either ask them to move out of other customers' ways, or they simply had SO many that they'd stay for what seemed like forever. And they DID. And they always left a MESS.

[xaenon]

I used to have people ask me which one I'd play. And I'd always reply "Oh, I don't play those things."

One person replied, "Well, you can't win if you don't play."

My response: "Spending more than you win ain't winning."

[Seshat]

Your father is a smart man!

Thank you. I've followed the spirit of his rule (not always the letter), and - well, the total amount I've spent gambling in my life is far, FAR less than the amount I've spent on books!

[parresa]

I could totally take this topic and go on for 3 days about it.

I really could. I better not.

No, go on, it's theraputic for me!

I remember some kind of conspiracy about whatever number in the corner that that scratch off was on, sometimes it meant it was a winner or not?

People ask me about the corner numbers all the time. The weird thing is they never NOT buy them no matter what my response is. I asked one of them one time and he said he doesn't buy numbers less than 10 because they won't be winners... then one of the ones he wanted was on 3... and he said "Oh go on then." What's the point?

[blas]

I could totally take this topic and go on for 3 days about it.

I really could. I better not.

I will say, I hated lotto whores more than anything when I worked at the gas station.

Oh, and I remember some kind of conspiracy about whatever number in the corner that that scratch off was on, sometimes it meant it was a winner or not? Meh, I don't even know. People are nuts.

[Polenicus]

My first 'real' job (Not counting newspaper delivery or my stint working in a small island marina) was working in a Lotto booth in a mall.

It was depressing, because I'd see retired people come in, and literally blow $300 in one go. Most people would always keep farming their winnings back into more tickets until they went completely bust... I kept expecting one of our few big winners (We had a couple of $1000 winners while I was there) turn around and blow it all on a full brick of 500 tickets.

To this day I simply have no urge to gamble. At all.

[Teefies2]

My father gave me good advice for gambling.

Treat it as entertainment. Select how much you want to spend on the evening's entertainment. Put that in your left pocket. That's where you spend your gambling from.

Put any winnings in your right pocket.

Your father is a smart man!