scratch off lottery tickets

[2000xlt]

I have heard that on those scratch off lottery tickets, in the corner there is a 3 digit number, 1-30 supposedly has a small winner, and somewhere between 100-130 or something like that has a higher winner or possibly the jackpot. Has anyone else heard this or read about it,?

 

[ACMarina]

No, never heard that one - if it's true it's a bad move on the lotto people's part..

 

[DonShock]

Personally, I think it's all bunk. I think people just want to believe there is some secret way to get around the odds. A rational consideration of the odds shows the lottery to be a pretty low-return form of gambling. The idea of their being some kind of secret method to improve the odds is appealing but unrealistic. The way I look at it, I'm not spending my couple $$$ a week to gamble; I'm spending the $$$ for the few minutes of dreaming about what I would do if I actually won. It's more like paying for an admission ticket to the movie that plays in my head, it's entertainment.

 

[Mike Painter]

I frequently show people mu home lottery ticket kit.
1. Take a dollar bill and spend a good deal of time straightening it. Undo any little folds, snap it between two hands, unbend creases, ete, etc.
2. Hold it by the edges between two hands at eye level and stare intently at it for a few seconds.
3. RAPIDLY crumple it up and throw it back over your shoulder.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

I had a couple friends that managed to cash in pretty well. One would buy $50 worth of tickets at once, figure out the pattern of winners on the first few tickets, then win all the rest. Go back to the store, cash in the tickets, use the winnings to buy more, repeat as time allows. By the end of the day he'd have $500 in his pocket. Another friend just shone a bright light through the ticket from the back to see where he should scratch-off.

:buddies:

 

[nerdgineer]

...I'm spending the $$$ for the few minutes of dreaming about what I would do if I actually won. ...

Ditto...and the amount of daydreaming entertainment you get has gone down sharply since state lotteries first started. I remember (decades ago), New Jersey only drew the lottery twice a week, so if you could get 3 days of daydreaming for your $1. Now with scratchers, it's down to about a minute, so you're definitely getting gypped.

Years ago, one of our (armed) security guards was dreaming about a big California lotto jackpot at the time. I told him I had an engineering algorithm to improve his odds. I said:

Every day, write down a lottery number and put a dollar into a jar. If the number didn't hit keep the dollar and be a winner. If the number ever did hit, then he should take his gun out and shoot himself in the head.

I said (and still believe) that chances were excellent that he would come out ahead this way.

Don't know if he believed me.....