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I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



Do you live in a US state or other region where they sell those lottery scratch-off tickets that cost $100 United States dollarey-doos or some other amount that is more than most sane people would pay for a scratch-off ticket?

I live in Texas and throughout most of my childhood and adolescence in the '90s, scratch-off tickets cost $2 at most. Then sometime in the '00s I think, the peak cost crept up to $5, and then $10 a few years later, and eventually hit $20 some years after that. Now the Texas state lottery has scratch-off tickets that cost $30, $50, and yes, even $100.

So why would anyone in their right mind pay a full $hundo for a scratch-off ticket? Well... apparently the odds of winning go up the more expensive the ticket is. One of the gas stations near me sells two different $100 scratch-off tickets, and the odds on one of them for a break-even prize or higher is something like 1:3.73, while the other has odds of about 1:3.28 or 1:3.3 for any prize at all.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda thinking about buying one or two just for funsies. I'd have to work up the guts to burn that amount of cash on something that would more than likely not return my initial investment, though.



Have any of y'all ever seen super expensive scratch-off lottery tickets where you live, or do you live in a jurisdiction where they exist at all? Have you ever bought one? Have you ever won anything off of one, or do you know someone who has?

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Anderson Koopa
Jun 9, 2006

all is right with the world especially as I lay waste to my fellow IKs
Grimey Drawer
Most I can remember seeing them go up to is $20, but I could be mistaken.

I mostly buy a $2 ticket when the jackpot is crazy huge.

It's kind of annoying watch someone buy a bunch of scratchers, scratch them, and rinse and repeat while you wait.

Edmund Sparkler
Jul 4, 2003
For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are peris

I rarely gamble but when I do, I look at it as entertainment and I want to get my money's worth. I can spend $10 to $20 playing penny slots on the state sanctioned video slots at my local bar and buy a couple of $3 pints and that's like 1 to 2 hours worth of entertainment. Blowing $100 on a single scratch-it seems pretty anti- climactic by comparison.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

The REoL wonder is how I even post given I cannot take my eyes of this handsome avatar.
when i worked at a dry cleaner my boss would walk over to the gas station next door and buy 2 of those and like 5 $10s and 10 $1s a day and sit there scratchin' em listening to pop country radio and feeding a roadrunner that would walk in through the back door in his boots and hat like 3x a week it was wild

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


MrQwerty posted:

when i worked at a dry cleaner my boss would walk over to the gas station next door and buy 2 of those and like 5 $10s and 10 $1s a day and sit there scratchin' em listening to pop country radio and feeding a roadrunner that would walk in through the back door in his boots and hat like 3x a week it was wild

I want to know more about this shoe wearing roadrunner.

flubber nuts
Oct 5, 2005


when i was in tennessee five years ago they had mega scratchers for $20. they were the size of printer paper, 8.5 x 11 inches. it was glorious.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

The REoL wonder is how I even post given I cannot take my eyes of this handsome avatar.

SLICK GOKU BABY posted:

I want to know more about this shoe wearing roadrunner.

watching a fake cowboy meticulously scratch tickets for hours on end and lose fuckloads of money that was supposed to be going to payroll while wearing a 1/4 face respirator working on a perc machine was way less funny than that

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



MrQwerty posted:

when i worked at a dry cleaner my boss would walk over to the gas station next door and buy 2 of those and like 5 $10s and 10 $1s a day and sit there scratchin' em listening to pop country radio and feeding a roadrunner that would walk in through the back door in his boots and hat like 3x a week it was wild

Did he ever win anything?

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

The REoL wonder is how I even post given I cannot take my eyes of this handsome avatar.

I. M. Gei posted:

Did he ever win anything?

occasionally he won like $500 on a $20 or $100 on a $10 but i never saw him win poo poo from a $100

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



I've had a couple of people tell me they won like $2K and $5K on a $100 ticket.



... or maybe those were $50 ones, I can't remember.

I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 24, 2025

huh
Jan 23, 2004

Dinosaur Gum
I think in Australia 20 bucks is the most expensive.

We have scratchies that incorporate a game. Like a simple word search or crossword or something but that poo poo is for the birds. I just wanna know if it's a win or a bust.

Buce
Dec 23, 2005

gambling is haram, op

Szyznyk
Mar 4, 2008

No, but I’m frequently stuck behind some degenerate cashing in a shitload of $20 ones.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

The REoL wonder is how I even post given I cannot take my eyes of this handsome avatar.

Szyznyk posted:

No, but I’m frequently stuck behind some degenerate cashing in a shitload of $20 ones.

every goddamn loving time i need to make a 5 minute trip to the gas station and its time sensitive

Szyznyk
Mar 4, 2008

MrQwerty posted:

every goddamn loving time i need to make a 5 minute trip to the gas station and its time sensitive

The card readers at the pumps at my local 7/11 are always jacked up so if I don’t hit a Wawa on the way home I have to pay inside the 7/11 like an animal. But that’s where I also saw a dude ask for $20 worth of gas, change his mind and get $10 in gas and a $10 scratch ticket, and scratched it on the counter and lost.

Junk
Dec 20, 2003

Listen to reason, man. Why make your job difficult?
every few months i grab a $10 ticket. a couple weeks ago I won $50 off one. fun every once in a while

weg
Jun 6, 2006

Reassisted Retrogression
Ah gently caress lost again!


Nevertheless!

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



The $50+ tickets at the gas station I went to earlier today.



(No, I don't know if that "1:408,000" top prize odds is a misprint or not, considering all the other million-dollar odds are a whole order of magnitude worse than that.)





I may or may not have purchased at least one of the purple ones.

I may or may not have purchased four of them.

MrQwerty
Apr 15, 2003

The REoL wonder is how I even post given I cannot take my eyes of this handsome avatar.
that purple one has some real good looks from a design standpoint

idk last time i was in texas my main perogative was to get the gently caress out while spending as little money in a state that desperately wants to annex mine

Vakal
May 11, 2008

Szyznyk posted:

No, but I’m frequently stuck behind some degenerate cashing in a shitload of $20 ones.

I knew people that would just scratch the section of the ticket where the serial number was and from that they could tell if it was a winner or not. They didn't even bother scratching off the rest of it.

SLICK GOKU BABY
Jun 12, 2001

Hey Hey Let's Go! 喧嘩する
大切な物を protect my balls


:lol: top prize odds may vary by 2%? So do they now know how many tickets they actually printed vs. the 1 winning ticket?

Songbearer
Jul 12, 2007

Insight: Try to discern the fuck they said.


I SOUND WITH IT

BAGS FLY AT NOON
Apr 6, 2011


When ilovebeersooomuch isn't posting, all the other goons should be asking "where's ilovebeersooomuch?" That's what I think.
You can’t win if you don’t play, OP

redshirt
Aug 11, 2007

Is that scratch residue safe to inhale?

Asking for a Post Grad study.

Anderson Koopa
Jun 9, 2006

all is right with the world especially as I lay waste to my fellow IKs
Grimey Drawer
You win anything OP?

WAR CRIME GIGOLO
Oct 3, 2012

The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

I bought 10 $100 tickets in one shot, won $100 on 2 and 5K on one. Had to send it in took like 2 weeks to get the cash.

I bought a few steam games and some groceries and a nice dinner, then put the rest in my hysa

huh
Jan 23, 2004

Dinosaur Gum
I wonder how the winning tickets are distributed. Presumably it is totally random and unknown to the manufacturer.

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



Anderson Koopa posted:

You win anything OP?

I did not.



My dad used to give me scratch-offs as stocking stuffers for Christmas though, and he didn't give me any the last two Christmases he was alive, so it felt kinda nice to scratch some off again. Two hundos down the drain, but still. :unsmith:

Last time I got tickets in my Christmas stocking, I think the combined prize total between all of them was like $56, which was pretty drat good.

Anderson Koopa
Jun 9, 2006

all is right with the world especially as I lay waste to my fellow IKs
Grimey Drawer

I. M. Gei posted:

I did not.



My dad used to give me scratch-offs as stocking stuffers for Christmas though, and he didn't give me any the last two Christmases he was alive, so it felt kinda nice to scratch some off again. Two hundos down the drain, but still. :unsmith:

Last time I got tickets in my Christmas stocking, I think the combined prize total between all of them was like $56, which was pretty drat good.

I'm glad you got a positive memory of your dad out of the experience.

Rubber Chicken
Mar 13, 2024

[IMG-CHICKEN]
Your most expensive monopoly scratcher,.two wine Black and Milds, one pack of ephedrine, and some BC Powder please

Worf
Sep 12, 2017

i'm OBSESSED with quibbling over minutiae!!!!!!!!
*loses $100*


*blames immigrants because I can’t afford eggs*



*drives home drunk in my lifted truck*

Toxic Mental
Jun 1, 2019

I'll drop like $10 on Powerball when the Jackpot gets like insanely big.

I know it's dumb but I get why people like it. For $2 you can buy a dream for a week or whatever.

ninjoatse.cx
Apr 9, 2005

Fun Shoe

Toxic Mental posted:

I'll drop like $10 on Powerball when the Jackpot gets like insanely big.

I know it's dumb but I get why people like it. For $2 you can buy a dream for a week or whatever.

Same, but $20. I’ve already decided how I’d spend the money.

Thesaurus
Oct 3, 2004


Szyznyk posted:

The card readers at the pumps at my local 7/11 are always jacked up so if I don’t hit a Wawa on the way home I have to pay inside the 7/11 like an animal. But that’s where I also saw a dude ask for $20 worth of gas, change his mind and get $10 in gas and a $10 scratch ticket, and scratched it on the counter and lost.

Yeah, but what if he had won big?

Thesaurus
Oct 3, 2004


We need more threads like this where a goon gets fired up about some goofy thing and goes out and blows hundreds of dollars for our amusement.

That's a serious commitment to posting and I respect you for it, op

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.
Edit: scratch offs are fun, and a good investment

Teriyaki Hairpiece fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Jan 24, 2025

Sentient Data
Aug 31, 2011
In a previous life i worked at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and even there the store had 3 whales that churned several thousand per month on the $20-$100 scratchers, to the point that buying the entire pack of a few dozen tickets for several of the games happened on an almost weekly basis. Very occasionally they'd hit a ticket for 1200-2500, but on most nights they didn't leave until they were down several hundred dollars, down a couple thousand occasionally. All 3 of them made their money from rentals, so that's where your rent's going

Sophy Wackles
Dec 17, 2000

> access main security grid
access: PERMISSION DENIED.





I. M. Gei posted:

The $50+ tickets at the gas station I went to earlier today.



I may or may not have purchased at least one of the purple ones.

I may or may not have purchased four of them.

So if I spend $225 million, I can win $7.5 million?

I. M. Gei
Jun 26, 2005

CHIEFS

BITCH



Toxic Mental posted:

I'll drop like $10 on Powerball when the Jackpot gets like insanely big.

I know it's dumb but I get why people like it. For $2 you can buy a dream for a week or whatever.

Same but I have entire rear end spreadsheets filled with numbers from every drawing result since Powerball switched to their present format on October 3rd, 2015 — all 1,150+ drawings worth of them — plus more than two dozen pages of Google Sheets algos checking for number frequencies and patterns.

Ditto for Mega Millions.

It's kinda fun having something to keep track of 5 days a week, and I can put the unfinished drawing numbers pattern-checking program I wrote in Python on job resumes. That makes it productive kind of! :)

I. M. Gei fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Jan 24, 2025

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Buttchocks
Oct 21, 2020

No, I like my hat, thanks.
*scratching the security strip off a $100 bill*

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