THIS Was, Perhaps, the Evening of Steven

It is no secret that Val buys scratcher tickets every day. And that no matter where else she may have stopped, she always gets a scratcher from the Gas Station Chicken Store when she gets her 44 oz Diet Coke. Every. Single. Day.

You may recall that Val had some fantastic luck a couple weeks ago, getting a $100 winner on February 7th, a $500 winner on the 8th, and a $1000 winner on the 12th. Since then, the luck has dried up. Not that I'm complaining!

With my good fortune in evidence, as I flaunted it under Hick's nose shared each major win with Hick...he started buying an odd ticket here and there. He's really not a scratcher player. He's a junker. He's more of a casino gambler than a ticket-buyer. So he'd pick up a ticket, and of course lose. He doesn't have the scratcher luck gene. Hick grew despondent when he couldn't win. "Here's five dollars. Get me a ticket when you get yours. Pick it before you go in. Don't just sort through yours and give me one you don't want. No. Give me that back. Here's a twenty. Get me four."

I made a list. I showed Hick. I faithfully bought the tickets I'd written down for him. Not wanting to make two transactions, I bought mine along with his. But Hick got the one I intended to get him at each of the four places I went.

He lost on all four.

I felt bad for Hick. The next time I got tickets, I gave him two. Bought with MY money, out of a batch of tickets bought for myself. He lost on both. So bad was Hick's losing streak that he had scratched 9 losers in a row. The odds are 1 in 4.

Funny thing how my winning streak has stopped. Seemingly at the same time I started buying tickets for Hick. Not that I'm blaming him, of course...I told Hick that I was not going to buy him tickets for a while. He was okay with that. Because he was tired of losing money that could be spent on junk at Goodwill.

Of course I know that Hick's tickets had nothing to do with my luck. Even though I'm a little superstitious, I was expecting a losing streak. Even Steven keeps you honest. The long-term odds always come back around. You don't just keep winning $1600 every week. I've been scratching a long time, and I know my luck runs in cycles. No matter what experts on probability (looking at YOU, my best ol' ex-math-teaching buddy Mabel) might tell you about your chances on each ticket being independent of all other chances that have come before.

Anyhoo...Steven has really been EVENING me. The tickets I send Genius each week were not winning, either. I was about 5 winners behind the odds printed on the tickets. Last night, after having ZERO winners for the day, I was trying to decide whether to stop buying them for a couple days, or switch away from the $5 tickets. I decided to change to the $10 denomination, and if no better success, to stop until after my birthday minipalooza to Oklahoma casinos later this week.

Well. Today I was standing in the Gas Station Chicken Store around my regular time, between 1:00 and 2:00, waiting for some chicken. The stern old lady clerk was chatting with a customer as he paid for gas. I'd never seen her in such a good mood. I swear, she almost had the hint of a smile playing around the corners of her mouth. She was practically giddy! Then I heard what she was telling that customer.

I almost fainted.

YESTERDAY, a man had come in to pay for gas. He never buys lottery tickets, but he wanted to get one for his girlfriend, who was in the car. He asked Stern Old Lady Clerk what might be a good one. She pointed to one in the glass case. It was a blue-and-orange 20X ticket that costs $5. I buy one every day. Hear that? Every day. Around 1:00 or 2:00. Stern Old Lady Clerk said this transaction happened yesterday evening. Not afternoon. Not night. Evening. I'm guessing I was about three or four hours off schedule to buy that very ticket. In the right place at a too-soon time.

Anyhoo...the man bought the ticket, and took it outside for his girlfriend to scratch. Then he came back inside to see if he could cash it in. Of course it was a winner. The Man Owner was there, too, working around behind the counter. He said, "Oh, sure. I can cash a hundred." And the customer said,

"It's a hundred THOUSAND."

That's right. The top prize on that $5 ticket. The most you can possibly win on it. $100,000. Sold right there in the Gas Station Chicken Store. Out from under my very nose. A ticket like this, only a winner.

This is a picture of my loser I bought there that day, number 039. Tickets are in packs of 60, numbered from 000 to 059. I don't know the number on the big winner. But I'd like to.

Of course I'm happy for the guy. He was obviously meant to win it. More likely, his girlfriend was meant to win it. I wonder if he'll claim it, or let her, or if they'll split it.

I'd be happier for them if they'd won it on a ticket bought anywhere else than where I buy that ticket every day.

Don't you worry about Val, though. She's still plugging along. Mojo returning, perhaps, since she stopped buying tickets for that albatross Hick.

Got this one today, but not at the Gas Station Chicken Store. Two doors over, at the Casey's. It's a $100 winner, thanks to the next-to next-to last symbol, the WIN ALL.