Wednedsday, I completed my shopping at Country Mart, and stepped up to the lottery ticket dispensing machine on the right side of the door. They have two. I bought my ticket, and moved to the left machine. As I put in my money, I was conscious of somebody standing behind me. It was an older man (probably younger than me, heh, heh) and one of the workers.
"Well, yesterday a lady won $500 on one of the new Queen of Hearts tickets. That's the biggest I've heard of."
"Ever since [Gas Station Chicken Store Owner] and them went to meet with them in Jefferson City, there haven't been any good winners around here. I think they're doing it on purpose, to get back at them."
By that time, I had my ticket. The worker had walked away. The Old Man was waiting to buy a ticket out of my machine. Since I always like hearing about what has been won, and where, I turned to share with him.
"I won $1000 a couple weeks ago, on a $5 ticket."
"Did you get it here?"
"No. Over in Sis-Town, and the Casey's."
"Well. There you go. That's what I mean."
"It was on this ticket."
I held up the kind I'd won on, which I had just bought out of the left machine. I really wish I'd been eavesdropping a few minutes earlier, because the ticket I'd bought out of the right side machine was the same one the lady had won $500 on the day before. I wouldn't have picked that same ticket, had I known.
"Oh. That's unusual to win that much on THAT ticket."
"I agree."
The Old Man put his money in the machine. I didn't hang around to see what he bought. Now that I think about it, there HASN'T been a big winner from Backroads for quite a while. We used to have them pretty regularly, mostly from the Gas Station Chicken Store. I can't remember a time when Country Mart or Orb K had a big winner. I think the Backroads Casey's might have had a $10,000 winner a while back.
I still don't think the winners are distributed totally at random. Not when I look at the map of winners every month. They don't happen in clusters like that. I think the big winners are scattered around, to be fair, which makes them NOT random. Each distributor has a certain code number on their tickets. They can tell if the ticket came from their store or not. Otherwise, how would they be able to track suspected fraud? Or say where the winner was bought?
I assume that the time for Backroads is coming.
Do you have a local map with pushpins in all the recent big winners stores? Are you looking for a pattern before your next scratcher purchase?
ReplyDeletePushpins? What is this, prehistoric times? I look online at the previous month's winners' map. It helps me decide if I want to buy my tickets in Backroads, or in the Sis-Town area.
DeleteIt also helps me pick which tickets I want, especially during the first half of the new month, in case some big winners are lurking that didn't get bought off the roll yet.
Well I hope the bog winner is YOU.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to be greedy! I've had a couple of good ones lately. I just missed a $1000 winner at the Gas Station Chicken Store in mid-December. It was a ticket I always buy there. The day after we got back from picking up The Pony, the man owner said, "I don't think you want to buy that one today. Yesterday we sold a $1000 winner. Of course, there COULD still be a good one on that roll..." It helps to be a regular!
DeleteThis winner might not have shown up on the winners' map. If two people claim it (like Hick and me), it doesn't show as a $1000 winner, because each of us claimed $500. Only $1000 and over are shown on the winners' map.
My station only has $1 and $2 dollar tickets to buy. AND, they limit how many you can buy at once.
ReplyDeleteOoh! That's harsh! OR a good idea.
DeleteEvery state is different. I looked up Oklahoma, since we travel there quite a bit, but I have never bought a ticket there. Last time I checked (four years ago), the max win was the same on all tickets, and not nearly as high as Missouri. Heh, heh! Not like I've ever won a max jackpot anyway!
If Backroads hasn't had any big winners for a while, I'd say they're overdue so don't stop buying those tickets. We very rarely hear of big winnings on scratchers in Australia, most people buy tickets for the draw lotteries instead.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to tell me twice! I used to buy the draw lotteries (mainly PowerBall, on Wednesday and Saturday). The first time I played, using numbers I'd looked up as hitting frequently, I won $81. That was the most I ever got. I think I might have won $10 once. Usually nothing. So I quit playing.
DeleteI saw that the recent big one, maybe $395 million (?) was just won in Florida. I don't even follow that news any more. Hick will sometimes tell me to get a ticket when he notices a high jackpot on the PowerBall.