A Fantastic VALue

The Christmas scratchers came out Monday. I didn't even know! Why was I not notified? I am aware that the last Monday of every month is MO Money Monday, as designated by the Missouri Lottery. But this was NOT a last Monday. So I was not on my toes, ready to dash out and nab the latest offerings. I had to find them in the glass-topped counter at the Gas Station Chicken Store.

I always buy new tickets when they first come out, whether I think I'll like them or not. Gotta get the fresh ones! I got some for myself, and The Pony, and two to send to Genius. The Pony won $15 on his $5 ticket. I won nothing on any of mine. Which didn't mean I quit buying them!

Thursday, I was running quite late on my errand day. I had to get to the bank before it closed, and also to the credit union on the other side of town, to make a deposit of The Pony's money for an as-yet-unnamed purchase. THEN I was free to backtrack for T-Hoe's gas and my scratchers at the Sis-Town Casey's.

I was wavering on my ticket selection. I decided on a $10 Christmas ticket, and a blue $5 ticket I've been having luck on these past two weeks. In fact, LAST Thursday I had two $50 winners on this blue ticket, one of them being from the Sis-Town Casey's, and the other from the School-Turn Casey's. So I thought I was pushing my luck to buy another one when they were likely in the same roll as last week. I'm hard-headed, though, and that's the one I wanted. It won $50! Sorry I didn't take a picture. I don't take them for winnings that "small!"

Anyhoo... as I said, I also got a new $10 Christmas ticket:

 

It's a pretty ticket, and easy to scratch. And quite a good VALue for my $10 investment this time! That's a $500 WINNER! I always scratch off the numbers, and wait until I see how many are winners before I uncover the prizes. So I was happy enough, thinking there were probably $5 prizes under each winner. In fact, the prospect of winning $50 was thrilling in itself. And then I uncovered the first candy cane symbol, and saw a $50 prize. That's when I knew I was in for something good.

My theory is that new tickets are sent out with some good prizes frontloaded, to keep people buying them for quite a while. Like these Christmas tickets. Get some good prizes paid right out of the gate, then slack off the big ones until closer to Christmas, and the end of the ticket.

Sure. It's all random, right? I'm pretty sure there's a program that decides when, and what area of the state the big winners go to, to keep scratcher prizes balanced, and interest keen. Then again, I'm a known conspiracy theorist.