You people who play the lottery have to be the dumbest people out there. How much money do you figure you waste on all those tickets? The vast majority of you (and I do mean vast) spend far more than you win. It seems like every time I go out to buy something anywhere that sells lottery tickets I am stuck in line behind some knob who has to check twenty fucking stubs and then collect their 8 bucks so they can buy more lottery tickets. Everybody in line behind you hates you. Now don’t get me wrong, I know we all have to stand in line ups from time to time and sometimes people take longer than others (the old lady who treats every interaction she has with a debit device as a new and wonderful surprise, the guy who waits to look at the giant menu behind the baristas to decided what he wants until he’s ready to place his order, the kid who is paying for everything in change and has calculated his purchase down to the nickel before reaching the cash machine only to learn that his math skills are lacking). BUT there is a special place of hatred in my already calloused and withered heart for you lotto players. If you really must piss your money away, why not go play poker at the casino? At least then you will be able to use skill/logic to help you win some cash, rather than blind luck. Oh, and those little machines right by the cash register that say “scan your tickets here” … guess what they do! —Pseudonym Steve
This article appears in Dec 26, 2013 – Jan 1, 2014.
For some of the older folks, many spend on scratch tickets as a form of entertainment and better than trying to find a parking space around the Forum Bingo night – it’s a once a month treat.
Let ’em have their fun, OP.
OP, you are an idiot if you will only play a lottery to win. The same astronomical odds that are causing us to spend money on a dream, are the same astronomical odds that make your standards about playing for money…..well, it makes it illogical.
Ha that reminds me of the time I let a little old lady go ahead of me in line trying to be nice. She whips out a stack of lotto tickets and scratch tickets almost 6 inches thick lol. Face palm
I hope all the people stupid enough to play lotto tickets aren’t stupid enough to trust those scanning machines !
Check your numbers manually people …. those scanners miss winning tickets all the time .
More…the cashier scans the exact same bar code at the register as you would scan yourself at the self-scan machine. Also, if the people who are stupid enough to play lotto are too stupid to figure out if their ticket is a winner or not by LOOKING AT IT…well, I guess they deserve their fate.
the odds are high that i will never win. the odds are even higher that i won’t notice a whole lot of matching numbers.
just saying.
Those are taxes I’d have to pay if they didn’t.
Thank you for this public service announcement. Pseudonym Steve is my hero.
op, you probably didn’t give a rat’s ass about someone’s lotto buying habits unless/until it made you wait 2 minutes longer.
pffft
Hols+ what part of CHECK THE TICKET YOURSELF …are you incapable of grasping ?
MANually check it …there do you get it now, just because the cashier scanner or the do it yourself machine scanner says its not a winner …they F^(# ^@ all the time. I have a family member who works in local veggie market & they have scanner problems that are revealed by manually checking tickets Every Single Week . Including one where the machine said it was a 10 dollar winner & it was …it was also a $1000 dollar winner as well, just last week . So if you’ve spent the money, you might as well double check it MANUALLY. The money you could find is rightfully yours
More, how about a nice tall glass of chill the fuck out? Simmer down before you give yourself a brain hemorrhage. I can see you are a person who is very passionate about the proper procedures for checking lottery tickets and I am very sorry that I have soiled your mood with my ignorance. How do you manually check a ticket? By punching the number on the bar code into the machine?
nah, more on is talking about checking the tickets numbers against the lottery website or the newspaper. with a pencil. and much furrowing of brow.
Ahhh, OK – makes sense now, thanks GDM! Though, one would think that if your numbers matched up visually but did not compute in the machine, the shoppe would be hesitant to hand over a thousand bucks.
They didn’t hand over the , they give you an envelope to mail it to the lotto office & info on where in burnside you can go in person
And except for the QE2’s home lottery , I don’t buy tickets
I believe if you buy a ticket , there should be a chance to win
Yet week after week I hear no winner for this draw …. Maybe next draw
If there is no winner … WTF is the use of having a ticket
Only the government can hold a lottery draw have no prize winner & get away with it
Let anyone else that holds such an event aka the home lottery try that & people would be up in arms over it police would be involved politicians would be getting to the bottom of it etc etc etc
I hate standing behind people that are buying milk. Ummm, get some kool aid folks.
Nothing worse than standing behind people who delay lines whether it’s checking a bunch of tickets, digging for coupons or cash or just chatting it up or going back to get that one item they forgot or whatever. Just be ready to do you business quickly and go.
Yeesh, Bro Tim, you can wait a few more seconds to devour your 100 tacos (on special) for $100 before your Doctor Who marathon begins.
It’s not a matter of time, it is a matter of courtesy to those behind you.
I try to avoid places that redeem lotto tickets but every once in awhile I have to get gas at this one place….fuck I hate those lotto people.
“$30 on pump #4, thanks.” as people come in and throw their money at the poor attendant as he/she deals with a line of lotto blottos.
Can’t they check their ‘numbers’ on the internet?
Hello Pseudo.
“If you really must piss your money away, why not go play poker at the casino? At least then you will be able to use skill/logic to help you win some cash, rather than blind luck.”
This is true stupidity. Most people lose at the casino … it’s a fact. Some people have gambled their lives away, don’t make it sound as if it is a smart man’s gamble.
As for waiting for lotto customers, everyone hates this nonsense. I’ll wait .. but if the clerk starts redeeming tickets that the customer just bought, I pipe up and say “I’m not waiting for multiple transactions, serve me now or I’m leaving.” This usually gets me service, often the lotto customer will say to serve me first.
It’s always easier to get angry than to solve a problem. Complaining is a way of life to many people, they are like mental cripples .. just read the other comments, and try to find someone who isn’t just a complainer .. there isn’t many.
I used to work at a grocery that sold lotto tickets. Some people would come in, buy the tickets (the ‘regulars’) and just scratch where the redemption code was and have me check it right then. This one lady would come in for the 50 cent ones you peel back and ask for 20 at a time. She’d go right antsy when we didn’t have any, and like an addict jonesing for a ‘fix,’ would insist I check the safe and then the office upstairs and get upset when I’d say we just don’t have any. I felt so sorry for her because she was a nice lady who obviously had a problem.
In any event, if people were waiting behind these people, I always told them (nicely) that they would have to go to the side to take care of their tickets and get back into line to check them. We only had two lanes, so it was only fair because the lines could get long, otherwise.
Unfortunately the best poker skills you can develop are a wicked hard poker face and counting cards. I have a bad face.. But I CAN count cards. They’ll kick you out of the casino if they catch you.
But poker is fun. If you want to gamble, bet Popsicle sticks or pennies. Lord knows there are enough pennies fucking wandering around with no place to go.
How the hell does counting cards help you in poker???
Blackjack maybe depending on how low they let the stack get.
Someone obviously watched rainman too many times but didn’t pay attention to the 21 vs poker Dustin was playing.
“I have a bad face..”
No shit?