Scratch Offs and Pull Cards

Herald Reporter, Jonathan Owens, has started a series of posts on his blog (http://jonbowens.wordpress.com/) to track his luck (or lack there of, whatever the case may be) at the NC Lottery scratch off games. I got all excited when I saw his first post announcing his intentions! It will be fun to watch his progress and see how it all turns out after he has spent $100 over a 10 day stretch! Will he hit it big or lose it all?

Reading his blog has renewed my interest in the scratch offs — I really enjoy them — you know instantly if you won anything – even if it is just the price of the card back so you can buy another one!!! I never really got into buying the Lottery tickets – I don’t like having to wait to watch the news to find out if I won and the odds are way out there! But, I have bought a couple on occasion.

I like the $1 cards – I get more for my money, but I know they don’t bring the chance for the big winnings. But, it’s not the big winning potential that drives me. Not that I wouldn’t LOVE to find one that makes me rich, don’t get me wrong – I buy to win!!! But, knowing the chance of getting rich off them is about as remote as me becoming Miss America, my driver for these types of things is more the fun of scratching each section off to see if there is a match! I like to get several at a time, take them home, sit at the table with a penny and my stack, and slowly scratch off each one. I place the losers in the “trash” pile and any winners are celebrated with a little “woo hoo” and placed in the “take them back to get more” pile. I take back the winners to buy more and keep the “streak” going until I get down to the last losing card and don’t have any more to get new ones without adding money – I play with my winnings as long as the cards will let me! ha-ha It has been a long time since I’ve done that, but Jonathan’s blog has got me wanting to test my luck again……….maybe I’ll be a big winner in 2008!!!! If I do, I guess I’ll owe Jonathan a lunch for prompting my return to gambling!

When they first came out and I started to get them now and then, I tried to keep a log of my spending to keep myself in check. It is hard when you win now and then to see what your real loss rate is. So, I kept track of it for a while – at the end of a couple of months of buying them 2-3 times a month, I was ahead by $2.00!!!! Obviously not something that was going to fund my retirement, but it was fun and it wasn’t costing me a fortune! Soon, though, I got out of the habit of tracking it and then got out of the habit of buying them! I still do, occasionally, though.

Scratch offs aren’t the only instant gratification gambling that I have had fun with – although, I believe they are the only ones available here in NC! When I lived in Western NY, I used to enjoy going to the Indian Reservation near my home and play the pull cards — they were much like the scratch offs – inexpensive, quick, easy – you pull strips off the cards to reveal the results. They were fun, too!

Well – think I just might pop into a convenience store next time I’m out tooling around and see if I can’t scratch off enough cards to build a nice little nest egg for myself………………….or not!