Buying and scratching instant lottery tickets is something which everyone has been doing previously or another. For some people it’s probably something they do too often. I guess for me personally, the bad buying habit is junk food. If I had spent my extra cash on instant lottery tickets over the years, I could have been rich by now rather than overweight. Like anything, whether it’s food or gambling one should do it in moderation, and that’s often difficult to do.
Within their state of Pennsylvania where I live, the first scratch off ticket arrived on the scene in 1975, and they have been a large hit every since.
I have obtained instant lottery tickets of each available price range in my state. I usually buy the $1 – $2 tickets, but once in awhile I purchase a $5 – $10 ticket, and one time, I purchased a $20 instant ticket. I won nothing on the $20 ticket, not even $1 or even a FREE ticket, so that has been like throwing out my $20. You would believe with having to invest very much money, they would give everyone at the very least a FREE $1 ticket or something. I believed afterwards that I was kind of foolish for spending and losing the $20 on one ticket, but heck as they say, “If you don’t play, you can’t win !”, it had been a chance, and I didn’t win that time. I have known two people who each won near $20,000 on instant lottery tickets. So I will say for sure, “yes, some people do win it big.”
Unlike the live lottery that’s usually drawn by picking numbers, the instant lottery is pre-determined months before it’s release. The tickets are designed and printed, then they are distributed to the lottery retailers throughout the state. Most small convenience stores offer instant lottery tickets, as well as the large chain stores. You are able to usually see them in a vending machine with multiple styles and price tags to choose from, or they are at the cashiers area on the counter or behind a shielded section. Instant lottery tickets sell for as low as $1 and as high as $20 each in many states of the U.S. however many states may have tickets that sell for only more than $20 each.luckybet678
States do instant lotteries to help fund many different programs. As an example in Pennsylvania, the lottery is employed to generate funds to benefit programs for the Commonwealth’s older residents. In Ohio, since 1974, the Lottery has provided more than $13 billion to public education. Annually, the lottery provides about 4.5 percent of the funding required for Ohio’s public education. In Missouri, approximately 27.3 cents of each dollar spent on the Lottery benefits education programs; 61.6 cents goes back to players as prizes, 5 cents is employed for administrative costs and 6.1 cents would go to retailers in the shape of commissions, incentives and bonuses. In all, more than 93 cents of each dollar stays in Missouri. It’s different for each state, nevertheless the lottery is quite beneficial regardless of the few problems it can cause to some, in the shape of gambling addictions.
Most folks buy instant (scratch off) tickets, and should they don’t win anything, they throw the tickets in the trash. Did you realize that every time you throw a losing instant lottery ticket in the trash, you are throwing money away ? Yes, you will find literally hundreds or even tens of thousands of folks all over the world that would love to get your tickets from you. I have experienced losing lottery tickets sell for as high as $15 each, we were holding tickets that had no redeemable value. I once went along to a local convenience store and asked them if I possibly could have a case of losing instant lottery tickets I saw they had on the floor behind the counter. The clerk gladly gave them if you ask me, I took the tickets home and after checking through all of them, I found two that have been $1 winners that have been not redeemed, and I sold the rest of the losing tickets for $30, and the store was just likely to throw them away.
Where did I sell them ? On eBay. I happened to look one day and I noticed there is losing instant lottery tickets available on the eBay auction website. You can find folks selling non-winning, so called ‘worthless’ lottery tickets on eBay most of the time. I just did a search now while writing this short article, and I found over 100 different auction listings for them. Who buys these non-winning lottery tickets ? Collectors.
Instant Lottery Ticket collecting is fast becoming a big thing. You can find groups and individuals all all over the world, that love collecting lottery tickets. There are lots of websites, discussion groups and forums now just for lottery ticket collecting. In fact there’s even a fresh term or term for an instant lottery ticket collector: LOTOLOGIST, and the instant lottery ticket collecting hobby is called: LOTOLOGY. To see how big this hobby has become just visit your favorite search engine, such as GOOGLE, and do a search for: lotologist OR lotology. And you’ll find many sites collecting, selling and buying used non-winning instant lottery tickets.
Winning the Lottery: The First National Lottery
In the middle 18th century, a distinctive event occurred in France. Due to the prospect of fixing the outcomes in privately operated lotteries, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 – 1798) persuaded Louis XV of France to found the first state-owned monopoly lottery, the Loterie Royale of the Military School, which became the forerunner of the Loterie Nationale. All the lotteries in France were outlawed. The lottery was a Keno style game, where players could select 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 numbers between 1 and 90. (Incidentally, Casanova owned a pursuit in the newest lottery and became wealthy consequently, but sold his interest shortly afterwards and lost the proceeds through unwise investments; sounds just like some modern lottery winners, doesn’t it?)
Origin of American Lotteries
In the 18th century, lotteries were well under way in America, primarily to fund some venture or as a way out of debt. The very first began in Massachusetts in 1744 due to military debts. The first national lottery was started by the Continental Congress in 1776 to raise funds for the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers were concerned less with how exactly to win the lottery but with how to raise funds using lotteries. Many of the Founding Fathers played and sponsored lotteries:
- Benjamin Franklin used lotteries to finance cannons for the Revolutionary War.
- Thomas Jefferson, who was $80,000 in debt at the end of his life, used a lottery to dispose of most of his property. Winning this lottery could have given you a priceless bit of American heritage!
- John Hancock operated a lottery to finance the rebuild of historic Faneuil Hall in Boston.
- George Washington financed construction of the Mountain Road, which opened expansion West of Virginia, by operating a lottery.
Furthermore, public lotteries helped build several American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown and Dartmouth. Winning these lotteries was a major contribution to the continuing future of American education.