The lottery finall paid off!

[Jester]

I can't believe it, but I have a winning Powerball ticket! I am shocked. I actually won four dollars!

Scoff if you will, but I remember when I turned 18 and buying my very first lottery ticket in Arizona, and matching 3 of the 6 numbers. Nowadays, that would get you a couple bucks, but back then, it got you nada. And that, my friends, was the best I ever did at the lottery! I never came that close again.

Until now.

When I was in northern Florida on my road trip a couple weekends ago, I bought a Powerball ticket. And imagine my surprise today when I looked up my numbers for that drawing and found that I had matched 1 number AND the Powerball number. Four whole dollars. That's a FREE BEER! Okay, okay, it's a DOLLAR BEER. Still cool!

I should point out that I never take the lottery seriously, have never spent a lot of money on it, only buy a ticket occasionally, do not have specific numbers I play, do not spend my rent or other necessary money on it, and even when the jackpot is huge, have never dropped more than a five spot on it at any one time.

But still....four dollars!

[Amina516]

Sah-weet! Rich friends are fun.

Ill be right there! Save me a seat...and a dollar beer.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Hey, four bucks is four bucks

[MadMike]

Don't think of it as four bucks. Think of it as four hundred cents!

The most I ever won was 13 bucks from a scratch-off I bought on impulse when I was picking up a few groceries. It wasn't exactly a fortunate, but it was nice to leave the store with more money than I walked in with for once.

[Gerrinson]

Back in the day, I used to supplement my income with lottery tickets. I took home anywhere between $20 and $50 profit a week from scratch tickets. And that just during my breaks at ye olde grocery shoppe. Then there were the really good weeks where I'd hit several hundred dollars in winners.

Unfortunately, my winning lottery sniffer was taken offline during Y2K and now I win exactly jack and squat.

I had a brief reprieve a few weeks ago when I won $7.00 on a Mega Millions ticket. Then I realized that $7.00 was my sum total winnings for the last three years. *sigh*

Mostly, I only buy tickets when the jackpot nears or goes over $100,000,000. And I still only buy one ticket per drawing. Maybe one day...

[Jester]

I should point out that the jackpot for this particular drawing WAS $112 million.

I texted a bunch of friends that I actually had bought a "winning Powerball ticket." Of course, my friends know me all too well. Just about every one of them texted back, "How much?"

Except, of course, my niece. Who knows how much I hate where she was living, Hicksville, North Florida. Before knowing that it was all of four smackers, she texted, "See? Hicksville isn't that bad!"

Yes. Yes it is.

[Greenday]

You know, if you go to the right happy hour, that could easy be two beers. OR, if you find a place that does beat the clock (Say every beer from 8-9 is $0.25, then from 9-10 it's $0.50 etc. etc.), you could definitely get your money's worth.

[Jester]

Actually, at MY bar, that would be two beers at happy hour.

At some bars that do certain beers for a dollar, I could actually get FOUR beers.

Rumor has it the bar across from us has PBR's for a dollar. Of course, I almost never hang out there, but still....it's a thought.

I would like to point out, for those that missed it, that I have now been playing the lottery casually for almost 22 years. And in that time, this four dollar winning ticket brings my total winnings to: four dollars.

Nurse Betty thinks that that is the most pathetic lottery career she's ever heard of. Apparently most normal people win a bit here or there from time to time.

Ironically, my first lottery ticket that I ever bought, back when I had just turned 18, is still technically the best I've ever done. I didn't win anything, but I DID match three numbers. On my winning Powerball ticket, I only matched one number plus the Powerball number. So I still have never done better numbers-wise than that first ticket in June of '88.

As the woman said: pathetic.

[aurelemsrealm]

I never take lottery seriously either, but boy some customers sure do. Wow is all I can say to the amounts I see some of them spend, like the guy who spent $600 on $20 scratch-offs within a 2-hour period one night.

If I get numbers in a fortune cookie when I go to the Chinese restaurant, I'll play them for kicks. Sometimes, if I spot a scratch-off that looks interesting, I'll try it. Otherwise, I don't mess with buying tickets.

The best I ever did was winning $19 on a $3 ticket once. I did find a $20 winner once that someone had left behind on the fountain drink counter. You can bet I cashed that one and kept the money since I didn't even know who bought it. Leave it for me to pick up, and it's mine!

The only lottery habit I have is that I pick up losers that people leave behind, and enter those ticket numbers in the second chance drawing on the state lottery's website. However, I'm considerate enough not to leave the tickets as litter for someone else to clean up later like I find them.

[AdminAssistant]

Ugh...freakin' lotto. I only go in gas stations during my treks home to buy snacks and caffeine, and I either get stuck behind some idiot taking 20 minutes to pick out just the right ticket or have someone try to shove me out of the way while I'm putting up my change so they can cash in their scratch offs. *grumble*