Crazy old lotto coot

[Gurndigarn]

That's the key. It's not the age, but the IQ.

It's more like the SQ (suck quotient). There are some pretty sucky geniuses who are worse than some high-school dropouts.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

He's not a guaranteed winner. He's simply being taxed on the fact that he can't do math (and figure out odds.).

[Kilamon]

I haven't bought a scratch off ticket in more than 10 years, but in my observances it seems that you could buy the ticket and just ask the CSR to scan it immediately with the machine as it will know, based on the barcode, if it's a winner or not since they scan the winners in the same way. You could, in theory, avoid scratching entirely. That's my understanding, at least.

[Becks]

Kilamon, I might be wrong with this, because I haven't scanned a lottery ticket in 3 1/2 years...but anyhoo.

I do believe that there is a code that can be found under the scratch-off stuff that you need to verify that the ticket is authentic.

[tollbaby]

I haven't bought a scratch off ticket in more than 10 years, but in my observances it seems that you could buy the ticket and just ask the CSR to scan it immediately with the machine as it will know, based on the barcode, if it's a winner or not since they scan the winners in the same way. You could, in theory, avoid scratching entirely. That's my understanding, at least.

From what I remember of working in the lotto booth, that invalidates the ticket, and if you get caught doing that, there's firings and fines and such.

[Kilamon]

From what I remember of working in the lotto booth, that invalidates the ticket, and if you get caught doing that, there's firings and fines and such.

I meant afterpurchasing it. IE, I'm too freakin' lazy to scratch the ticket I just bought so I get it scanned instead of scratching. But, as I said, I haven't bought a ticket in a decade.

[tollbaby]

I meant afterpurchasing it. IE, I'm too freakin' lazy to scratch the ticket I just bought so I get it scanned instead of scratching. But, as I said, I haven't bought a ticket in a decade.

so did I. It's against lottery regulations. At least, in Ontario it is.

[Banrion]

When I sold lotto tickets in CT, you needed the barcode on the back + a 4-digit code that was under the scratch off stuff. It was in the exact same place everytime, and we did have the lazy's just scratch the code and have me scan it. It was kosher as far as the lotto was concerned.

In MA however, same deal barcode + code, but in MA a lotto retailer is only supposed to scan verified winning tickets. So you have to scratch the whole thing and have reason to believe you won. In MA scanning 3 losing tickets in a row gets your lotto machine suspended and you have to call and get it reinstated. So you won't find many retailers willing to scan a ticket "just to check."

[Salesmonkey]

Similar to RecoveringKinkoid's post, my family has always had a saying that gambling is a tax on people who are bad at math.

I have two exceptions, though. I sometimes buy one lottery ticket for the high-stakes drawings in a nearby state. If it is truly the will of Jesus that I win and lead a life of leisure for the rest of my days, then why do I need a second ticket?

And of course when gambling among friends they won't kill me for dealing off the bottom of the deck. I may receive a savage beating, but that's the punishment for getting caught, isn't it?

[tollbaby]

I will occasionally buy one of the Bingo scratch tickets, just because I love playing them they're fun! But I buy maybe one or two per year.