Straight Runs

One of the items on my list was to purchase a $40 assortment of scratch off tickets. I did, and the saga still continues. One morning we were out of the house early for church and stopped in the convenience store to grab some coffee and $40 worth of scratch offs. Gambling on a Sunday proved a blessing as we scratched off $19 dollars in winnings. We recalled a fuzzy lesson from a champion scratcher: if you don’t win more than you spent, just get more. We followed that advice and redeemed our winners for a straight run of the luckiest tickets. We tucked them away until after church, scratching in the church parking lot somehow seemed wrong. J

As I drove to work a few days later, the sun blazed and I pulled down the visor revealing the forgotten tickets. Later that evening, scratching revealed another $9 in winnings. This luck continued and I have redeemed a winning ticket or two for a strip of new tickets at least once a week since the beginning of March. It continues as I still have a few winning tickets to redeem in my purse. It has been fun and has continued further than I could have imagined. The odds of winning a scratch off prize in Virginia are pretty good, publicized odds are about 1 in 4. The odds of winning the number drawings in Virginia are from 1 in 46 to 1 in 176,000,000. I have felt a little lucky, taken my chances, and dropped a few dollars playing the number drawings too. The odds have proven true as not one of those have been winners for me!

It has been reported that three millionaires were created in the recent mega millions drawing. Not one has come forward from the winning states of Maryland, Kansas or Illinois. If it were me, I would have come forward and dropped at least $750,000 by now! Really, what are they waiting for? Take a chance, drop a dollar. It is a win-win; gambling losses are tax deductible!