From the underhanded tactics of some shop clerks to the hidden art of the gamble, today
we look at Secrets Lotteries Don't Want You To Know.
Number 8.
Unriggable Contest The lottery of each state is very closely
monitored by the governing authority that runs it, but also with the assistance of investigators
and policing agents on the lottery's behalf.
Their security division is dedicated to looking out for cheats, swindlers, and charlatans
that think they can alter a ticket or find some other way to scam the contest.
Most attempts are futile as a cursory scan will alert a clerk as to whether or not the
customer has a winning ticket and as crafty as folks can be, it's not going to be easy
to forge a winning barcode.
But even if they could manage it, the amount of investigation and auditing that goes into
verifying a claimant would catch you before you could even smell the cash.
The system even has a means to make sure winners can't receive the full pay if they have outstanding
government debts!
So unless you're trying to trade your lottery ticket in as a fastpass to federal prison,
it's highly recommended you don't go trying to alter it.
Number 7.
Crooked Clerks It may seem obvious, but there's a whole lot
of money to be made in the various lotteries around the country.
Not only as a player, but as a seller as well with lottery ticket-selling convenience stores
attributing them with 30 to 40 percent of their revenue!
But if that wasn't enough, many store clerks have another means for making a quick buck
on your ticket.
Typically reliant on a scanned verification as performed by clerks, many customers rely
on what they hear from the other side of the counter to tell whether or not they've won.
As such, it can often take one little lie by way of denial to send that customer packing
and make the store clerk an extra thousand dollars richer.
This is a very common issue and has led to lotteries employing their own law enforcement
to prevent fraudulent behavior like this in the contest.
In some states, these authorities even launch sting operations in attempts of taking down
corruption at the convenience stores.
Some reports tell of clerks that have been caught receiving sentences of up to 2 years
of probation and losing either their stores ability to sell lottery tickets in the case
of store owning clerks or, more likely, simply their job.
To avoid this, officials recommend always signing the back of your tickets so the original
owner is always known.
Lotteries are doing their part as well with the advent of scanning devices customers can
use to verify tickets on their own.
Hopefully, when combined with the undercover operations of the past couple decades, this
lotto issue will be a thing of the past.
Number 6.
Best Bets As the popularity of lotteries have grown
across the world, so too has the number of different types.
The cost to play the lottery can range from one to thirty dollars per scratcher game,
but usually only has one set price for draw games.
While those looking to gamble often might be quick to think the $1 choice as the safe
pick, experts say different.
The classic recommendation from lottery purists is to go with the higher priced tickets to
ensure a higher rate of return.
For example, one $30 ticket out of New York with the catchy name "WIN A $1,000,000 A YEAR
FOR LIFE" had an average expected payout of 88 cents per dollar spent.
But that just meant an average loss of about three dollars and sixty cents per ticket purchase,
whereas another scratcher in New York called "INSTANT TAKE 5" showed to have a similar
payout at 84 cents per dollar.
Except this ticket only cost $1 to buy, making for a loss of only 16 cents a ticket.
Another way to look at what tickets are best to play is the estimated odds of each ticket
rather than the average payout.
In California, the one dollar scratcher "$25 Frenzy" has overall odds of 1 in 4.81 of rewarding
a prize, and the chance of getting a cash prize are even slimmer at 1 in 8.94.
Meanwhile, the game "Bonus Play Millions" costs $30 a ticket but yields an overall chance
of winning at 1 in 2.48 and the odds of winning cash at 1 in 2.97.
While continuously buying $30 tickets might cost more in the short term than an equal
amount of $1 scratchers, all signs seem to point high when looking to net big in the
lotto.
Number 5.
Tips and Tricks While mostly considered a gamble, some people
seem to be luckier than others in playing the lottery.
But in the case of seven-time jackpot winner Richard Lustig , luck wasn't even a factor...or
so he contends.
Adhering to guidelines of his own devising, Lustig won over one million dollars from the
lottery and went on to author a book called "Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning
the Lottery" in which he advocates this self-enforced ruleset.
Among these guidelines, he has listed tips such as to never use Birthdays as limiting
oneself to numbers ranging from 1 to 31 can damage your chances or to avoid Quick Picks,
a number randomizer.
Instead he says lottery players ought to choose their own numbers and stick to them, believing
the chances of them succeeding rises with each subsequent bet.
This is all advised as a means to increase odds and remove as much luck from the equation
as possible.
On the surface, many of these recommendations seem to make obvious sense.
However, when held up to the scrutiny of staticians, much of this advise falls flat.
With the lottery being a random game of chance, the concept that each winning combination
is removed as a possibility or becomes any less likely after each drawing is a farce.
Random numbers have an equal amount of chance as any lucky combination you have in mind,
so whether sticking to or avoiding birthdays, you're just as likely to win with either superstitious
choice as you are using Quick Picks.
But that isn't to say you can't take some luck out of the equation.
Draw games more or less require zero skill, but scratcher lottery games give a lot of
information to work with.
Knowing the odds of winning, average return on investment, and even the time in which
new tickets are issued can help eliminate any outlying variables that would hinder your
winning.
Only a select number of winning scratchers are sold per contest.
It's often likely that if you've purchased one for a game that has been running for a
while, then most of the top prizes may already be claimed.
These tricks might not get you 7 winning jackpots, but they'll at least help minimize poor gambles.
Number 4.
Many Win...Then Lose The idea of winning the lottery evokes two
distinct but recurring images: on the one hand, there's the daydream of living lavish
and finally attaining success, on the other, the nightmare of losing your new fortune to
the curse of overzealous expenditures.
Not wholly separate, the truth to success lies somewhere in avoiding both and focusing
on responsible spending first and foremost.
Over the years, a good number of jackpot winners could only make the prize money last a short
time before going broke.
Part of this has to do with individual choice and living irresponsibly with their new money...but
that kind of wisdom doesn't come in a lottery winner's instruction manual.
The truth is that a large portion of people who play the lottery regularly are poor, or
at least living without access to excess funds.
More often than not, winners lack the experience to know how to properly stretch their prize
money or even the costs associated with high end purchases.
Suddenly the car that took a fifth of your winnings has an insurance cost exceeding your
old monthly salary!
Or maybe the show horse you purchased eats more than your family combined.
Hair-brained purchases like this can quickly ruin what would otherwise be a life-changing
win in your life.
So if you do win the lottery, remember what so many others seem to forget, and save it!
Number 3.
Buried Treasure With so many dedicated to playing the odds,
it's almost unthinkable that jackpots worth millions would go unclaimed.
But over the past 15 years, on five separate occasions, winning Powerball and Mega Millions
tickets went unclaimed.
Some of these jackpots included prizes up to 77 million dollars!
The large pots aren't the only ones that go unclaimed, as players often fail to realize
they've won secondary prizes, sometimes worth one dollar and other times up to a million
dollars.
As a result, dumpster diving for lotto tickets has become a common practice.
Some people have even found million dollar prizes rooting through the town's trash.
One 83-year-old man named Edward St. John found a winning ticket, but his ownership
was disputed by the purchaser who put a claim on the ticket.
Eventually the incident went to court as St. John settled out of court for a sweet payday
of 140 thousand dollars.
Another anecdote tells of a man named Ed Rader who turned his newly-discovered winning ticket
with no interference.
But once he got the payout, he used the money to settle debts before spending a large portion
of the remaining prize on...more lottery tickets.
Number 2.
Poverty-Powered The lottery has been described as a means
to fund the state by way of a game.
It's framed as if the money being spent will only go to better the infrastructure and thus
benefit citizens.
And yet, evidence has shown it often only exacerbates poverty in the regions that allow
it.
For example, states with an active lottery generated 70 billion dollars on lotto ticket
sales alone.
One of those states, North Carolina, showed that 18 out of their 20 counties with a poverty
rate higher than 20 percent had spent more than the statewide average of two hundred
dollars a year per person.
A survey in California in the late 80s found 75% of the players making less than 30 thousand
dollars a year would play the lottery in hopes of escaping their financial situation rather
than for fun.
Meanwhile, as salaries went up for those taking the survey, so did the preference of playing
for kicks.
To further prove this point, one only need look at the correlation between lotto sales
and unemployment rates.
In 2008, at one of the lowest points of the recession, more than half of the 42 states
offering lotteries at the time had record sales years.
At the end of the day, it's those with the least to lose that seem to be funding these
government-approved gambling operations.
Number 1.
Tax In Disguise In 2009, almost a dozen states made more revenue
off of state lottery sales than corporate income taxes, including Rhode Island where
they made double of what corporate taxes brought in!
Of course, lottery losers make up a large portion of this amount, but even winners end
up paying a good chunk of their prize money right back to the government.
Depending on your social security status and state of resident, you could end up being
charged anywhere between 39 and 60 percent of your winnings in taxes!
At the end of the day, the lottery business in general is just a state tax.
The big difference, though, is that given its most popular audiences, it is essentially
a tax on the poverty-stricken that creates a vicious cycle of keeping the government
fueled and poor people poor.