Buying and scratching instant lottery tickets is something that just about everyone has done previously or another. For some folks it’s probably something they do too often. I guess for me, the bad buying habit is junk food. If I’d spent my more money on instant lottery tickets through the years, I might have been rich by now rather than overweight. Like anything, whether it’s food or gambling one need to do it in moderation, and that’s often difficult to do.
Within the state of Pennsylvania where I live, the initial scratch off ticket arrived in 1975, and they have been a huge hit every since.
I have purchased instant lottery tickets of each and every available cost range in my own state. I usually choose the $1 – $2 tickets, but once in awhile I purchase a $5 – $10 ticket, and onetime, I purchased a $20 instant ticket. I won nothing on the $20 ticket, not $1 or perhaps a FREE ticket, so which was like throwing away my $20. You’d think that with having to invest that much money, they’d give everyone at the least a FREE $1 ticket or something. I thought afterwards that I was kind of foolish for spending and losing the $20 using one ticket, but heck as the saying goes, “In the event that you don’t play, you can’t win !”, it absolutely was a gamble, 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 without a doubt, “yes, some folks do win it big.”
Unlike the live lottery that’s usually drawn by picking numbers, the instant lottery is pre-determined months in front of it’s release. The tickets are made and printed, then they’re distributed to the lottery retailers through the state. Most small convenience stores offer instant lottery tickets, along with the large chain stores. You are able to usually see them in a vending machine with multiple styles and selling prices to choose from, or they’re at the cashiers area on the counter or behind a shielded section. Instant lottery tickets sell for as little as $1 and as high as $20 each in many states of the U.S. however many states could have tickets that sell for even more than $20 each.luckybet678
States do instant lotteries to simply help fund a variety of programs. For example in Pennsylvania, the lottery is used 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 needed for Ohio’s public education. In Missouri, approximately 27.3 cents of each and every dollar spent on the Lottery benefits education programs; 61.6 cents goes back to players as prizes, 5 cents is used for administrative costs and 6.1 cents goes to retailers in the form of commissions, incentives and bonuses. In most, more than 93 cents of each and every dollar stays in Missouri. It’s different for each state, however the lottery is quite beneficial despite the few problems it could cause with a, in the form of gambling addictions.
Most folks buy instant (scratch off) tickets, and if they don’t win anything, they throw the tickets in the trash. Did you understand that every time you throw a losing instant lottery ticket in the trash, you’re throwing money away ? Yes, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of folks around the globe that would love to get your tickets from you. I have experienced losing lottery tickets sell for as high as $15 each, they were tickets that had no redeemable value. I once visited a nearby convenience store and asked them if I could have a case of losing instant lottery tickets I saw they had on the ground behind the counter. The clerk gladly gave them in my experience, I took the tickets home and after checking through them all, I came across two which were $1 winners which were not redeemed, and I sold the remaining losing tickets for $30, and the store was just planning to throw them away.
Where did I sell them ? On eBay. I happened to appear 1 day and I noticed there is losing instant lottery tickets on the market on the eBay auction website. There are folks selling non-winning, so called ‘worthless’ lottery tickets on eBay all the time. I simply did a search now while writing this article, and I came across over 100 different auction listings for them. Who buys these non-winning lottery tickets ? Collectors.
Instant Lottery Ticket collecting is fast being a big thing. There are groups and individuals all around the globe, that love collecting lottery tickets. There are numerous websites, discussion groups and forums now just for lottery ticket collecting. In fact there’s even a new term or name for an instantaneous lottery ticket collector: LOTOLOGIST, and the instant lottery ticket collecting hobby is called: LOTOLOGY. To see how large this hobby is now just visit your preferred search engine, such as for instance GOOGLE, and do a look for: lotologist OR lotology. And you will find many sites collecting, selling and buying used non-winning instant lottery tickets.
Winning the Lottery: The First National Lottery
At the center 18th century, a notable event occurred in France. Because of the prospect of fixing the outcomes in privately operated lotteries, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 – 1798) persuaded Louis XV of France to found the initial 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 an interest in the brand new 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 first began in Massachusetts in 1744 because of 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 not so much with how exactly to win the lottery but with how to raise funds using lotteries. Lots 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 by the end of his life, used a lottery to dispose of most of his property. Winning this lottery would 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 significant contribution to the continuing future of American education.