Life is Funny

If any of you play the occasional scratch ‘n win lottery ticket, you’ll notice that in many cases discovering the winning odds is as simple as turning the ticket over and reading the reverse side.

For instance, the ticket might say “odds of winning 1:4.58″ which theoretically means that for every 5 tickets you buy, you will probably win atleast once.

What they don’t tell you is that a “win” is when you win an amount equal to the ticket cost. In addition, a “win” is when you win the chance to get a free ticket as well.

So the truth is, that once you take out all the prizes that equal ticket costs, or free tickets, the odds are much, much, MUCH worse.  When you buy a $2 scratch ticket that says your odds are 1 in 4.58 to win a prize, it would probably be more accurate if it said “odds are 1 in 38 to win a prize greater than your original ticket cost”

If it said that, watch how quickly people would abandon the idea of buying scratch tickets if the truth were told on what their chances are to win something like $10 or $25 on a $2 ticket.

I use to play these every now and then, and I’ve totally given up on them. Now I buy them once in a while out of boredom. I already know that once I begin scratching , I’ve basically lost my money, or at the very best, won my original ticket cost back.

Its weird how no one really pays attention to these things…