The Stupid Lotto Scratcher Experiment – Part I

I decided to try a really stupid experiment and document it here for all to witness. Nothing should be learned from this and it should only be duplicated in stupidity.

First off, I was trying to decide what to do with my change. I had about $100 in silver coinage and the smart thing to do would be to put it in our savings account, but that wouldn’t be stupid. I needed something stupid. So I came up with the idea of buying 100 $1 lottery scratch-off tickets. Now that would be stupid.

(Not as stupid as this person though)

Then I decided to make an experiment out of it. I call it “The Stupid Lotto Scratcher Experiment”. Hopefully you gathered that from the title of the blog as well.

I have been known to buy a scratch-off here and there, and even went “all-in” with my father-in-law on large amounts before, but this time I was going to, wait for it…….do research on the lottery. Stupid, I know, but that’s the point.

First off I actually wasted the time to figure out the odds (of winning at least your money back), top prizes, and number of top prizes remaining for every $1 ticket in Georgia. Then I did some googling for tips from the pros (i.e. the poor).

First I removed the worst odds, even though they had the most top prizes left. Then I removed the ones with less than 3 top prizes left. I was left with the obvious (so, so obvious) choice of “Blackjack Attack”. Not only did it have the very best odds of all the $1 tickets, it also had the most top prizes left after my earlier removals (4 $6,000 winners remained).

(The Georgia Lottery. Where even the best odds are bad odds)

In my research on the web I learned it was better to buy from different stores than to buy from the same roll at one store. I have no idea if this is true or not (I would suspect not), but for the sake of the experiment I decided to go to 5 stores and buy 20 tickets at each store. Also this way lets me look like a semi-douche bag on 5 occasions instead of a giant douche bag once. More on this in part 2.

So, here are the rules I set forth for myself.

*Cash in change for $100 (it was actually $106.34. The $6.34 bought Charlie’s lunch).
*Visit 5 stores and buy 20 “Blackjack Attack” $1 scratchers at each.
*Scratch tickets.
*No matter the outcome, deposit the winnings in bank account.

(You can use me for any ol' thing.....wait...Lotto tickets?.....really, BoShanks?)

So with the $100 in hand I was off to the gas stations. Check back later for this journey and the meat of the experiment in Part II.