Buying and scratching instant lottery tickets is something which just about everyone did previously or another. For some folks it’s probably something they do too often. I suppose for me personally, the bad buying habit is junk food. If I’d spent my extra cash on instant lottery tickets over the years, I could have been rich by now in place of overweight. Like anything, whether it’s food or gambling one should do it in moderation, and that’s often not easy to do.
In their state of Pennsylvania where I live, the first scratch off ticket arrived in 1975, and they’ve been a big hit every since.
I have purchased instant lottery tickets of each and every available budget range in my own state. I usually choose the $1 – $2 tickets, but once in awhile I purchase a $5 – $10 ticket, and one time, I purchased a $20 instant ticket. I won nothing on the $20 ticket, not really $1 or a FREE ticket, so which was like wasting my $20. You’d think that with having to invest very much money, they would give everyone at the least a FREE $1 ticket or something. I thought afterwards that I was type of foolish for spending and losing the $20 on one ticket, but heck reported by users, “In the event that you don’t play, you can’t win !”, it was a risk, and I didn’t win that time. I have known two folks who each won near $20,000 on instant lottery tickets. So I will say for certain, “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, as well as the large chain stores. You are able to usually locate them in a vending machine with multiple styles and price ranges to select from, or they’re at the cashiers area on the counter or behind a shielded section. Instant lottery tickets sell for as low as $1 and as high as $20 each in most states of the U.S. however, many states may have tickets that sell for only more than $20 each.luckybet678
States do instant lotteries to help fund many different programs. For instance 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 used 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 would go to retailers in the shape of commissions, incentives and bonuses. In every, more than 93 cents of each and every dollar stays in Missouri. It’s different for each and every state, but the lottery is quite beneficial regardless of the few problems it may cause with a, in the shape 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 know that each time you throw a losing instant lottery ticket in the trash, you are throwing money away ? Yes, you can find literally hundreds if not tens of thousands of folks all over the world that could love to purchase your tickets from you. I have seen losing lottery tickets sell for as high as $15 each, we were holding tickets that had no redeemable value. I once went along to an area convenience store and asked them if I could have a case of losing instant lottery tickets I saw they had on to the floor behind the counter. The clerk gladly gave them in my experience, I took the tickets home and after checking through them, 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 check one day and I noticed there is losing instant lottery tickets available on the eBay auction website. You can find folks selling non-winning, so called ‘worthless’ lottery tickets on eBay most of the time. I just did a search now while writing this short 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 becoming a big thing. You can find groups and individuals all all over the world, that love collecting lottery tickets. There are numerous websites, discussion groups and forums now only 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 has become just visit your chosen search engine, such as for instance GOOGLE, and do a search 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
In the centre 18th century, a significant event occurred in France. Due to the possibility of fixing the results in privately operated lotteries, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 – 1798) persuaded Louis XV of France to found the first 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 a pursuit in the new lottery and became wealthy as a result, but sold his interest shortly afterwards and lost the proceeds through unwise investments; sounds the same as 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 means out of debt. The very first began in Massachusetts in 1744 due to military debts. The first national lottery was started by the Continental Congress in 1776 to improve funds for the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers were concerned less with just how to win the lottery but with how to improve funds using lotteries. Most of the Founding Fathers played and sponsored lotteries:
- Benjamin Franklin used lotteries to finance cannons for the Revolutionary War.
- Thomas Jefferson, who had been $80,000 in debt by the end of his life, used a lottery to dispose of most of his property. Winning this lottery might have given you a priceless piece 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.
Additionally, public lotteries helped build several American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown and Dartmouth. Winning these lotteries was a significant contribution to the future of American education.