Buying and scratching instant lottery tickets is something which everyone has done at one time or another. For some people it’s probably something they do too often. I guess for me personally, the bad buying habit is junk food. If I’d spent my extra money on instant lottery tickets over time, I might have been rich by now rather than overweight. Like anything, whether it’s food or gambling one must do it in moderation, and that’s often challenging to do.
In their state of Pennsylvania where I live, the first scratch off ticket arrived in 1975, and they have been a large hit every since.
I have obtained instant lottery tickets of every available price range in my own state. I usually buy the $1 – $2 tickets, but once in awhile I obtain a $5 – $10 ticket, and onetime, I purchased a $20 instant ticket. I won nothing on the $20 ticket, not really $1 or perhaps a FREE ticket, so that has been like throwing away my $20. You’d think that with having to invest very much money, they’d give everyone at the very least a FREE $1 ticket or something. I believed afterwards that I was kind of foolish for spending and losing the $20 on one ticket, but heck as they say, “If you don’t play, you can’t win !”, it had been a gamble, and I didn’t win that time. I’ve known two folks who each won near $20,000 on instant lottery tickets. So I could say for certain, “yes, some people do win it big.”
Unlike the live lottery that’s usually drawn by picking numbers, the instant lottery is pre-determined months before it’s release. The tickets were created and printed, then they are distributed to the lottery retailers throughout the state. Most small convenience stores offer instant lottery tickets, in addition to the large chain stores. You are able to usually see them in a vending machine with multiple styles and price tags to pick from, or they are 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 many states of the U.S. however many states might have tickets that sell for only a lot more than $20 each.luckybet678
States do instant lotteries to help fund a variety of programs. As an 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 a lot 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 every dollar used on the Lottery benefits education programs; 61.6 cents dates back to players as prizes, 5 cents is used for administrative costs and 6.1 cents visits retailers in the form of commissions, incentives and bonuses. In every, a lot more than 93 cents of every dollar stays in Missouri. It’s different for every single state, but 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 when they don’t win anything, they throw the tickets in the trash. Did you realize that every time you throw a losing instant lottery ticket in the trash, you are throwing money away ? Yes, you will find literally hundreds if not a large number of folks all over the world that will love to buy your tickets from you. I have observed losing lottery tickets sell for as high as $15 each, these were tickets that had no redeemable value. I once went to a nearby convenience store and asked them if I possibly could have a bag of losing instant lottery tickets I saw they had on the ground behind the counter. The clerk gladly gave them to me, 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 going to throw them away.
Where did I sell them ? On eBay. I happened to look one day and I noticed there clearly was losing instant lottery tickets available on the eBay auction website. You will find folks selling non-winning, so called ‘worthless’ lottery tickets on eBay all the time. I just did a research now while writing this information, 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 will find groups and individuals all all over the world, that love collecting lottery tickets. There are lots of websites, discussion groups and forums now simply for lottery ticket collecting. In fact there’s even a new term or name for an instant lottery ticket collector: LOTOLOGIST, and the instant lottery ticket collecting hobby is called: LOTOLOGY. To see how large this hobby is becoming just visit your preferred se, 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
In the middle 18th century, a distinctive event occurred in France. Because of the potential for fixing the outcomes 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. Other 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 pastime in the brand new lottery and became wealthy as a result, 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 an easy way out of debt. The initial began in Massachusetts in 1744 as a result of military debts. The first national lottery was started by the Continental Congress in 1776 to boost funds for the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers were concerned not really much with just how to win the lottery but with how to boost funds using lotteries. Many 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 at the conclusion of his life, used a lottery to dispose of all 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.
In addition, public lotteries helped build several American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown and Dartmouth. Winning these lotteries was an important contribution to the future of American education.