And in GA news, I am playing my favorite scratch-off of late, Holiday Gifts. I will say it again in case I haven't already: the overall odds are 1:3.99, with 3 of 5 $250,000 top prizes still out there. Yesterday I won, $20, and today, $40 on that ticket. Usually it is either $15 or $20 when you win, but it has been as low as $10. Now here comes the strange part: there does not seem to be any winners of a free ticket, at least not in the 28 tickets which I have purchased. And here is another surprising/not so surprising comparison.
Retailer A: 9 identical tickets purchased on 6 different days, 2 of those winners, for a total net loss of $20. I win in 1:4.5 times there. I won $10, and $15, and have spent $45. On average, I lose $2.22 every time I buy a ticket there.
Retailer B: 12 identical tickets purchased on 7 different days, 5 of those winners, for total net profit of $45. I win in 1:2.4 times there. I won $10, $15, $20, $20, $40, and have spent $45. On average, I earn $3.75 on every ticket I purchase there.
Retailer C: 2 identical tickets purchased on 2 different days, 0 of those winners, for a total net loss of $10. I have not won there. I have spent $10.
Retailer D: 1 tickets purchased, 0 winners, for a total net loss of $5.
Retailer E: 1 tickets purchased, and it was a winner, for a total net profit of $15.
IMO Retailers C, D, and E are typical results, and I have not consistently purchased enough tickets at those retailers for a statistical data set. I may or may not purchase tickets at those outlets again. I am thinking that something is definitely going on at retailer A, and will not likely purchase any more of that particular ticket there again; I might stop buying tickets there altogether.
Either the clerks have figured things out and are getting the good tickets, or customers just scratch until they win there the majority of the time. The other option is that the lottery shipped out a lot more winning tickets to retailer B, but that seems odd, as retailer A is by far the busiest lottery retailer around here. Ticket number does not seem to make a giant difference, but odd tickets have won a little more than even, but the even number had the highest payout.
I have been playing that game since October 21.
Between October 21 and October 27, I bought 8 tickets at 3 different stores. I won 4 out of 7 times. I made a net profit of $15.
Between October 28 and November 5, I bought 7 tickets at 3 different stores. I did not win even once. I wasted $35.
I did not play October 6-9.
Between October 10 and October 26, I bought 14 tickets at 5 different stores. I won on 5 of those tickets, for a net profit of $40.