Any Luck with scratch offs?

[ultralite09]

I usually only play when I get them for christmas, most I've ever won was $100 mostly $20 here and there.


Another form of gambling that is surprisingly enjoyable is playing bingo. My girlfriend and I were bored o e weekend d and joked about going and we went. Ended up coming home from there with $125 in earnings. She hit the big one last month at $750. Only costs us about $20 total, we go maybe once a month.

[black42]

The most I ever won was 200 bucks. When i get the itch to play I buy 10 bucks, and if i win the ticket goes into the kitty and Ill buy my next tickets with the winnings until I lose it all.

[RiverRat1]

I don't understand how someone could do that. Give me a million right now and I would be set for a lifetime.

I buy a $2 ticket once a month. I always lose.

Easy. First, a million is not a lot of money anymore. Win a million and see what you're left with after taxes, a lawyer, and a thousand vultures. If you're the tightest person ever you may end up with 500k. At roughly 0% interest you can't say you just spend the interest.

You buy a 150 acre ranch and it could all be gone plus some real fast.

No you can't write off gambling losses, but you can claim the winnings! I know, lucky you.

I think you can "write off" the losers but only off any winnings should you win enough to pay taxes.

[Kevin Smith]

I hit $30 on that new $10 big ticket, but the lottery in texas is worse than the casinos in OK.

[mboltm]

I get them every now and then, and I am usually fairly lucky on them. My best day was winning $550 off of $25 worth of tickets. I got $50 worth of tickets and my $500 CASH, I won another $500 on one $10 ticket, I bought 2 new guns that day

[hchntr]

Myself and 3 others used to throw in $100 each and buy a whole roll of scratch offs, we never won enough to take our money and walk away, always put our winnings back in and kept scratching until we were either out of money or we all still had our $100, which wasn't very often.
We did this monthly for about six months.
We never scratched a ticket worth more than $500, and that was only once or twice. Most of the time we either only got the guarantee on the roll or a lil over.
When it was all said and done we figured we scratched somewhere in the neighborhood of $50k-$60k worth of scratch offs.
It was fun though, most of the time we were there for hours scratching, a few times the loto commission shut down the machine at the store because they were going through so many at a time and they had to call to get going again.

[solocam_aggie]

Easy. First, a million is not a lot of money anymore. Win a million and see what you're left with after taxes, a lawyer, and a thousand vultures. If you're the tightest person ever you may end up with 500k. At roughly 0% interest you can't say you just spend the interest.

You buy a 150 acre ranch and it could all be gone plus some real fast.

That is my point, I wouldn't just blow it all on one big expenditure. Makes no sense to me. I'm aware of how much is lost to taxes, etc. Even though I think 50% is a little steep, I can still guarantee you I would be set with 500K. Pay off the little remaining debt I have, then make wise investment decisions in small increments for starters.

[ladrones]

.......I'm thinking maybe your guys didn't want anyone else or yourself to know how much they won lmao. The odds for scratch offs are roughly 1:4. So with 100 tickets, you should have had about 25 winning tickets (in various amounts including break-even prizes). Or maybe I am reading your post wrong....

Are you saying the odds are based on the number of tickets bought or the overall number of tickets per game?

[Mad Max]

will buy a couple once in a while if on a road trip with wife for a little fun - she thinks its stupid and rolls her eyes everytime i show up in the pickup with - but she sure does enjoy scratching em off and collecting the winnings! I buy $1 in bunches of like 10 - usually breakeven.

[Landrover]

My brother won $5000 two years back. He didn't want to discuss how much he had invested leading up to the win.

Bingo!!! For some reason MOST gamblers don't understand the ROI scenario.......lol!

[dustoffer]

Waste of money. I have a couple friends that play and it makes me sick how much they waste. I have won before.

Look at the odds--you are better off to do anything with your $$ than gamble. The Tx lottery isn't in it to lose money (pay winners) and the casinos aren't in it to lose money either.

If you are doing it with "mad money" for entertainment OK, but if you are doing it to try and support a family or build your retirement fund--the odds are so far agains you that it's a one in a million or one in 3 million chance. And, that doesn't count the possibility you will split the jackpot with one or several co-winners.

And--you can write off gambling losses, but only as much as you claim in winnings.

[Fishy]

Rarely buy any. But one time I had a feeling or urging to go to a particular gas station and buy a couple of $2 tickets. Won a decent amount on both consecutive scratch offs of the same game. Went back in to cash them in. Clerk was in disbelief and asked if I wanted to buy more. Said nope and walked out.

Back in the 1990's when the scratch offs first became available in TX, there was a gas station that sold an amazing number of winning games. It was odd how often a friend won and he never spent more than five or six dollars at a time.

I saw one guy buy complete rolls of scratch offs from that same station. He said it was his entire paycheck.

[Timemachine]

If you're feeling the itch to live a little, go to shreveport or Lake charles. Atleast enjoy it a little lol.

THIS!! scratch offs should be renamed "Rip Offs"

[hoythitman]

If you are going to get a scratch off get the more expensive ones. On $10 cards I've won 100-1000 on multiple occasions. On $20 card I've won several 100-250$ payouts. Never had any luck on the cheap 1-5$ tickets.

[texan4ut]

I dont play scratch offs but I was actually talking to a friend about this yesterday...If I play Mega Millions and the Powerball both twice a week and only buy one ticket of each time that would be $6 a week/$312 a year and I believe I could even write off my "Gambling" losses at tax time.

Anyone know that being true for sure?

No you have to be registered as a professional gambler. Don't ask me how I know I did have a $10.00 scratch off for the 4th and won $20.00