My Gambling Experiment

I'm not sure exactly where this idea came from, but one day it popped into my head that I should invest in the PowerBall lottery on my drive back to Montana from New York. My misguided thought was that, if I buy a ticket every time I stop for gas or lunch or a rest stop, that I would have tickets (and a chance) in virtually every state along the way. I should mention that I have never before in my life purchased a PowerBall ticket, and the only other time that I played any lottery at all was about twenty five years ago when I had a huge jug of pennies finally rolled, and went out and spurged it all (about thirty bucks) on a New York drawing. When I mentioned my plan to brother-in-law Tom, he decided to invest in my venture as well, and gave me the cash to buy an additional ticket at each stop, doubling our chances to win (we would be co-owners of every set of numbers). When my brother Nick heard about it, he kicked in a few bucks too, and so I set off on my 2000 mile journey ready to gamble.

I should mention that part of my thinking was that, since I'm not a regular player, that I would buy the tickets, put them in the glove box, and only check for winners long after my return and the actual drawing day. Becasue I would not be expending any psychic energy in wishing and hoping, waiting with baited breath for the results, my non-chalance would somehow add to my prospects of winning. Isn't it funny what you tell yourself?

Anyway, the first part of the plan went without a hitch-- I actually remembered to ask for a couple of "Quick Picks" at every stop (coached by Tom on what to ask for). Each time, I didn't even glance at the numbers, but just deposited the tickets in the glove compartment. Along the whole way, there was only one place I stopped for gas that did not sell lottery tickets (and the guy looked at me a little funny when I asked too), so in the end I had 14 chances to win. As expected, I pretty much forgot about them by the time I arrived at my apartment-- distracted by unloading and unpacking and getting back into the swing of things. When it dawned on me a couple days ago that I had'nt yet checked the results, I went out to the car, retrieved the tickets, and logged into the PowerBall results site. You can probably guess the rest-- no winners, not even close, not even a lousy free ticket. In fact, out of the 14 sets of six numbers (including the PowerBall itself), I think I matched a total of six, without registering a single hit on more than half the six-number sequences. So, I guess that about does it for my lottery playing days-- if you can't beat the system through studied indifference, then what's the point?