There's Bound To Be Repercussions From Even Steven, But Hopefully Not On Casinopalooza Weekend

Let the record show that fortune has been smiling on Mrs. Hillbilly Mom over the past few days. Sure, her beloved Puppy Jack took ill. But he avoided the Grim Reaper by hiding under Farmer H's Little Barbershop of Horrors for five hours. Or more.

Even though he's underfoot two extra days a week, Farmer H has found reason to be out of the Mansion stacking bricks or combing through other people's junk at Goodwills and flea markets.

Mrs. HM was coming up goose eggs in the scratch-off sweepstakes for a couple weeks. But then the #1 son revealed that he'd had winners THREE WEEKS IN A ROW. For $40, $40, and $5, on the two tickets she puts in his letter every week. Once that info was out, Mrs. HM had a run of luck herself, with consecutive winners of $40. A fluke of intermittent nothing days, and then she was right back in the winner's circle with a $60 winner, and a $50 winner, and yesterday, a winning combo totaling $75. Of course she puts a little money aside to fund Farmer H's casino bankroll for the upcoming gambling weekend with Sis and the ex-mayor. But she has the rest to invest right back into losing. Or winning. Like today:

Yes. That's a $100 winner. Mrs. Hillbilly Mom is high-rollin' it with her ill-gotten gains. With her extra expendable ticket money, she's been choosing the $30 Golden Ticket. Charlie Bucket himself could not have been more excited. Looks like there's another Golden Ticket in her future.

PLAY RESPONSIBLY, PEOPLE!

And play smart! Don't go back to the store where you got a $100 winner until they're on a new book of those tickets. This one was only #2 out of 20 on a roll. The guy who won the first (and only, so far) grand prize on this ticket has a YouTube channel where he scratches whole books at a time. According to his experiences, there is a $100 winner in each book, with 7 winning tickets out of the 20, and usually a book's payoff is around $350 (with a cost of $600 to purchase the whole book).

I would never buy a whole book of tickets, even on $1 or $2 games, because you know for a fact that you're getting about 75% losers, since the odds are around 1 in 4 to win on those tickets. And 1 in 2.82 on the Golden Ticket. It tells you on the back. You can also look up info about each scratcher on the Missouri Lottery website, including how many of each prize is left.

Yep. Know your limits, and know your math. AND...if you're not a very lucky person, it's probably best not to risk it.