The Pony just might have a lucky bone in his body, though it's definitely not the ankle bone. He has chosen to play a draw game instead of the $5 scratcher I usually get him. He picked Cash4Life, a $2 game where you try to match five numbers and the Cash Ball. It's basically like PowerBall, but with five numbers instead of six. The grand prize is, are you ready for this...
$1000 a Day For Life!
Somebody won it last week, and Farmer H heard about it and told The Pony, which is why he picked this game. Second prize is $1000 a Week For Life. The odds are astronomical. 1 in 21,846,048 for the grand prize. And for second prize, it's 1 in 7,282,016. I never win on draw games, and have only played a couple times a year, when the PowerBall jackpot was high enough to be a news topic.
Anyhoo... The Pony also plays the Easy Match on this ticket. Which means for an extra dollar, you get five chances to match a number shown on your ticket. So I agreed to buy The Pony two of these tickets, at $3 each (including the Easy Match option).
The first day, The Pony won nothing. It was not unexpected. I was a little sad for him, because he'd talked about it all day, and could hardly wait until 8:00 for the drawing.
The second day, The Pony completely forgot about the drawing. I asked him the next morning if he won anything, and he said, "Oops! I'll go get my tickets." He brought them into the kitchen, and looked up the winning numbers on his phone.
"Oh. It looks like I've won $2! I had one number and the Cash Ball. I'd better scan it. I'm using your phone. The app didn't transfer when I got my new one, and I'm not looking it up. WHAT? I won $10! It looks like I had TWO numbers and the Cash Ball!"
"You are so lucky on those draw games. I can't win a thing. What are the odds of winning $10 on it?"
"1 in 83."
"Yeah. You're kind of lucky."
"Today, get me FIVE of those tickets. If you'll still buy two for me."
"Yeah. Okay."
When the Casey's lady printed out the tickets, one of them made the WINNER music go off. She told me which ticket it was. In the car, I saw that the Easy Match had matched three numbers, for a dollar each. So The Pony had at least won $3 this time. Lucky dog. I didn't tell him. I let him discover it for himself.
After the drawing, The Pony sent me a text.
"I think I won $2 on the drawing tonight. I'll check on your phone in the morning."
Good for him. I can't win a thing on those draw tickets...
3 comments:
I can't win a thing on any kind of ticket. However, I suppose it would help if I bought more than one lottery ticket every 20 years or so...
We have a similar game called Set4Life, with the winner getting $20,000 a month for twenty years, which comes out to $4,800,000 all up. so "life" is only twenty years, but that's enough extra income to buy a house out here with plenty left over for furniture and just living.
So check on that "life" component, see how long that actually is. Either way $1000 a day is fantastic if you win it, and actually more than our $20k per month, since all months have more than 20 days.
Sioux,
Yes, you might improve your odds a bit if you buy a ticket ever 10 YEARS instead of 20...
***
River,
I always thought Missouri Lottery based "life" on 20 years as well, but here's what the Cash4Life page says:
*Top Prize 5 + 1
Top-prize winners may choose a lump sum option of $7 million, or an annual installment option of $365,000 per year. Winners who choose the annual installment option are entitled to no less than 20 annual installment payments.
If there is more than one top-prize winner for any drawing, the prize will be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, as outlined in the game rules.
**Second Prize 5 + 0
Second-prize winners may choose a lump sum option of $1 million, or an annual installment option of $52,000. Winners who choose the annual installment option are entitled to no less than 20 annual installment payments.
If the second-prize liability for any drawing exceeds $5 million, the prize will be paid on a pari-mutuel basis, as outlined in the game rules.
Funny how it says entitled to NO LESS THAN 20 ANNUAL INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS. So maybe someone could get MORE than 20 years?
Anyhoo... it's fun to dream about winning such an amount!
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