The Iowa State Lottery has a motto: You can't win if you don't play. Well, I'm here to tell you that's not true.
Over the last week or so, while visiting my corner gas station/convenience store, I've noticed that the employees have been wearing a button designed to promote the lottery. The button says something to the effect of "If I don't ask you if you want to buy a lottery ticket, you get a free one." Every day, the clerks dutifully have asked me if I want to buy a lottery ticket, and I have politely declined. In fact, the other day, I asked one of them if she was tired of asking everyone, and she admitted that she was.
I like my little corner store, and I am acquainted with most of the people who work there. So if they had failed to ask me, I certainly wouldn't bust them on it and demand my free lottery ticket. But when I went there today, there was a guy from the lottery handing out scratch tickets. I thought it was pretty cool -- a good way to entice people to play the lottery -- but didn't otherwise think much about it. I got out to the car, scratched the ticket, and couldn't believe it... I had won $17.
I zipped back into the store to claim my winnings, and the dude that handed me the ticket said "Wow! Another winner!" As I pocketed the money, the guy said that he'd given out ten winning tickets today. Today's tale tells me a couple of things...
-The Iowa Lottery must be suffering as a result of the recession. I suspect that as the economy worsens, people are giving up some of their discretionary spending, and the lottery is probably considered discretionary by a lot of people.
-Going with this assumption, the Iowa Lottery is doing what they can to stimulate their sales. When simply asking didn't appear to do the trick, they started doling out free scratch tickets. This could be problematic for the state, because Iowa relies on Lottery income for it's budget. I suspect this means a larger deficit for the state's budget this year.
-You CAN win if you don't play. Hey, I never play the lottery, and I just won a few bucks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
So if you don't actually BUY a ticket you aren't actually PLAYING the lottery???
Lemme think on that one dude.
Oh- and Congrats!!!!
I say you're not playing, because by definition the lottery is gambling. If someone hands me a ticket and I scratch it, I'm not gambling, because I'm not out anything if I lose.
Okay- I accept that reasoning.....
Post a Comment