When I head to my local 7-Eleven for beer, there’s a trash can in the back that I beeline for immediately. Before I even get close to the beer, the clerks spot me from their place behind the counter reaching into a trashcan. Why? Because that’s where the free lottery tickets are.
It didn’t use to be this way. I live down the street from my local 7-Eleven, and yes I paid for the privilege but in today’s housing market it looks like a steal. Walking around I would occasionally spot the discarded scratcher ticket. To my wife’s disgust, I immediately picked it up because my eyes locked on just one thing: the “eXTRA Chances” logo. No matter how crinkled or faded from gutter water, if I saw that logo I grabbed it.
As of this writing, Virginia Lottery prints 51 of its total 85 scratchers with that “eXTRA Chances” logo. Combine the code under that logo with the scratcher serial number and you can enter to win a drawing every week for a prize worth anywhere from $500 to $1,000. The prize changes, of course: one week it’s a $600 home improvement gift card, and the next month they rotate to $1,000 gift card or $2,000 for appliances. Add to those opportunities another five scratchers with similar “Second Chances” games that you can enter for a prize drawing.
But the point is I didn’t have to pay a cent for these tickets. I just picked it up off the street, then went home and punched in the numbers onto the Game Room page of the VAlottery.com website. There is a page to enter the code and serial number for each eXtraChances scratcher. All because some jackass got pissed because he didn’t win so he dropped it on the ground. One man’s litter is another man’s lottery chance.
Then one day the scratcher machines appeared. The local 7-Eleven management installed a couple of machines that spat out scratchers like a slot machine after you put in some cash. Now instead of asking the clerk for a few scratchers at the counter, people were paying for strings of scratchers at a time. Maybe they’re even following the strategy of buying a string of scratchers within the standard deviation – you can find the ones with the best odds on the scratcher rankings list.
Because they’re efficient, these customers scratch them off right there. Some people don’t even bother scratching off the whole game; they go straight for the bar code at the bottom. Scratch that off, scan it on the machine, and claim the prize or not. Either way, they don’t bother holding onto the paper. Even though they really should keep the tickets if they want to recoup taxes taken from future winnings.
And right next to those machines was my magic trash can. Filled with scratched off scratchers. And most of those scratchers had that beautiful logo with the words in green “eXTRA Chances.”
It’s hard to know the best odds of winning the scratcher drawings for these eXTRA Chances or Second Chances tickets. Every week 15 to 25 people win. Based on the decreases in the number of prizes in circulation, about 67% of tickets have been bought as of this writing. But based on these scratched off tickets in the trash can, it’s clear not everyone’s entering them for them into the weekly drawings.
Now I come home with a case of beer under one arm and in my pockets a stack of used scratchers – tickets someone purchased for $5, $10, even $20 each. I sit down and spend 15 minutes punching in serial numbers and “eXtraChances” codes.
Boom – for no money at all I’ve now just entered 50 or even 100 chances to win. Virginia Lottery enters you for as many chances as the cost of the ticket in many cases, so entering a $10 scratcher gets me 10 chances to have my name drawn for the prize.
Next time you’re walking by a convenience store and you spot a used scratcher on the ground, take a second to look a little closer. See if it’s got that eXtraChances logo before you keep on walking.
Got those scratcher slot machines in your local beer hub? Look for that magic trash can. You might just find a stack of free lottery tickets.