So I played the scratch-off lotteries starting in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I won $1,000 a couple of times along with a bunch of smaller prizes on scratch-offs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I never won anything beyond that, which is why I started studying the odds and found that obviously the odds for the grand prize are always better with Pick lotteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I started playing the smallest Pick lottery first, the Pick 2. I won that within 2 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I played the Pick 3 and won the $500 prize within a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I played the Pick 4 lottery at the $0.50 level and won $2,500 within 2 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I played the Pick 4 lottery at the $1.00 level and after about 6 months of playing $48 every week on Friday I finally won $5,000 just before Christmas in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I only played with quickpick combos, with 2 tickets. This sometimes was two tickets of $12, two tickets of $24, or a combination of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total it cost me $4,000 in tickets, and I profited $1,000 off the $5,000 prize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, do I recommend it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, playing the game took a tremendous amount effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anytime I went to the store I also bought snacks and drinks which became a bad habit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you get started, and you start losing money, you’ll become a victim of the sunk-cost fallacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you play the smaller lotteries it’s more likely you can finally win and recover your loss, but with the larger lotteries you may never win or recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recommend just saving money every week with an account from Acorns, Robinhood, or some other brokerage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saving money is much more reasonable than playing the lottery, because you can always access your savings when you need it in an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the lottery, there’s no guarantee when or if you’ll win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n