We won the lotto and threw it away!
Aug 11, 2025 2:21 pm
Hello !
Thinking about my big mistakes a few emails back got me thinking about why we don't play scratchers anymore.
Doris likes scratchers. A lot. But she's got the money to burn on them, or is just lucky enough to get more than she puts in.
Mr. Browne and I used to play scratchers, not often, but we'd buy a lotto ticket or get one for Christmas--my mom does the cellophane ball where you unwrap it while wearing plastic gloves that are too big and stuffs it with lotto tickets, cash, candy, and gift cards. Mr. Browne also liked to play them on road trips, scratch one off every hour and see if you win something for the next gas station.
And then, if we won, we'd let that lotto ticket ride.
Win a free ticket? Win $5 or $10? Buying more tickets.
So, one time, we were doing this with Lucky for Life tickets. In case you're not familiar with that one, depending on the "tier" of ticket you buy, you can win $600/week or $2,000 a week for twenty years. The rules say you have to match your number to the number under the prize.
Mr. Browne was home by himself while I was at school. On the $2,000 a week ticket, he scratched off "life" and got angry because he didn't match "his number" to life. Called me and told me about it and threw away the ticket. This was when Lucky for Life was new.
A year or so later, we saw on Facebook a friend of a friend scratched off life and was pumped they won. For the "Life" prize you ONLY HAVE TO GET LIFE!!!! You don't need to match your number.
Man, Mr. Browne looked EVERYWHERE for that ticket in case he didn't throw it out.
I try to tell myself that when these tickets were new, you still had to match your number. But.... Let's be real. We could have had $2,000 a week and threw it away.
So, we don't allow ourselves to play scratchers anymore, except from my mom's Christmas ball. And I scan them all with the lotto app... just in case we can't read.
Life. It is what it is. (And Minnie says this is not a mistake--this is a pool!)
What about you? You ever have something crazy like that happen? If you could buy a scratcher you *knew* would win, would you get a Lucky for Life with $600 every week or a $500,000 jackpot right now?
Have a magic day!
🧁✨ April Browne✨🧁
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