Quitting the Lottery Is Almost Like Winning the Lottery

 

by Pa Rock

Former Loser

The Great Pandemic of the early 21st century spawned massive suffering and death and set this nation and the world back in countless ways,  but as with many disasters, it also had a few unintended silver linings.

For me personally, the extremely scary days of March of 2020 brought about an end to my long addiction of playing the state lottery.   For years I had a routine of going to town every day around noon where I would pull into one of the local quick stops and buy a large iced tea and one - or sometimes two or three - lottery tickets.  (And on Tuesdays and Fridays I would spend an additional four dollars and play the national lotteries.)   Most weeks I would spend a minimum of fifteen or twenty dollars on lottery tickets and as much as twenty dollars on iced tea.  And then there was also the time and gas that I consumed in getting to town and back.

Yes, it provided a break in my day and gave me something to do during the golden days of my golden years, but I actually had plenty that I could be doing at home.

All of that changed when the pandemic hit.  I had thought, off-and-on, about kicking my midday tea and lottery habit, but the arrival of the coronavirus finally forced me into action.  I remember clearly one day in March of 2020 when I had to drive my son into town for some reason, and as we were headed home he suggested pulling into my favorite quick stop so that he could buy a soda.  As I sat in the car waiting for him to make his purchase, the old lottery bug bit - so I donned a face mask and went inside to get a ticket.  There I stepped into a line, and while I was waiting to get to the counter, an unmasked woman who was standing directly in front of me turned and commenced a discussion with an unmasked woman who was standing behind me.

I stepped out of the line, left the store, and never went back.  The vague promise of a big win was not worth the risk of my health and life.

One of my first "learnings" after that incident was that there was very little withdrawl associated with quitting the lottery.   I also soon learned that I was making far fewer trips to the cash machine at the local bank.  Instead of a couple of trips a month to the local ATM,  I was now just going once every six or eight weeks.    Most of my small cash purchases had been related to lottery sales, and those had stopped.    When I had to go to town for something important - like groceries - I used a credit card.   It didn't take very long before I could see the balance on my checking account actually beginning to grow.

I was driving less and there were fewer trips to the gas station - which resulted in fewer credit card purchases, and less driving also meant lots more time to get things done at home.   I began buying my unsweet tea in bulk at the grocery store.  It was much cheaper than purchasing it by individual servings.

The entire new experience was win, win, win!   

(The lottery had never been win, win, win!)

So now this former lottery loser is a lottery quitter - and a winner!   It's a shame that my good fortune had to come at such a horrible cost to the world.   I should have done it on my own, years ago.