I know you’re joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn’t in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.
Dude it was depressing stopping off at the beer store on the way home from work for a 6pack so I could kick it and relax on the couch…
…and there’s be a group of blue collars going there to cash their weekly paychecks, buy a couple 40s and $50 worth of scratchers. They’d win $10, and buy $10 more worth of scratchers. Theys win a TICKET, get another and win nothing, then complain that they were “so close” to winning 10-grand.
I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days,
depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.
The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.
That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.
They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.
The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.
I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.
Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool.
Other than that, it’s a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.
Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire State Park are both cool stops that aren’t too far away. I’ve never been to the Pinball Museum so I’ll have to check that one out next time.
And they took the pull handles away because they can siphon money out of retirement accounts much faster if the victim player only needs to press a button.
I know of a few small stores that owe their livelihoods to the local gambling addicts and the lottery machine. The entire business if dedicated to a few whales since selling snacks and coffee to randos didn’t work out and they would otherwise close. They even set up private rooms where they could sped the day scratching tickets as they would come in and blow and entire pay/welfare/retirement check.
The logic is always the same, “I’m up $500 today” not even calculating the losses and “I just need one big win”. People will farm gamblers like cattle.
A similar establishment by me also diversified into bongs. A wall of bongs, a wall of lottery, a wall of smokes, a locked case full of smaller smoke accessories, half a wall of cooler, and three tiny islands of “food.” It’s very bright and clean but also sad as fuck.
The keno addicts at the bar i work at are wild. They just keep silently putting in money and watching the drawings. I prefer that to the ones who try to explain their strategies to me or complain that some number appears in every drawing. Or the guy who came in Wednesday night and kept betting $10 that the first pitch of every at bat of the Mets/Brewers game was gonna be a strike. It’s bleak.
I remember hearing a story like twenty years ago about a person that figured out that serial number were disclosing payouts. They would buy a bunch, find the winners, scratch them, then return the losers for their money back. I think I heard about it on a planet money or this American life ages and ages ago.
Store clerks who just want to get through their shift without committing battery upon their customers and are definitely not paid enough to deal with that shit.
I just quit after calling the police. Dude said they were too hard to scratch off and wanted his money back. Was dressed to the nines (as was his date), in a seedy movie rental store, trying to return lottery tickets by amicably dropping threats of coming behind the register.
I sure hope his date was impressed. Nobody else was.
Edit: also, this was about 20 years ago, so may very well have been a scam attempt.
Not paid enough to say “no refunds” but given the ability to authorize giving out money for unofficial reasons? If it’s unauthorized, then they’re essentially stealing cash and assuming an extremely high risk of getting fired to avoid confrontation.
I’ve never worked a gas station, but I’ve worked fast food and I would have been fired soooo fast if I were giving out unauthorized refunds. Maybe even prosecuted if the amount was large enough. I’ve seen people fired for less.
I just walk to the 7/11 and buy a scratcher. I never win anything but I could make at least $100,000 in just one day!
I know you’re joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn’t in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.
Dude it was depressing stopping off at the beer store on the way home from work for a 6pack so I could kick it and relax on the couch…
…and there’s be a group of blue collars going there to cash their weekly paychecks, buy a couple 40s and $50 worth of scratchers. They’d win $10, and buy $10 more worth of scratchers. Theys win a TICKET, get another and win nothing, then complain that they were “so close” to winning 10-grand.
I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they’ve been awake for 3 days, depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.
The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.
That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.
They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China_robbery
gambling is a helluva drug
The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.
Really depressing crap.
And yet Donald Trump still managed to lose money somehow, which should have really told us something about his supposed “business accumen”.
Maybe he had some morals about it…
For being a good sport I’m upvoting your comment to help balance it out:-).
I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.
Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool. Other than that, it’s a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.
https://www.pinballmuseum.org/
Also, the Hoover Dam is nearby.
Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire State Park are both cool stops that aren’t too far away. I’ve never been to the Pinball Museum so I’ll have to check that one out next time.
The Grand Canyon is only like 2 hours away as well. Don’t listen to the other commenter Las Vegas (and surrounding area) is a blast.
But I do actually think hanging around a pool, eating sounds like a good time.
Now you just hook your debit card to the machine and you don’t even have to put a coin in!
And they took the pull handles away because they can siphon money out of retirement accounts much faster if the
victimplayer only needs to press a button.That’s sad. Pulling the lever was such fantastic part of the experience. Now we can’t call them “One Arm Bandits.”
We use to live in a society.
Oh for real. Walking through a casino is like being immersed in despair and obsession. I find no enjoyment in it at all.
And smoke. Don’t forget about the smoke
The guy who started FedEx literally put his company’s payroll on a roulette table just to make enough to stay in business.
I know of a few small stores that owe their livelihoods to the local gambling addicts and the lottery machine. The entire business if dedicated to a few whales since selling snacks and coffee to randos didn’t work out and they would otherwise close. They even set up private rooms where they could sped the day scratching tickets as they would come in and blow and entire pay/welfare/retirement check.
The logic is always the same, “I’m up $500 today” not even calculating the losses and “I just need one big win”. People will farm gamblers like cattle.
A similar establishment by me also diversified into bongs. A wall of bongs, a wall of lottery, a wall of smokes, a locked case full of smaller smoke accessories, half a wall of cooler, and three tiny islands of “food.” It’s very bright and clean but also sad as fuck.
That’s really sad. It’s the equivalent of putting lab rats in a cage with a cocaine/amphetamine button.
Perfectly legal since the state owned the equipment being used to ruin lives.
I never understood the appeal of scratch offs, 100k? If you gotta dream, dream big, play the lottery
The keno addicts at the bar i work at are wild. They just keep silently putting in money and watching the drawings. I prefer that to the ones who try to explain their strategies to me or complain that some number appears in every drawing. Or the guy who came in Wednesday night and kept betting $10 that the first pitch of every at bat of the Mets/Brewers game was gonna be a strike. It’s bleak.
“No, you don’t understand! I have an angle!”
Instant gratification is a hellava drug
I remember hearing a story like twenty years ago about a person that figured out that serial number were disclosing payouts. They would buy a bunch, find the winners, scratch them, then return the losers for their money back. I think I heard about it on a planet money or this American life ages and ages ago.
Who in their right mind is accepting returns of lottery tickets, scratched or not???
Store clerks who just want to get through their shift without committing battery upon their customers and are definitely not paid enough to deal with that shit.
I just quit after calling the police. Dude said they were too hard to scratch off and wanted his money back. Was dressed to the nines (as was his date), in a seedy movie rental store, trying to return lottery tickets by amicably dropping threats of coming behind the register.
I sure hope his date was impressed. Nobody else was.
Edit: also, this was about 20 years ago, so may very well have been a scam attempt.
Not paid enough to say “no refunds” but given the ability to authorize giving out money for unofficial reasons? If it’s unauthorized, then they’re essentially stealing cash and assuming an extremely high risk of getting fired to avoid confrontation.
I’ve never worked a gas station, but I’ve worked fast food and I would have been fired soooo fast if I were giving out unauthorized refunds. Maybe even prosecuted if the amount was large enough. I’ve seen people fired for less.