For me, there were several dollar store trinkets that already broke, and one toy for my kids that was a huge sparkly styrofoam mess waiting to happen, so I threw it out rather than curse anyone else with it.

  • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    As someone working in my family’s gas stations for the last two decades, this is something that happens at least a few times a month for me.

    9 times out of 10 the big winners have sat and played on a roll until it hits something and they move on to the next making it nearly impossible for an average, non addicted customer to get anything. The gambling addicts will spend 200k to win 10k and jump up and down like the 10k winner is going to change they life.

    Customers who always share their winnings, I point them to the ticket that hasn’t hit in awhile. Customers who aggravate me and bounce in front of people like someone pissing themselves at a slot machine, I lie and tell them a ticket hasn’t hit even if it has. It’s probably wrong, but my thinking goes that the longer a particular ticket has gone without hitting, the closer it is to a winner. Someone smarter than me can probably call me an idiot on that one.

    Pointing people to winners (which is a total freak thing every time I do) has paid me probably 6k in the last 20 years. If decent folks think you assisted them in their luck, they always want to share in the luck.

    I’m sorry I’ve pretty much just sat and typed nothing here. Too far in to back out now. :p

    • deo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      my thinking goes that the longer a particular ticket has gone without hitting, the closer it is to a winner

      If the tickets were perfectly random, this would not be true. But they are not really random at all.

      In reality, everything about the game has been carefully designed to control payouts and entice the consumer.