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Jackpotless Lottery Tickets

 For gifts
  (+2, -3)
(+2, -3) 		  [vote for,
against]

Some people give lottery tickets to their friends or coworkers as holiday gifts (it's an uncreative and lame idea in my opinion, but it's nevertheless common). But the risk is that your friend might actually win the million dollar (pound) jackpot and this would cause all kinds of awkwardness and jealousy between you.

I recommend there be special scratch-off lottery tickets which, although the expected payoff is the same as other lottery tickets, offer no prizes more than $1000.

Clever marketing will be needed to make these seem generous rather than cheap (i.e. Greater Odds Of Winning; something like that)

—phundug, Nov 17 2007

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       Oh come on, that's the point of buying them tickets! If they win, they will be very happy. If they don't, you are apparently a cheapskate. If you are too lazy to buy a real present, don't be a jealous arse and spoil the person's chances. If you really want to bake this, then make the jackpots lower, but make almost every ticket a winner! That would be a great Christmas gift! And a really bad business. Oh well.
—Shadow Phoenix, Nov 17 2007
   

       Or have it so you PAY for the jackpot... you give it to your friend... they scratch, they get whatever you payed for it (minus a commission), and you DON'T look like an cheapskate and you aren't jealous
—xxobot, Nov 18 2007
   

       "Err, thanks Dave, I just won 20% off oak furnature at home depot."
—marklar, Nov 18 2007
   

       What would be really cute is if in the upper corner of the ticket it had a big "$1" that makes it look like that's what you paid to buy it, only that's actually the amount of the jackpot. One dollar. The actual cost of the ticket is like a penny or something, but leave that off all the ticket together. To make it extra special, have the "loser" symbols under the scratch off stuff be "$50,000", "$100,000", "a trip to the Bahamas" etc. Leave out the fact that you don't win these any more than you win a cherry or a liberty bell, they just signify you didn't get the $1 and therefore don't get squat.   

       Teehee.
—doctorremulac3, Nov 20 2007
   

       I'll take $1000 worth of those penny lottery tickets, please.
—RayfordSteele, Nov 20 2007
   

       You can buy about 347 gazillion skadillion types of limited-payout lottery tix at any lottery outlet in the UK. So, it's errrrm, baked, dude.
—Murdoch, Nov 20 2007
   

       little old lady at ticket counter: "yes, i'd like two lucky ladies, four holiday sparklers, three bongo-bingos, and a MegaWinnerWeiner."
cashier: (hands tickets) "here."
little old lady: (scratches off all the tickets. drops them in the trash container provided just under the counter. walks away a little slower.)
—k_sra, Nov 20 2007
   

       Isn't the lottery just a tax on people who are really bad at math? Read that somewhere.   

       A really honest company could sell all winning lottery tickets if they would charge just enough to make a fair profit and buy the tickets.   

       They could spray some of that stuff back on the ones that get a complete scratching, just for the people who love to scratch.   

       What are the odds of winning something anyway, 1 in 10? So sell them for 20x cost, and make sure people hear about it when big winners are sold.
—UfosOverChina, Nov 20 2007
   

       strictly from a business point of view, I think lottery is a sound investement. One pound to be in the chance of winning millions? It's more of a sure thing than some of the investements ive heard abaout!
—shinobi, Nov 20 2007
   

       It gets the label "tax" by virtue of its common political justification (at least where I'm from) as a substitute of sorts for an actual tax. The label is cynical, yes, but not about the lottery itself, but about how we expect to fund education.
—globaltourniquet, Nov 20 2007
   


 

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