Wineka column: The yearlong lottery experiment

Mark Wineka's first lottery play includes a $2 Powerball ticket, a $2 24K scratchoff and a $1 Payday scratchoff. Photo by Mark Wineka, Salisbury Post.

I bought my first lottery tickets Friday. Late in the morning, I left the newsroom, hopped in the truck and drove down to the Sunoco Express Market on South Main Street.

I had written down the games I wanted to play on a piece of paper.

The lady clerk, who was nice and patient, read what I wanted to do before I could spit it out. She saw that I intended to play a "24K" scratchoff game, which cost $2, and the $5,000 "Payday" game, priced at $1.

I asked for a Powerball play slip, and she motioned toward a kiosk by the door, which had the play slips for Powerball, Pick 3, Pick 4 and Cash 5 games.

After paying $3 for my scratchoff games, I moved over to the kiosk and chose the six numbers for Saturday evening's Powerball drawing.

First, I filled in the box to indicate I wanted to "Power Play" my ticket, which meant it would cost $2, instead of $1. With the "Power Play," my payoff could be bigger if I happened to choose the right numbers.

I then darkened the boxes of five numbers I wanted on the top part of the slip. (The numbers had to fall between 1 and 59.) I chose 2, 16, 27, 28 and 32. They pretty much had to do with lucky numbers and family birthdays.

On the bottom section of the slip, I still had to choose my Powerball number, a figure between 1 and 39. I filled in the box for 18.

I dutifully returned to the counter, presented my slip and the clerk handed me my ticket for the Saturday night drawing.

"This is my first time," I apologized.

The lady sized up the virgin lottery player in front of her and just laughed.

I had begun my yearlong experiment to see just how much I could win or lose by playing the N.C. Education Lottery once a week at $5 a pop.

I plan to keep an accounting and will report back at the end of the year.

Since the state lottery started several years ago, Rowan County has received more than $14.8 million in lottery proceeds toward school construction, scholarships, the More at Four program and helping to reduce classroom size.

The lottery has raised $1.2 billion for schools overall in North Carolina, according to the games' Web site.

Maybe I'm reporting these figures to make me feel better about throwing money down a hole.

My dad played the lottery religiously from the day Pennsylvania started its games. He played every week until he died, In fact. The only errand he wanted anyone to run for him when he was sick involved buying his lottery tickets at the store up the street.

He always checked the numbers in his morning newspaper.

I guess I'm playing because it's in my blood — and I'm trying to get it out of my system.

I broke the news to my wife Friday morning about my lottery ticket plan for the new year. She has never been a big fan of throwing money down a hole, especially since we're pretty much broke after putting the kids through college.

I explained my strategy, thinking I could soften her up by revealing that the numbers I intended to play related to her birthday and those of our children. Then I ruined it.

"Just think if we won the Powerball," I said.

"Right," she said. "Make sure you write that down."

Well, here goes. I'm now going to scratch off my "24K" ticket to get things rolling ...

Lost.

Nothing.

Just throw me down that hole instead.

Read Mark Wineka's new blog, "Wineka's World," under the "Opinions" section of www.salisburypost.com.