Winning the Lotto

I won the lottery the other day and I the feeling was less than the ecstasy I was expecting. I mean, the idea of winning cash was fine, but the self-gratification of winning from a gamble isn't at all wonderful. 

It was the first time I wasted money on this false-investment scheme. I paid Php 40.00 for  two sets of combination...using numbers that I sort of like with no significant meaning, just the fact that I do. Anyway, my heart skipped a beat when I checked online and saw that the 6-number-combination contained all the numbers I was thinking of betting for earlier that morning, but didn't. Still, I got three numbers right, granting me a Php 150.00 win. So if I deduct the Php 40.00 I paid for, I got a total of Php 110.00 win. Had I invested more money to shade all the numbers I wanted I could have won the Php 30,000,000.00 grand prize that day. But I didn't. Do I regret it? Not really. I'm indifferent to the thought.

Without any experience of playing the game, I had to search online just to know how I could claim my prize. Since it's less than Php 5,000.00, I claimed it from an authorized lotto outlet. I gave the cashier my winning ticket, she looked at me for a second, thinking if I was suspicious enough to be desperate for cash...she saw me guilty, so she handed me the money. She didn't return my winning ticket, that's why I wasn't able to take a picture. Now I know. 

It didn't feel right receiving it like that. Of course I deserved it to an extent, I made the bet and won, but I didn't like it. And if I chose not to claim my prize that would be called stupidity, and I for one would be the victim. A lot of things came to mind about what I wanted to do with the extra cash on-hand. Do I use it for my lunch tomorrow? Do I use it for my fare for the next few days? Do I drop it in my snake piggy bank? Or do I bet for the next draw? I had to get rid of it at once! So I bought chicharon bulaklak on my way home...and that's how I ate my first lotto win. It tasted all oily and unhealthy, but it was good for the soul.

I don't see myself betting again anytime soon because I loathe those people who do. Well not really loathe, just the impression that they lack an actual sense of earning-a-living so they turn to the lottery in the hopes of getting easy money. Bullshit! My math teacher once did that probability thing of winning the lotto, and it's a 1 to over a billion chance of hitting the jackpot. As they say, you actually have a better chance of being hit by lighting than winning the lottery. Not only do you spend money that could have been spent somewhere more useful, you also get hopeful of something undeserved.