When twenty-three year old Neal Wanless won the PowerBall Lottery in South Dakota last month, (232 million; he got to keep 118 mill), I celebrated by buying my own Lottery ticket last week, and I got 2 of 6 numbers right! My winnings: 0.

Wanless’ PowerBall is played in 30 states, plus D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our Mega Ball here in Georgia is played in only 12 states; so obviously, our game is a much better buy, with odds more favorable to our players. I’m going to prove it by winning. Soon. Someday. Probably. Maybe.

I don’t play often. In fact, I buy a ticket ($1) only when I think of it, and at my age that occurs, if memory serves, about once or twice a month. Since 1999 I have been playing with their money, as a won $200 in the weekly Lottery back then, plus occasional $2 and $7 windfalls that have totally subsidized my disgusting gambling habits. Right now, I still have about $60 in the kitty, and that should hold me over another five or ten years.

Like my good buddy Neal, I always play the same numbers based on birth dates of my kids and certain relatives of whom I am particularly fond. The selections come from a roster of numbers: 9, 15, 52, 8, 53, 31, 19, 7, 12, 17, 46, 54, 20, 2 and so on. Six are chosen each time I buy a ticket by playing online Blackjack (for free;) each time I win a hand, the card with which I won relates on a special grid to one of my numbers. The grid, of course, runs from Ace to King, plus Blackjacks.

If the Mega Ball number is a choice higher than 46, that becomes a “Quik Pik” by the vendor.

It’s a great system, and eventually it’ll pay off. Good buddy Neal says he always plays family birthdays (5, 6, 7, 12, 16, 21) and look what happened to him!

Of course, as with any Lottery, you could win with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The odds indicate the numbered balls and the machinery that spits them out have no way of determining how they will show up-the outcome is, at all times, in the hands of the gods.

If that is the case-and I have no reason to believe otherwise-I am, like good buddy Neal Wanless, destined to be awarded the Mega Ball jackpot sometime this year (I’ve always been luckiest in odd numbered years.)

Speaking of odds, they say you have one chance in 175,711,536 of winning Mega Ball with a $1 ticket. Those are my kind of odds, a real challenge. When I think of all the times I bucked the tide in Las Vegas at Blackjack (the odds there favor “the house” at 5.6 to 1,) I cringe. Sure, of all the casino games available, BJ odds are the best (Slots and Roulette tie for worst;) but I still never came home with a nickel more than I had at the start. Anyone who tells you he wins consistently in a casino is a liar. And a fool. Stop inviting him over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Of course, the worst gambling addiction by far is horseracing. Sports betting can be fun-a Super Bowl or World Series pool, the Final Four, NBA and Stanley Cup Finals, etc.-are okay with a $10 limit, but horseracing (which is certainly not a sport) should be outlawed. People demented enough to bet on horses (or dogs) are people who bet at baseball games on the shift in stats. I have a friend who even bets on whether the batter will swing or not on the next pitch!

Here in Georgia the Lottery is a marvelous thing. We have something called the Hope Scholarships supported solely by the Lottery. If a Georgia student can maintain a B average in high school, the Hope will pay for his college tuition at any state school that accepts him (my youngest daughter and her husband, my son-in-law, both graduated from the University of Georgia, thanks mainly to the Lottery-and to being progeny of the smartest people in America.)

So, win or lose with my occasional Lottery ticket, I am already a big winner. However, it didn’t stop me from writing to my good buddy Neal and asking for a small 20K loan.

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