Thanksgiving Lottery Ticket

Submitted into Contest #16 in response to: Write a story around the theme: Be careful what you wish for.... view prompt

361 comments

General

John Franklin bought a lottery ticket. He wished he could hit the jackpot on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving.


           He knew he might win three hundred million dollars with a single two-dollar ticket. Would John double his chances to win if he bought two tickets? No.


A quick look at odds shows he would have one chance in three hundred million to win. If he bought two, it’s two in three hundred million to win the Powerball or Mega Millions. Pretty small odds. What if he bought a hundred and fifty million tickets? Then his odds are two to one that he would win. That’s about the same thing as flipping a penny and betting everything on that single flip of the coin. Would you do that with your hundred and fifty million dollars? If you had that much money, would you need to?


           Look at the penny. If you bet five dollars on a flip and you lost. What are your chances that the next time, if you call the same side, that you will win? It’s still fifty-fifty. Yes, over an infinite number of flips, it will be half heads and half tails. But nothing says it can not be heads seven times in a row. Happens all the time in Vegas on red and black on the roulette wheel. If you doubled your bet after each loss of $5, on the seventh bet, you are gambling $740 that you will win and only break even. What kind of odds is that?


           Back to the lottery. Perhaps John is not dissuaded by the odds. So why? Maybe it’s fun for just a two-dollar ticket. The fun of saying, I have a horse in this race and WISH I could win. There are a lot of others running, but if you don’t have a horse, you certainly have zero chances to win.


           John did pull off a miracle and win. He hit the big one. His Thanksgiving wishes come true. Would John’s life change? Would yours? You bet your life it would. John’s life did change, after living through what he thought was a heart attack that Saturday night. He and his family were ecstatic. John quit his job the next day. He could buy almost anything he wanted on credit. Merchants were more than happy to extend it based on confirmation of John’s win. New car for him, wife and grown kids. Trips, luxury, and money is no object. That’s the life, huh?


           Let’s visit with John two years later. He is miserable. John says to a reporter, “It was great for a while to have all that money. But my wife and I had to get unlisted phone numbers to keep friends from calling and asking for money for a great investment, or for a worthy cause, or their dying relative that could be cured with a costly radical new drug or procedure. I gave money at first. You can’t imagine the anger when I finally said ‘No’ to them. It was terrible. Soon I had no friends. My kids hated me when I finally started saying ‘No’ to them as well. My new friends were shallow money-friends.”


           John shook his bowed head he now held between his hands. “You can’t imagine the burden that comes with a ten million dollar mansion in Florida and the staff to keep it going. Rip-off property managers. The insurance, taxes, and salaries of everyone. My Yacht captain keeping my ship in ready to run condition month after month. Now triple that for my other two places around the states and the private jet plane to get there.”


           John drew up a deep breath and exhaled as if he was glad to get it all off his chest. “My wife left me months ago and went back home to live with her parents in another state. Course she took half of what we had in the way of property and liquids left in the bank. Heck, she could afford the very best lawyer, and I ended up paying for him.”


           He looked at the reporter and said with a hollow stare in dark eye sockets, “So you ask me what it’s like to win the lottery? Not all it’s cracked up to be. I’ll be broke soon, and the bills may keep coming out of nowhere. To get any peace at all, I need to sell everything I own for a fraction of the price, but I still can’t be happy.”


“Everything that meant anything is gone. The life I had that I thought was hard. I had friends, family, and good times. Never again will I have a Saturday afternoon cookout with beer, friends and a game on the portable TV.”


           John drew one last huge cleansing breath and said, “Everything that ever brought me true joy is gone. Winning the lottery was not my dream wish come true. It was my worst nightmare.”

November 15, 2019 15:32

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361 comments

Sandy Doyle
12:45 May 01, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

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Sandy Doyle
12:45 May 01, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Sandy Doyle
12:45 May 01, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Sandy Doyle
11:46 May 01, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Sandy Doyle
11:46 May 01, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Sandy Doyle
12:01 Apr 27, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Sandy Doyle
12:01 Apr 27, 2023

I am a 58 years old grandmother who worked in a warehouse for years and I love playing lottery games but always fail in winning. I was researching online one evening when I saw random Testimonies of people appreciating lord Bubuza for giving them the right lottery winning numbers after casting a lottery spell. I spoke to him on WhatsApp: +1 951 442 2214 for help and he said, I will cast a spell and the lottery winning numbers will be revealed to me by my gods(Oracle). I provided his requirements to cast the spell. After casting the spell, He...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Victoria Jarrod
20:57 Apr 26, 2023

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Pauline S
06:13 Apr 26, 2023

I'm so happy that I finally won $13.3 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, I took an advice from some person who talked about this great spell caster called Dr Emmanuel the person placed a testimonies on a blog saying how Dr Emmanuel helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning number I was curious and I thought it was all joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this work cause I have spend a lot buying tickets and I never win. I contacted him and he told me the necessary thing that need to be done and...

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Pauline S
06:13 Apr 26, 2023

I'm so happy that I finally won $13.3 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, I took an advice from some person who talked about this great spell caster called Dr Emmanuel the person placed a testimonies on a blog saying how Dr Emmanuel helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning number I was curious and I thought it was all joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this work cause I have spend a lot buying tickets and I never win. I contacted him and he told me the necessary thing that need to be done and...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Pauline S
06:12 Apr 26, 2023

I'm so happy that I finally won $13.3 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot, I took an advice from some person who talked about this great spell caster called Dr Emmanuel the person placed a testimonies on a blog saying how Dr Emmanuel helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning number I was curious and I thought it was all joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this work cause I have spend a lot buying tickets and I never win. I contacted him and he told me the necessary thing that need to be done and...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
03:17 Apr 25, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

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Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
03:17 Apr 25, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

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Victoria Jarrod
12:24 Apr 23, 2023

i am very glad shearing this my amazing testimony on how Dr HERRY help me win the lottery, i have been living in hell for the past 4years since i have no job, and had been playing lottery for a long time but I have no luck playing to win, but everything changed when I saw a marvelous testimonies of a woman, Elena online saying on how Dr HERRY help her to win Euro Million Mega Jackpot, I love playing mega jackpot lottery but winning big is always the issue for me. I will never forget the day I came in contact with Dr herry whose great lott...

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Brenda Logan
11:08 Apr 22, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
11:08 Apr 22, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
02:58 Apr 22, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
02:58 Apr 22, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
06:50 Apr 21, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

Show 0 replies
Brenda Logan
06:50 Apr 21, 2023

Hi everyone i want to share my amazing testimony on how Dr Wealth transformed my financial life, i still finds it difficult to believe that i now worth millions of dollars, am from US i have been playing lotto for so long and i have never win any reasonable amount, i was glancing through things online and i came across a testimony of a woman who won a very huge amount of money with the help of Dr Wealth who prayed for her and gave her a winning numbers to play, and surprisingly her name came out among the winners she won 36million dollars, s...

Reply

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