Lottery Tickets Reviewed: Perfect Gift
I was hawing and hemming at the gas station’s lottery display; there were a couple of lucky-looking scratchies competing for my imagination. I told the attendant as much when she stepped over from the register and asked how she could assist. “This one’s a good one,” she declared, pointing to the roll of sparkling Perfect Gift tickets, “it’s a limited time one, and a holiday one, so the odds are better.”
Is this true, I wondered? I mulled over whether the Powers-That-Be might rig the odds in favor of holiday scratchers, knowing many of these slips would be stuffed into the stockings of lotto-virgins. What better way to cultivate new customers than to give them a taste of playing and winning with their first spin, the same way savvy cocaine dealers pass new customers the good stuff for their first couple of buys before lowering them to the second-tier powder while holding the price steady. An odds-influencing factor to consider with future purchases. Decision done: “I’ll take one, please.”
The iridescent sparkles of Perfect Gift catch the eye and draw one’s thoughts to winter snows and diamond glitz. The silver ribbon of the primary graphic is echoed in the special play element of this card: if you scratch off a ‘bow’ symbol you win the prize below. While not edging the limits of what a lotto scratchie can be like the post-modern tickets directed by Thomas Pynchon, this simple leitmotif of a shimmering ribbon of wealth is satisfyingly elegant.
I scratched, I won. $20. I re-invested the dividends in a weekend Powerball ticket, a bottle of Cabernet Franc, and a ready-to-pop pan of Jiffy Pop popcorn, which I eat exactly once a year on Christmas Eve while watching a holiday-nostalgic RomCom. You gotta play to win, as they say, and this year I won.
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