I’m writing this before the Lotto Max record-breaking draw on Friday night for $60 million so if I won, well, it’s been nice knowing you, ha, ha.
It’s more likely that I didn’t win and I’m still here and I’d like to think even if I did win I’d give notice of at least two weeks but like someone around here said, “yeah, how motivated would you be?”
And that’s a very good point. It’s good to be idealistic and well-meaning and all that but sometimes the reality turns that upside down.
That’s why I’m a little worried about the fact that we in the newsroom are all in on one set of tickets, and even though that would be divided by eight ($7.5 million to be exact), that’s more than enough to worry about who would actually show up on Monday morning if we somehow won the big one.
Including yours truly, for that matter, sometimes you don’t know how you’re going to react to something in life until it actually happens, even though you swear up and down you would take the high road.
You see, I have my own ticket, too, and, yes, I keep them separate and apparently they trust me with holding onto it, at least so far, although they’re probably cursing me right now because I wrote about this before the draw and we likely didn’t win and it’s always good to have someone to blame……
Actually I think I’d rather win one of the 25 extra $1 million dollar prizes they’re offering this week because it wouldn’t screw up my life so much, and naturally I’m being greedy and talking about my own ticket and not the prospects of sharing a million with my co-horts which would only be $125,000 and would be nice but not exactly life-altering (oh, oh, I just jinxed that one too, sorry about that folks).
And that’s the real beauty of buying a lottery ticket, dreaming of the possibilities.
And, it does happen, enough to think it might be us one day.
The pages of this very paper have featured a number of big winners over the years, even though it seems like it’s always Ontario and Quebec that takes the top prize.
I think, upon reflection, that that is just a numbers game as in there are more of them than us so it only makes sense that proportionally they are going to have more winners, which somehow makes us in the West feel like losers.
I think the same math equation beats us up in federal politics by the way, apparently whatever happens in the Greater Toronto Area on Oct. 19 will decide who will be prime minister, but then again it’s pretty darn close so get out and vote anyway and maybe this time we’ll decide things for a change.
And who knows maybe the Lotto Max winner will be from B.C., or even the Okanagan, or even Vernon, or even the Landing, or even……
It could happen, and I hope it will, and somebody has to win, but those darn odds keep coming back to say don’t give up your day job.
According to their website, the odds of matching seven out of seven is one in 28,633,528, which sounds like a low percentage because it is, and when you think about how many Lotto Max jackpots go unclaimed every week even though it seems like every Canadian is buying them, well that’s one out of 26.6 million reasons.
The good news is the odds of matching three out of seven and earning a free play is one in 8.1.
That’s not too bad and within the realms of possibility and most of us have at least experienced that minor thrill, or even $20 on occasion, which usually means free play times four for yours truly.
So, it keeps the dream alive, which I guess is part of what it’s all about, as long as we keep the odds in mind and play responsibly.
I’m pretty sure I’ll see you here next week.
