Texas Lottery Chronicles- "Houston Astros"

Heading home from Lowes last Saturday, Ms. Duck and I stopped at a local convenience store for a fountain drink. I hadn't bought a scratch-off ticket in a while and noticed there was one with the logo of my favorite baseball team. It has to be a winner, right? I placed a portrait of President Lincoln on the counter and asked the cashier for one Astros scratch-off.

Like most scratch-offs, the object of the game is to match one of your numbers with the winning numbers on the first line of the ticket. In addition, if you receive a "baseball" symbol, you instantly win the prize directly underneath it. Kinda like a "wild" card in a poker game. Even better, if you receive a "home plate" symbol, you win 5X the amount of the prize listed! The top prize available is $100K.

After revealing the winning numbers (4, 16, 38, 8, 15), I took my lucky quarter and removed the top two lines of numbers.

Oh for 10. I can't believe my team is going to let me get shut out. Let's take a look at the final two lines.

Houston, we have a winner! Our number 38 is a match.

Now, the fun part. Learning how much moolah we won on our $5 investment.

Five dollars. We did break even, but once you hit a winning number, greed takes over and only winning back your original investment is disappointing. But, it's not the first time the Astros have disappointed me.

Tickets                      15
Cashes                        5
Investment             $78.00
Winnings                $30.00
Net                        ($48.00)