I gave a lottery speech yesterday to a really fun group at Marshalltown Community College and got a great question from an audience member that I thought I’d share here: The man wanted to know if Iowa Lottery employees can buy tickets here in our state.
As you might expect, the answer is no. As an Iowa Lottery employee, it’s against the law for me to buy tickets in Iowa or claim a prize here. And that’s as it should be – I know a lot about the lottery and its games, so it makes sense that I shouldn’t be playing. I always tell people that I have to live vicariously through them on this one!
But it’s perfectly fine for me to the play the lottery outside of Iowa because I don’t work for the lotteries in other states. And I definitely experience reverse psychology on this point, because now that I know I can’t play in Iowa, I almost always stop into a store to buy a ticket when I’m out of state. Hey, I want to win, too!
I know what you’re going to ask next: What’s the most I’ve ever won? I think I won $14 once on a scratch ticket! But the mental escape I get when I buy a ticket is a huge part of the fun for me. It’s my chance to daydream about what would happen if I ever won big.
Maybe someday it will happen. But as long as I work here, there’s one thing for sure: It won’t be in Iowa.
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