Budget Bonanza - Blitz Edition

There are only two reasons to buy $2 scratch tickets.

The odds are worse than the big boys, and if you do luck out and hit big, you only hit kinda big.

But they're a good way to play when you've got a tight budget or just want to round up your groceries with a couple of bucks.

They're also a good way to max out your odds of winning something.

Drop $10 on a Super Crosswords and you've got about 1/3 chances of hitting a payoff - even a small one.

But drop $10 on five of budget scratchers and chances are one of them will hit.

And that's pretty much what I did today.

After having no succcess with the Neon 9s, I asked the crowd to pick the next one for me. This time, I included a price range:

$5 Winning 7 

$4 Set For Life

$3 Bingo

All fine options, but it's it's the bargain basement 2X Blitz that won out. And I didn't want another letdown, so I got four of these suckers to pump up the odds.

 

Zap Zap!

The 2X Blitz gives you two chances to win, which is very considerate.

The standard game gives you four winning numbers. If any of those match any of the 15 numbers on the card, you win either 1x or 2x the prize amount (hence the whole 2X Blitz thing)

 

Once you're done that, you've got a small bonus box to scratch off at the bottom. If you get 3 electrified Bs (who designs these things?) you get a $10 consolation prize, which ain't too shabby for a toonie scratcher.

And of course, it's a budget ticket so the odds blow:

• 1 in 4.54 chance of winning anything
• 64% total prize payout (which feels greedy even for a lotto company)
• $20,000 grand prize (not exactly life changing but would significantly improve mine)

But unlike the Neon 9, there's actually one top winner still out there - possibly in the very stack I have sitting in front of me.

Come on, Gimme Those 2X Multipliers

Nah, sadly there was no top winner in this stack.

None of them had a triple-B bonus, either. Which is a shame, because that would automatically put me in the profit zone.

Out of all four, there was only one ticket with a prize. Lightning truly doesn't strike twice in the same stack.

Right there in the first spot: matched a 9 with a 9 to uncover a $2 prize.

Or so I thought, because I forgot what game I was playing. I kept scratching and found out there was a 2X multiplier next to that figure.

So, $4 back out of my initial $8 investment.

As far as lottery winnings go, making half your money back isn't a terrible outcome.

And I know this is chump change, but still, getting that 2X multiplier was genuinely thrilling. I can only imagine how excited people get uncovering the multipliers in 5X Blitz and 10X Blitz - gotta be such a rush.

If you count the Neon 9 that started this whole thing, I'm down $9 total.

If you don't, I'm only down $4.

Either way, the good times will keep rolling. Next time I need to stop by Jean Coutu or Giant Tiger, I'm coming out with more of these bad boys. Though probably not the 2X Blitz again - I might let those cool for a while. 

 

Thanks for reading and feel free to support my nonsense.