Wednesday, February 5, 2003|
Think your luck is bad? I'll bet it's not as bad as one local man's. According to a newspaper report, Patrick Murray bet nearly half a million dollars in twelve hours on the state's Pick 3 lottery game. And lost! Murray wasn't the only loser, either. The store owner that supplied him some of the tickets actually gave them to him on Murray's IOU, both of them hoping for a big win. Murray played 129 differet numbers which, according to the newspaper, still only put his chances of winning at 1 in 8. On November 11th, he bought $79,000 worth of tickets for the mid-day drawing. He lost. So he obtained another $161,000 worth of losing tickets for the evening drawing. Figuring he can't lose again, he got another $237,000 worth for the next day's noon drawing. He was wrong - now $477,000 worth of wrong. That was the end of an eight day binge that saw him bet $1.5 million on the three number game, losing a total of $632,000. He passed bad checks of $40,000, $61,000 and $79,000. So here's a guy who may have a problem with gambling. The store owner who gave him the tickets in the hope of splitting the winnings is an idiot. But don't you have to wonder abou the ones who took the checks? If someone writes me a personal check for $79,000, I'm gonna make a phone call to the bank before I hand over anything. A drivers license is just not going to cut it. And a check for lottery tickets? I don't think so. How would you like to be in line, waiting patiently to place your five dollar bet, realizing the guy in front of you is picking up a couple hundred thousand worth of tickets - and then you see him pull out his checkbook?
"Can I make this check out to "cash"? |
Last update: 7/12/04; 13:20:34 .
