"Give Me the Winning Ticket!!!"

God knows how many times I've heard that trite comment these past two days...

For those wondering, I'm referring to the PowerBall lottery and its massive jackpot of $600 million dollars (written out, it's $600,000,000) that were up for grabs today (right now, it's Saturday at 11:30 at night as of this writing though). Because the PowerBall is still pretty recently new here in California and with the jackpot of the said game meteorically rising quickly from time to time, it's a hot item. However, there are three things that have repeatedly frustrated me:

1. People don't know the rules to the game.
2. People humorously command that I give them the winning ticket (again, a trite comment).
3. PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THE RULES TO THE GAME!!! 

The rules are simple:

1. It's two dollars ($2) for one game of six numbers (random or selected).
2. The objective of the game is to match all six numbers to the winning jackpot combination (although matching any numbers still yields a smaller prize).
3. The game plays every Wednesday and Saturday, with the drawings ending at 7PM and game beginning at 8PM.

Pretty simple. right? I hope I explained it right. Anyhow, people don't know these rules and yet, they're playing the game. It really grinds my gears, because the logical side of me thinks, "Why would I play a game that I'm not familiar with? I'd hate to be cheated or get myself involved in something I don't know." That's what keeps running through my mind when I come across people who are constantly astonished that a game costs $2 or it's over at 7PM. So yeah, a constant source of personal frustration of having to explain the rules repeatedly and seeing people play a game they don't entirely understand.

As for the comment "Make sure it's the winning ticket" or some variation of such mundane statements, it became a bit of a staple after the PowerBall had surpassed $300 million dollars. People who buy the tickets of course mean it as a joke, but I take it differently. I always think to myself, "If I could give out the winning ticket, do you think I'd still be here, working the register?" or "What makes you think I'd give it to you?" It's a bit pessimistic, I know, but it's the honest truth. And people fail to see that logic that I could very well betray their request, and hand them a false ticket and I would keep the winning ticket to myself (but this is assuming that I can hand out winning tickets). 

So yeah, I don't know if this me venting out to the Internet or just a rant, but nonetheless, the PowerBall jackpot deflated down to $40 million (meaning somebody struck it rich). Hopefully, this'll mean no more stupid comments/people for some time. Thank you reading this post and don't worry - I'll talk about something cool next time. Honestly, to me, talking about the lottery is like talking about the weather: it's all a bunch of pointless #!@*%& small talk.