The broad smile on the face of some customers when you tell them they have won $25 or $30 is worth the grumpiness of some who have won much more. While many of the big winners I encounter are angry that they have had to share the pool with other winning division 1 tickets, a higher percentage of winners of small prizes are happy with their lot. It’s as if you have given the winnings out of your own pocket. Their happiness is a great feeling.
It’s even better when you get to inform someone who genuinely deserves or needs a big win that they have won something substantial.A regular customer is a tireless behind the scenes charity worker who asks for no recogniton.A few years ago now, she won $100,000. Know what she did? She then went and threw a rather large Christmas in July party for a local organisation that houses and employs people with Down Syndrome.
Another time, I checked a NSW $2 lottery ticket for a lady early one morning who was holding a young child.When I told her what she had won, she literally dropped the child, but thankfully caught him. On her ticket, she had 5 consecutive numbers.The one in the middle won $100,000, the two either side won $1,000 for being one off first prize and the other 2 won a free ticket for being one off a cash prize. In disbelief, she rang and woke her husband to tell him where she was and the great news.He rang back 20 minutes later to confirm it was real and that he hadn’t just dreamt it!