Admit it, the most you've ever won in a California scratch off lottery ticket is the chance to buy more tickets and eventually lose all the spare single bills in your wallet. You should be scratching your head as to why you even wasted your time and hard-earned cash doing such a stupid thing ... and the next time you were at the 7-Eleven, you asked the guy behind the counter for another roll of 20 so you could hold up everyone else in line trying to buy a pack of cigarettes and a Monster Jolt cola because you had the right to pretend you were about to be an instant thousandaire.
Today, the Dodgers would like to help you take this illusion of riches to the next level.
The California Lottery Thieves have launched a $2 Major League Baseball Scratchers game. There's a chance to win $10,000, but they've also added gimmicks like having a chance to throw out the first pitch of a game, go on a road trip, have dinner with a former big-leaguer and win a chance to sit in a luxury suite with 20 friends. All well and fine. If you have the patience of the Kansas City Royals manager.
“Dodger Scratchers are a great way for us to offer fans the opportunity to win some memorable prizes,” said Dodger COO Marty Greenspun in a press release issued by the team. “It’s another fun way for our fans to get involved in Dodger baseball and give back to the California school system.”
Don't get us started about how much money actually goes to the state's schools. Or how the system that was supposed to use this money as a surplus to get things done like fix buildings and build new music rooms was abandoned because of Prop 13 lack of forsight.
Public education may get 34 cents for every dollar spent on the lottery, but that $1.28 billion given out from the sale of $3.58 billion in tickets during the 2005-06 school year is pretty much all the schools get now, since money they formerly received (without the lottery windfall) has been syphoned off into other state programs by our state legislature's haphazard spending. That's nice that, since its inception in 1985, the lottery has given schools $18 billion. Then why do the schools continue to suffer? Figure it out. The lottery money is the only thing supporting whether your fourth-grade kid gets a world history textbook.
“Now Californians can not only cheer for the Dodgers, but by purchasing one of the California Lottery’s new Dodger themed Major League Baseball Scratchers they’ll have the chance at prizes that baseball fans will truly love,” said Joan Borucki, California Lottery Director, in another statement. “By purchasing Dodger Scratcher tickets fans will have a chance to win once in a lifetime sports experiences; experiences they’ve only dreamed about can now become a reality.”
Dream big, my friend. As you can see, Nomar Garciaparra has been sucked into help promote this thing. Like he needs anything more in his wallet, except maybe the finances to suppliment the expenses for future nannies for his wife's pending twins.
It's the "second-chance" winners who'll get the opportunity to throw out the first pitch, etc. -- a big thanks to them for not only losing the first time, but having faith that they could actually win something if they just kept at it. That's the philoslophy, right?
Sorry for the somewhat sour attitude about all this, but it's a scam that just won't go away, and having the Dodgers and MLB be part of it perpetuate the idea that it's all about the public school kids and this will make their lives better. Nice promotion, nice effort, maybe not the right wagon to hitch your pony on.
Besides, what did you really ever win with a lottery scratcher, except get all that silver junk all over your shirt?
Read up more about this promotion on the lottery's website. And let's be careful out there. Even a state-educated grade-school kid can see through this one.