So when you’re walking into your local grocery store, cash in hand, ready to play Mega Millions, what’s going through your mind?
Are you trying to mentally convince the Lottery Spirits that you sincerely plan to donate millions to charity, and/or further research in terminal illness medicine? A new Lamborghini is the furthest thing from your mind, right?
Or are you going over your plans to change your name and “disappear,” never to be seen again by greedy friends and relatives? Your new name and residence is already picked out, right?
In any case, this is normal behavior for us who play the lottery on a regular basis. Actually going in and purchasing the ticket is something you probably give no thought to. It is so normal. There’s nothing unusual, odd, or even memorable about playing the lottery. Here in the United States, that is . . .
Around the globe, some very odd and unusual lotteries take place. Some happenings that you’d never imagined – and that won’t necessarily put you in the seat of a Lamborghini if you win. But people enter them.
Let’s take a look at three of these odd and unusual drawings:
Our first stop on the Odd Lottery World Tour is Stockholm, Sweden where a speed camera lottery was introduced back in 2010. The premise of the speed camera lottery was to motivate safe driving through cash incentives, while simultaneously discouraging more reckless driving.
How it worked: every driver who demonstrated safe driving would be automatically entered into a lottery. The winners of the lottery received cash rewards for their safe driving.
Here’s the odd part: the winners’ funds were financed by drivers who were caught speeding. Yes, during this time, drivers who were caught speeding and ordered to pay fines financed the lottery with their fees. They paid safe drivers for driving safely.
One driver credited with winning the speed camera lottery netted himself a cool 20,000 Swedish Kronor (about $1,889.09 in United States Dollars). 4 other drivers were credited with winning about 10,000 Swedish Kronor each.
Unfortunately, the speed camera lottery ended almost as soon as it began. Turns out it was an experiment to encourage safe driving in a fun way. Although tests did show a modest decrease in speeding violations, the plan was scrapped because it was too expensive and impractical to remain policy.
Side Note: Want irony? Well here’s some hypothetical irony: imagine you win the Mega Millions jackpot, right? You buy yourself a brand new Lamborghini (we all knew the charity thing was a lie), and you drive it around in Stockholm Sweden. Then imagine YOU get pulled over for speeding. You have to pay speeding fines, and then some Swede wins your money in a lottery? That’s irony.
The next stop on the Odd Lottery World Tour is Rajasthan, India. Have you heard about this? It’s no secret that India has an expanding and exploding population – right now there are well over a billion people living on this continent. The population is still growing, as families living in the more rural areas are normally very large.
So how does one solve a high-birth rate problem?
Have a lottery.
In a very controversial decision, officials introduced an opportunity for women to earn cash and prizes – in exchange for voluntary sterilization. Yes, volunteer not to have kids ever again, and the next big winner could be you.
Each person that opts to participate receives 600 rupees. If you’re wondering, 600 rupees would be the U.S. equivalent of about $7.50. In addition to the rupees, each participant is automatically entered into a drawing where they could win prizes ranging from kitchen appliances, televisions, and even cars.
As you can imagine, this tactic has received all kinds of criticism. However, despite the criticism and the controversy, Indian health officials maintain that the program has been very effective.
Our third stop on this weird Lottery Tour is a little closer to home, and not quite as extreme as having to give up all or your kids. This is Indiana’s State Lottery which offers a very tasty (and possibly deadly) jackpot.
For starters, you pay $2.00 for a scratch-off ticket. You may notice that your scratch-off ticket smells oddly of bacon. Yeah, well. . . . this is no accident. Introduced in 2015, the state lottery began issuing bacon-scented scratch-off tickets. The tickets themselves are not edible, but the possible jackpot very much is.
Winners of this drawing can win up to $10,000 in cash or,
wait for it . . .
A 20-year supply of bacon. Let that sink in for a moment. This is a thing that Indiana lottery officials decided to roll out to encourage people to buy more scratch-off tickets.
In all honesty, I can think of worse ways to die than over-consumption of bacon. Over the course of 20 years, I imagine either ending up in an early grave, or literally turning into a pig . . . either way.
I challenge you not to think about the stuff you just read while you’re online waiting to purchase your Mega Millions ticket.