$17 on a $2 dollar ticket once years ago.

I don't really buy too many, I tend to have better wastes of my money.

I don't buy many, but when I do, for whatever reason, I win most of the time (I've won on more than half of the 30-40 tickets I've ever bought). The first ticket I played (at age 10...I had my dad to buy the ticket for me), I won 2 tickets to the Olympics in Atlanta...that remains my best lottery win. Although there were days when my dad would take me with him when he went to play the lottery on Saturday mornings, and I'd scout all the scratched-off tickets to see if someone left a winner...sometimes I'd come home with $10-$20 on tickets that others left behind, and the only cost to me was the time involved to find them .

One thing I have always wondered....

I wonder if you have a better chance of winning the lottery in certain states or higher ammounts overal depending on where you live. It must differ somewhat I would think?

Yes every state pays of a different percent of the total they recieve. I know new york pays out 65%.
Some of the more southern state pay better. closer to 75%

I was working at the local grocery store and my girlfriend came in on her 18th birthday and I talked her into buying a $5 scratch off ticket. She went home and won $500! You can imagine the phone call I got a few minutes later... Pretty cool and especially since we were broke teenagers.

EDIT--She was "legal" as of that day too. wink...wink

I've won like $10. An old friend won $5,000 off a $20 ticket. I've lost about $65 playing slots, never won a thing there, and will never play them again.