Mr Lotto

So, i am a firm believer that if you have an addiction, you should at least have the decency to be addicted correctly.

If you're an alcoholic, know all the ingredients to mix your drinks.

If you're a smoker, know what brand you like best and know it visually so as to help service clerks who do not smoke (especially if its an obscure brand).

And if your a gambler, like my next PIQ (person in question, that is), for God's sake, KNOW HOW TO BUY LOTTO!

There are two easy ways to buy lotto tickets.
1) (easiest) fill out your own form, provided at a counter in every lotto selling retailer. you choose your own numbers, your own plays, and everything to your own liking.
2) (only slightly less easy) ask the service clerk for the plays you want. If you want a double, three plays, no extra, the service clerk can provide for you a ticket which has three plays of 6 numebers plus a bonus for both the 6/49 and BC/49. If you want a 6 pack, the service clerk will provide for you 6 plays for the Super 7.

Now there is a slight problem with these two systems... They are, more or less, non interchangeable. If you fill out a card, we can not substitute the 47 for a 32. We can not skip the extra for a week. We cannot add an extra play on the ticket. And for the other way around, we can enter in personalised numers into the machine by hand, but the process makes it so time consuming that most people are not even taught how to do it.

Now that we have the background set up, as per usual, Il get on with my story.

A man comes into the store with his card of pre selected numbers (some people reuse the same cards because it contains "lucky numbers" -- which they have never won the jackpot with i'm sure-- which they hold a special attachemnt to for whatever reason).

Now, when he hands me his card, he says to me "6/49, no extra."

I run the card through and while I'm waiting for the ticket to print I'm making myself more and more confused thinking about his comment.

So, since I have nothing to loose, I ask him "Did you want the 6/49 no extra in addition to this ticket?"

He freaks out. "Why do you guys always ask me that, I want this [his card] on 6/49, no extra."

At this time, I am quite pissed off that he's yelling at me (this is after the piercing guy btw) and I decide I am going to make a stand and not let him leave without me being the winner of whatever argument he wanted to start.

"I was just checking to make sure that I was providing you with all the tickets you wanted, sir"

"All I want is this [his card] 6/49, no extra! Is that so hard?"

"Well sir, a lot of people will bring their ticket and then ask for additional tickets in the form of a quick pick"

"Well I don't care what other people want, I was just making sure you didn't mess it up"

"Sir, the card determines what it prints off, there is a YES box and a NO box for the extra, and if you only want 6/49 you check here"

"I did"

"Then why did you ask for a 6/49, no extra?"

"I didn't"

"Then what did you say"

"I wanted my card, 6/49, no extra"

"If you've used this card before and gotten the right ticket, why would you need to reiterate what you want?"

at this point, he left... without responding...

I take this as a personal victory =D