The stroy of Diminishing Returns

Ive long wondered about the odds of winning the scratch cards at a Singapore Pools outlet. So yesterday afternoon, I paid a visit to SP outlet to satisfy my curiosity. I saw that there were 4 types of tickets, $1, $2, $5 and $10 tickets.

I bought 2 $10 tickets and scratch it, struck $100 for one of them and 0 for the other.

So i queued back in line to encash them. The counter took great pains in scrutinising the ticket before asking me "Would you like Cash or 10 pieces $10 tickets?" Feeling intrigued, I asked for 10 $10 tickets instead. Anyway, this $20 is just for entertainment.

So I furiously scratched them all wondering if I could strike $1000 or the top prize of $128000.

I hit $15 for one of them and 0 on the rest.

SO I thought about it...and wondered if I should take the money or change them into $5 tickets. I decided on the latter. So I got back 3 $5 tickets and started scratching them. 1 of them hit a $8 prize while the other 2 hit a blank.

I took the winning ticket and swap them for 8 $1 tickets...just as I thought, all of them hit a blank. As I stood at the betting outlet staring at the blank tickets, I thought back about my initial $100 winnings and how ,through a series of process, became $0.

Hmmm....