Have you ever thought of what you can do with a lottery ticket other than trying to win a prize? The possibilities are endless if you try to be creative. Here are ways to make your lottery ticket more fun and useful, especially if it turned out to be a non-winning ticket.
1. Gifting in a Red Packet
Whether for Chinese New Year or birthdays, the gifting of red packets also known as Ang Baos, is a common Chinese custom to represent the giving of one’s blessings on a special occasion. Traditionally, the Ang Bao is filled with money as a sign of good luck and wealth. However, you can be creative when giving out Ang Baos by using something that is auspicious and with similar monetary value, such as lottery tickets!
I was surprised one year when my mother gave me and my siblings lottery tickets (a set of CNY Singapore Sweep, 4D & Toto tickets) in an Ang Bao during Chinese New Year. She thought it was innovative and fun to buy us these as a token of good luck and I actually won a small prize from the Singapore Sweep ticket! During Chinese New Year, there are such special sets of tickets sold for those who are feeling lucky, which get snapped up quickly due to the auspicious atmosphere during this period.
2. DIY Home Decorations
Lottery tickets also work as artistic and representative displays if you identify with lottery buying as a habit and would love to make something memorable as a keepsake. This could also be fodder for light-hearted humour and conversations when someone visits your house. The simplest DIY projects can range from making a creative display frame of your tickets, to scrapbooks or even a lottery ticket Christmas tree! Try getting inspirations from Pinterest with thousands of interesting projects done using just lottery tickets for display.
3. Recycle
Most people usually throw their lottery tickets away after the disappointment sets in upon checking the winning numbers. Do you know that lottery is one source that creates much paper waste? From the marking of numbers on lottery slips to the printing of tickets, most of these pieces of paper are tossed aside once they have outlived their purposes.
Some outlets have started placing recycle bins to collect this paper waste, however, not much can be done for printed tickets as well as the amount of litter generated at public spaces when people toss their worthless tickets away. Try collating your used tickets together before recycling them, instead of mixing them with general waste. The amount of paper you can recycle over time does make a difference, especially if you are a frequent buyer of the lottery.
In New York, an artistic couple collected thousands of discarded lottery tickets, with up to $39,000 of value to create various life-sized art pieces. They eventually created enough displays to hold an exhibition of objects made using non-winning lottery tickets and recycled objects, to present the irony of using discarded lottery tickets to create popular items that people would want to buy after striking the lottery. You can check out their works at “Ghost of a Dream” website to see more remarkable pieces.
4. Ticket Collecting
If you are an obsessed hoarder who keeps every single credit card and telco bill, then having a stack of lottery tickets lying around your dining table wouldn’t be too surprising. If you have a lottery ticket with an interesting number, you could simply use that as a keepsake and pass them to your great grandchildren in future.
These tickets might be more meaningful if you buy them on special occasions, such as the birth date of your son on the day he was born, so that he can keep this as a memento in his baby photo album. Of course, the 4D & Toto tickets might fade unless you laminate them. Who knows all these might become valuable like stamps a few decades from now?
(Image credits: Martial House, Pinterest, Ghost of a Dream, American Collectors)
Comments