Gold Hard Cash Scratch Off Game Review

On September 21, 2015, the Maryland Lottery introduced it's Gold Hard Cash scratch off game. The game offers 6 top prizes of $100,000 none of which have been claimed at the time of this post (Source: Maryland Lottery website). The tickets sell for $10 and the OVERALL (you could do better and you could do worse) odds are 1 in 3.42 (Source: the ticket I bought with my OWN money). Prizes are: $10, $15, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $10,000 and the top prize - $100,000.

The ticket has 3 different games.

In the upper right hand corner, you have instant win window where you win any prize that shows up in the window.

In the main part of the ticket, you get 5 numbers that you try to match. You win whatever prize under the number you main. There is also an instant win symbol - a bag of money with a dollar sign on it where you win whatever prize is below it.

The 3rd game on the ticket is where you scratch the entire area in the bottom of the ticket and see if any gold bar symbols come up.

Get 1 gold bar, you win $10.
Get 2 gold bars, you win $50
Get 3 gold bars, you win $100

Other top prizes are $10,000 and $1,000. The game started with 15 $10,000 prizes but at the time of this post, 5 had been claimed so, there are 10 left. The started with 28 $1,000 prizes but at the time of this post, 6 of these had been claimed so, there are 22 of these left (Source: Maryland Lottery website).

Overall, it's a decent scratch off game. It's more expensive than Maryland Lottery's $1, $3 or $5 but cheaper then their $20 games. There are lots of tickets out there so, it should be easy to find.

Lastly, please remember to gamble responsibly. The odds aren't in your favor. Good luck!

Review of Dollar Tree's Anti-gravity Ballpoint Pen

One semi good deal you can find at Dollar Tree stores is it's anti-gravity ballpoint pen. By anti-gravity, they mean you can write at any angle like you can with a Fisher Space Pen. Both pens use the same technology i.e. a pressurized ink cartridge. The pen doesn't state what it's temperature ranges are like the Fisher Space pen but, I would think it would still work in very cold and very hot temperatures because of the pressurization forcing the ink out. The pen comes at a significant savings compared to a Fisher Space pen. Dollar Tree sells the pen for $1 whereas the cartridge for the Fisher Space pen costs $5 alone.

One downside to the pen and why I call this a semi good deal is you can't get new cartridges for the pen as far as I know though I plan to keep looking. Nor can you put a Fisher Space pen cartridge in the pen to replace the spent cartridge it came with. The Fisher Space pen cartridge isn't long enough even with the extender it comes with for certain click pens like Parker pens.

The cartridge in the pen comes in standard black ink. The pen comes in 2 designs apparently and 2 different colors - gray and black. Advertising on the box can be a little over the top as there isn't any cruise control with the pen.

Overall, the pen is a pretty good deal BUT, I'd really like to be able to get cartridges that would work with the pen. I hate throwing away a perfectly good pen just because the cartridge is used up. I still hope to find replacement cartridges for it. Happy writing all!