Fake Winning Lottery Ticket Causes Ecstasy -- Then Fury. What Now?

[niss]

Sponger the arbiter of good taste?

No.

[tuq]

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ANYONE NOT AWARE OF THIS YEARS AND YEARS OLD PRANK DESERVES IT!

How do people not know of this gag by now???

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I've heard of it but never heard of it happening to anyone I know. Must be that I don't have douchebag friends or family. Yay, me!

[Triumph36]

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WTF? In BBV, people make the conscious choice to gamble their money - and if they lose it, they lose it - and it is laughable.

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WTF? so when an alcoholic drinks himself into a stupor and drives his car into a telephone pole, that's laughable too?

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What? Try making better analogies. The alcoholic probably isn't drunk driving for fun or profit. The degens in BBV are gambling ostensibly for their own profit and gain - or their own perceived edge.

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good job qualifying your statement with "ostensibly," because you have absolutely no fvckin idea why someone else is gambling or whether that person has an addiction to gambling. and since you have no idea, then hey, it's perfectly fine to laugh at their misery. meanwhile, the guy that gave the fake lottery ticket is a douche. yup.

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LOL - whatever, I guess they have a posting on the Internet addiction too. When you write things on the Internet, you have to accept the fact that you may be ridiculed.

When you're receiving gifts from your [censored] family - you don't have to accept that fact.

No one forces people to post in BBV about horrendous downswings.

Anyway, I suggest you get some of these lottery tickets for some gambling addicted friends you might know - I'm sure they'd think it was hilarious.

[JordanIB]

my uncle got my aunt with one of these. funny stuff.

[Sponger.]

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the guy who gave it didn't know who was gonna receive it, so obviously there was no malice behind it.

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So tricking a random person into believing that they've won $10,000 doesn't have any malice behind it because they didn't know who would recieve it? Wow. Ok.....

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sponger, i'm really surprised that this kinda sanctimony is coming from you of all people. in bbv guys that have just lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of REAL dollars are mocked mercilessly, guys go completely busto and jokes are made at their expense--i never see you finding any problems with that.

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I know I'm being an [censored] when I do that stuff. I think I should still be able tell people they are being [censored] when they do stuff like this. I'm not trying to tell you guys I'm above you in the grand scheme of things.

[MelchyBeau]

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sponger, i'm really surprised that this kinda sanctimony is coming from you of all people. in bbv guys that have just lost tens or even hundreds of thousands of REAL dollars are mocked mercilessly, guys go completely busto and jokes are made at their expense--i never see you finding any problems with that. in the case of this gag gift, the money was never won and never lost--the money never even existed. so they had a prank pulled on them but it just so happened that they were in financial straits so it hit too close to home, big deal, that's not the prankster's fault.


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Did they go busto because of someones idea of a joke?

When they go busto and make a post about it in BBV, what do you think they will get sympathy? Do you expect empathy from a message board? I don't, that'd be pretty damn stupid.

This guy knew the financial troubles this person was in. He knew that they had tons of debt. He then encouraged the celebration going on. Making people feel even shittier about thier financial situation is a [censored] move.

Sponger is giving out tons of wisdom, yes his wisdom does come with a side of smartass, but it is wisdom none the less.

[RunDownHouse]

tuq,

Your lottery ticket Christmas present is in the mail!

[El Diablo]

All,

I actually think this is pretty funny and generally agree w/ a lot of Dementia's points. However, I disagree strongly w/ his point re: financial status and agree completely with this statement someone else made: "If your brother is ok financially, then it'd be ok. the fact that your bro is going through a tough time makes it a douche move."

I wouldn't do this if someone in bad financial shape could get it. Among a group of well off friends, I think this would be pretty funny. Also agree that 15 minutes was way too long for this to go on.

[tuq]

RDH,

Are you in Nashville or Memphis? I can't remember. I too have a gift and I'd like to deliver it to you personally.

[epdaws]

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WTF? In BBV, people make the conscious choice to gamble their money - and if they lose it, they lose it - and it is laughable.

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WTF? so when an alcoholic drinks himself into a stupor and drives his car into a telephone pole, that's laughable too?

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I know this thread is a couple of days old, but I had to leave mid-way through and I wanted to make a couple of comments. I appreciate all the responses.

Mike, I can't tell if you're trying to be a contrarian for contrarian's sake in this thread, but your analogies are off-the-map bad. What on Earth does making fun of people in BBV have to do with any of this? I can't believe I actually have to take the time to spell out the differences:

1) Most importantly, people know the acerbic nature of BBV and they choose to post their results there. You're asking for all kinds of pain in that environment. You're making it public by CHOICE.

2) No one is playing a joke on a gambler or poker player. They're making a conscious decision with their own money, and they have to live with the results.

3) The people making fun of pained posters in BBV likely do not know them personally, almost certainly are not blood-related, and did not cause the pain.

You also say that the money did not exist, and therefore it's less consequential in some way. Allow me to borrow from author Sam Harris for a moment. The key issue here is belief. If someone called you right now and told you that your mother had suffered a heart attack, as long as you gave the caller credibility, you would BELIEVE it to be true. You would experience genuine emotional anxiety. When you found out the heart attack never happened, and it was all a hoax, you might even be moved to the point of tears of happiness, simply out of relief. However, you're arguing that, upon finding out the heart attack was not real, you ought to shrug it off, emotion-free, and move along with your day. Good luck with that.

To help flesh out a little more background, there were family members in the gift exchange with far worse financial problems. My cousin was rolling the dice on who would receive the fake ticket.

Also, some have pointed out accurately that the receiver in this case received nothing but a false sense of elation, followed by deep disappointment. There was no bottle of wine or whatnot to accompany the gag gift.

One poster said that gag gifts are common in this type of exchange. They are. However, this was the spectrum of gifts otherwise presented:

-a 16-piece set of stemless wine glasses at the top end, and,

-a dancing hawaiian Santa doll on the bottom end.

I brought a bottle of wine, but the first thing opened was a home enema kit, complete with cartoon instructions on how to self-apply. We got a good laugh out of that.

I'm biased here, so it's clouded my judgement somewhat, but I just can't ever imagine taking joy in setting someone up for intense disappointment.

Thanks again for the thoughts, everyone.