The lottery is to some a potential bonanza, to others a tax on the poor and the stupid. The only sure-fire way to win a huge fortune in the lottery does remain to start with an even bigger fortune. Nevertheless, scratch-off tickets are the entertainment that keep our roads paved or something. [Emily] over on Instructables came up with a way to create your own scratch-off cards, and the process is fascinating.
For [Emily]’s scratchers, there are five layers of printing on the front of the card. From back to front, they are the gray ‘security confusion layer’ printed with a letterpress, black printing for the symbols and prize amounts, also printed on a letterpress, a scratch-off surface placed onto the card with a Silhouette cutter, the actual graphics on the card, printed in blue with a letterpress, and a final layer of clear varnish applied via screen printing. There’s a lot that goes into this, but the most interesting (and unique) layer is the actual scratch-off layer. You can just buy that, ready to cut on a desktop vinyl cutter. Who knew.
After several days worth of work, [Emily] had a custom-made scratcher, ready to sent out in the mail as a Christmas card. It’s great work, and from the video below we can see this is remarkably similar to a real scratch-off lottery ticket. Not that any of us would know what scratching a lottery ticket would actually be like; of course that’s only for the gullible out there, and of course none of us are like that, oh no. You can check out a video of the scratch-off being scratched off below.
“The lottery is to some a potential bonanza, to others a tax on the poor and the stupid.”
Except most taxes are involuntary, and backed by force.
This country would not be a country without the lotteries they held to finance the Revolutionary War.
Just think. . . if we had lost the Revolution, we’d all be speaking English right now.
And using King Henry’s foot as a length of measure.
“This” country is a bit arrogant, especially considering the recent anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web by a British person…
As a European, what country are you referring to?
The quote in the post was written by a writer in the US, edited by an editor in the US, on a website hosted in the US, posting a story about a person in the US, commented on by a person referencing the US.
I think it’s pretty obvious the answer to your question is “France”
It hurts me that she missed the opportunity to call it “Meowllionaire Lottery”
I vaugely remember as a kid drawing over text with a crayon, then painting with probably cheap poster paint or something. It was a really long time ago so I don’t remember how well it worked but I think it wasn’t a total failure.
More than just lotto, there are certain types of gift cards and online game store cards that utilize the same scratch off deal to act as a tamper-evident mechanism for the redeem code.
Makes it more obvious if someone was screwing with the card before you buy it and find out the hard way.
I knew that course I own 2 machines and have been working with then for years :p
But Brian you forgot to describe what a letterpress happens to be. It happens that’ the favorite materials for it happen to the slugs from a Linotype machine. Or ordinary hand type. I should know it was part of the family business for many years.
Poverty is a motivation for lotteries.
I haven’t watched the video, so I’m not sure if it’s mentioned or not, but the material used for the scratch panels in commercial print (and likely this as well) is a latex. Put it down over a glossy surface and away you go!
You might even be able to paint/laminate a digital print, put the latex down and draw/stamp on top to do this on the cheap.
A fast way to make a lot of money I suppose!