My kids are mad for Wild Cherry Life Savers so on break I walked across the street to the gas station to get them each a roll* as a second-to-last day of school treat. I waited in line behind a couple of twentyish types who were loading up on various lottery games. Not to stereotype, perhaps they were well-to-do, but they didn’t look to me as if they had a lot of discretionary income. It wasn’t my place to tell them that they were wasting their money, although they surely were.

It got me to thinking, however, about the effect high gas prices are having on lottery sales. Conventional wisdom would say that if more money is getting put in gas tanks, then there is less to spend on scratch-and-lose cards. But maybe not. Maybe high fuel prices are only serving to ratchet up the desperation that compels people to throw away real money in pursuit of fictitious riches. It’s easier to give up milk and eggs than the dream for cake and ale**.

If I had to speculate, which is much easier to do than researching the facts, I would guess that, relatively speaking, sales to occasional lottery players are in a much sharper decline than sales to hardcore players. The same is probably true of whiskey sales to casual drinkers versus alcoholics. Our vices are often the last thing that get chopped from the budget, which is why I still have to feed my kids’ Wild Cherry jones.

*95¢ for a one stinkin’ roll, can you believe that?

**Shakespearian in origin, it’s synonymous with the better things in life.