Spend a couple of bucks, scratch off the ticket, and win big! That’s the promise of instant lottery ticket games. They advertise big prizes for a few dollars investment. But, can you actually win anything on these? I bought a bunch from two different states to find out. Last year, my good friend Simon and I dropped $20 in a Pennsylvania Lottery ticket machine and ended up scratching off tickets for the better part of an hour. While the biggest amount we hit was only $20, we kept getting free tickets over and over that we kept cashing in. Pennsylvania gave us a lot of play, and our money back, for that $20 investment. But, are other states just as loose with their tickets? The New York Lottery recently installed a flashy, new lottery ticket vending machine at the Herald Square subway station. In addition to dispensing scratch off tickets, players can also purchase regular number games, such as Powerball tickets, from this machine. So yes, you can now legally gamble while riding the subway! I pass this machine every day on my commute to work so I decided that I would give the New York Lottery a try. I dropped $30 into the machine and chose a variety of tickets ranging from $1 to $10, ending up with 11 tickets in all. Several New York commuters cued up behind me to use the machine. Once I arrived home in New Jersey, I stopped in at a local convenience store, purchasing an array of tickets to see what kind of luck the Garden State lottery would give me. I asked for $25 in a variety of tickets. There are no $1 tickets in New Jersey so I had to plop down an additional $1. With that, the clerk handed me 13...