My father had the same pile. Not scratch offs, though. He plays the state lottery where he lives. $5 two times a week, same five sets of numbers for probably 30 years. About 7 years ago he calls me late night. I thought he was dying when I saw his name come up because he never calls. I live several states away, and we mostly communicated via email. Long story short, he finally won the big one. I thought how big could a state lottery be with mega millions and powerball dominating most of the ticket purchases. I thought he maybe hit $100k. Boy was I way off. Multiple millions. Most surreal moment of our lives. He still plays twice a week.