Lottery Charms: Lame or Lucky?

So I stumbled on a website today and I had to write this article. Upon browsing the LotteryCharms site, I thought to myself: “Do people really buy into this hoopla?” The first thing I notice is the site is not aesthetically pleasing at all. In my head, if the site doesn’t look put together well, then there must be something fishy about it.

And this:

That just add to the “WTF really?” feel. Call me a skeptic, but… Eh?

Squirrels are Everywhere!

As you can see from the images above, LotteryCharms has an affinity for squirrels. Now, I love these furry little critters like the next person (come on, they are cute!), but there is nothing that links these little nut hoarders to anything lucky. The site claims that white and black squirrels are rare and therefore are lucky.

The creators of the site say that the squirrel in general is to be considered lucky because of the saying “Squirreling away some money” refers to gathering and accumulating money. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t 75% of the acorns the squirrels accumulate get forgotten along the way? If you ask me, that sounds like a negative trait rather than a positive one. I wouldn’t want to accumulate money and then lose 75% of it because I don’t remember where I buried it!

Be that as it may, according a customer of the site, the lucky black squirrel pin has won twice and netted $409k—tax free. I call shenanigans, but whatever.

Now Serving Condescension for One, Please?

I don’t know about you, but I despise condescension and with images like this:

I find it off putting. To top it all off, the creator goes on to say: “My belief got me into a new house, car, hot tub and more. I wish others the same success,” when asked if he was crazy. He even made their own weird word to describe themselves.

Documented Wins…?

So, the site claims to have research that proves the lucky charms do work. I still say it is all coincidental, but who am I to argue with research? The site talks about documented wins because the players were using lucky charms from LotteryCharms. One of which was a Canadian family won a Dream Home Lottery in Ontario, Canada that was estimated to be worth over $775,000 CDN back in 2004. Apparently, a black squirrel pin was used to hold the ticket onto a cork board.

Charms, Pins, and Coins, Blah Blah Blah

So what do they sell? The site has Lucky pins, coins, keychains, magnets, books, postcards and greeting cards. All of these things are supposed to be lucky. All of these things feature a damn squirrel! The greeting cards and postcards aren’t anything special—they are just pictures of squirrels that look like they were taken off of GettysImages or Google.

Call Me a Cynic, I’ll Let Ya

If there is one thing I hate worse than “wtf” products and sales pitches is the idea that people actually buy into the hoopla. Now I’m not saying that I’m right in thinking LotteryCharms is a fraud, but I am saying that the idea seems pretty ridiculous. You can’t buy luck. I never have been one to prescribe to the world of good luck charms; but there are many people who do. I guess this is one of those instances where we will just have to agree to disagree…?