I race off to the convenience mart a few blocks from my home to pick up some milk for cereal for breakfast. I hurriedly go to the dairy case and snatch two plastic gallon jugs and turn for the checkout to pay for them.

Suddenly I am confronted by “The Machine.” “The Machine” in this case isn’t a machine at all. It’s a huge display which overpowers everything else near the checkout, telling me that I can get all of the tickets for all of the state lottery games now at this store. All I have to do is hand over a buck or two of the change I will have anyway from the $10 bill I give the checkout lady and I am in business. “The Machine,” if there is one, and its accompanying displays always tell me how much I can win. A cool $6 million if I am lucky in the “Super Lotto” drawing. But there are h…