Japanese takarakuji lotteries

Every three minutes (on average) someone in Japan lands a 100,000 dollar plus prize in one of the lotteries.

The serious punters really do their homework, carefully choosing how and where they purchase their tickets. Rumour has it that the best ticket booth in the country is in Tokyo at the Nishi Ginza Depato Chansu Senta - window number 1! You can wait up to two hours in line there when, if you took a couple of steps to your right to window 2, you would be served immmediately. (In Hiroshima City, the lottery booth near the Tatemachi streetcar stop (on the corner) always has a long line for the Jumbo takarakuji due to a big winning ticket sold there in the past.)

Gleaned from the weekend newspaper, vital information for all lottery players. The winners of large sums of money in the Japanese lottery were asked just how they did it - what they paid special attention to when they purchased their winning tickets. Take note! In order of popularity, these were the answers they gave.

1. Ticket booths which have had previous big winners.
2. A balance between buying batches of tickets with successive numbers and random number batches.
3. Ticket booth's atmosphere.
4. The date of purchase.
5. The ticket booth seller.
6. The amount of money spent, or the number of tickets.
7. The direction the ticket booth was facing.
8. The number of the ticket booth window.
9. The time of day.
10. Fortune telling.
11. The clothes they wore when making the purchase.

What do the big winners do with their money?

According to the paper, 42% save it and 26% pay off debts.

There was no mention of the remaining 32%. Pursuing a path of hedonism presumably.