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As we all know, our state and federal governments are playing with Monopoly money at this point. So, in order to drum up some much-needed cash, state lotteries are dreaming up increasingly gimmicky scratch-and-win cards, with equally novel payouts. Hey, it's better than an IOU or, at this point, a 401(k). Still, we want to meet the outside-the-box thinkers who came up with these prizes.

Green Bay Packers $10 Instant Scratch Game
It's never paid so well to be a loser. Last month, the Wisconsin Lotto printed 800,000 Packer scratch-off tickets which offered the chance to win up to $50,000 in cash. More interestingly, though, any losing tickets were eligible for a special drawing where the lucky winner reaped four club seats to every Packer home game for the next three seasons. Additional lesser prizes included 2010 home game tickets, gift cards and other Packers swag. The state estimated the tix would bring in about $2 million! Now that's some serious cheddar.

Ric Flair Scratch-Off Tickets
Wooooooooo, wrestling fans! The North Carolina Education Lottery recently unveiled a commemorative scratch-off card featuring Ric "The Nature Boy" Flair, who lives in Raleigh and still wears leotards. (OK, we made that last part up.) With eight chances to win $100,000 and more than 500,000 other cash prizes, the NCEL is hoping to reel in a new crop of suckers so they can rake it in for the state.

Scented Crossword Tickets
OMG, it's a lotto ticket that doubles as aromatherapy! In an effort to appeal to their lady players (who make up the majority of Crossword ticket buyers), the Colorado Lottery has started selling $3 scratch-n-sniff lotto tickets in delightful scents like chocolate, coffee and bouquet. For guys though, this is even more of a win/win. Even if your ticket craps out you can just rub it under your arm and ... hello, free deodorant!

Michigan's 35th B-day Ticket
Last year, the Michigan Lottery celebrated its big birthday with a scratch-off worth $7 million in cash. To keep the party going, even those who lost could enter into a second-chance drawing where eight players won four years' tuition to a state university. There, ironically, they learned not to play scratch-off games anymore.

Summer Cash Scratch-n-Win
Last summer, Florida's state lottery responded to crazy-high gas prices with a special promotion. The first prize winner got a quarter of a million dollars ... yawn. The second prize winner, though, would receive FREE GAS FOR LIFE (via 26 $100 gas cards per year)! Whoa. Now we're talking! Of course, when you crunch the numbers, the gas was worth about $135,000 less than the grand prize, but still, in the summer of '08 we would have cut a man for some fuel.