Yep! That's what I've been doing! I wonder if having my inventory full of imposter apples would help. Right now, I only take one with me to bob for apples.
And for the lottery, I think they draw at 4am NST, so I bought 20 tickets during the day, played dice-a-roo a bunch, bought another 20 tickets after midnight NST, and played dice-a-roo again. Totaling to 44 tickets entered into the draw.