If Lottery Tickets Told The Truth

[jeffrey]

The recession has seen a rise in lotto sales as people streamline their financial idiocy from "paying for money they don't have" to "paying for money they'll never have." Even the Wikipedia article says that "buying a lottery ticket reduces the buyer's expected net worth," and when someone writing Wikipedia articles on lottery systems starts to call you worthless, you should probably be returned as defective by organ farmers...

Lottery | Cracked.com

[Broken Arrow]

Heh. Leave it to Cracked to skewer and roast every subject with a dash poignancy.

But they're right. I've long admonished the lottery, but I know a lot of my co-workers and my friends play it.... The irony is deep in that the worse off the economic situation, the more desperate they become and cling to the hope of a lottery winning to ever pull them out.

And their financial despair deepens even more....

[am_vanquish]

I'm all for having a lottery. My wife and I jokingly refer to lotteries as the "Financially Illiterate Tax." It's a perfect way to funnel money from those who obviously aren't smart enough to use it wisely into school systems and nice roads! Plus, it's one more reason our state doesn't need to raise our property taxes any more.

Same thing goes for casinos. I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and casinos were the best thing to ever happen to the public school system around there.

P.S. I majored in math in college ... I've never bought a lotto ticket. Surprisingly, I work with a lot of highly technical math/business people and several play. One even bought about 250 lotto tickets to give out as party favors for her wedding!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by am_vanquish

Same thing goes for casinos.

I'll jump in and defend casinos, or at least some games in casinos. As noted, the odds of winning the Mega Million are 175,000,000:1. The odds of winning a hand of blackjack are very close to 1:1. House edge is about 0.6%. You can't compare the two. Now slot machines are another story. Even then, you have at least an 85% chance of winning on any given spin of a slot machine. Even that sure beats a lottery ticket.

[GREENBACK]

I play the lotto in an office pool ocasionally. It costs me five bucks usually. It's fun knowing there is an infitestimal chance to win. I know I'm likely throwing that five bucks away but I can easily afford to do this.


The lottery is not a bad thing for people like me. It's a bad thing for those in low income areas that play a good chunk of their income daily. I'm not really much of a gambler and only go to casinos occasionally. I know the odds are better there but the lottery gives me a little rush in thinking that I/we might actually be the lucky ones. I will certainly give everyone here a big smiley if it happens and tell you I've finally got my retirement secured

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by GREENBACK

I play the lotto in an office pool ocasionally. It costs me five bucks usually. It's fun knowing there is an infitestimal chance to win. I know I'm likely throwing that five bucks away but I can easily afford to do this.


The lottery is not a bad thing for people like me. It's a bad thing for those in low income areas that play a good chunk of their income daily. I'm not really much of a gambler and only go to casinos occasionally. I know the odds are better there but the lottery gives me a little rush in thinking that I/we might actually be the lucky ones. I will certainly give everyone here a big smiley if it happens and tell you I've finally got my retirement secured

I agree completely. Playing for entertainment is fine. Playing as a form of financial planning is not.

The reality is that someone does win. I have just as good a chance as anyone else.

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Playing for entertainment is fine. Playing as a form of financial planning is not.

I agree with this as well. If it's done strictly for fun and done so responsibly, then I don't see any problem with it.

[autoxer]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

I agree completely. Playing for entertainment is fine. Playing as a form of financial planning is not.

The reality is that someone does win. I have just as good a chance as anyone else.

Playing for entertainment would be fine... But last Saturday I took a stroll through Harrah's new casino in chester and I didn't see a single person that was on the gaming floor smile. It was a very depressing place and nobody in the place seemed entertained. They aren't exactly catering to the responsible gamblers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

[red92s]

The Georgia Lottery paid for my engineering degree (and my sister's as well). So, no real qualms with people wasting their money on it.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by autoxer

Playing for entertainment would be fine... But last Saturday I took a stroll through Harrah's new casino in chester and I didn't see a single person that was on the gaming floor smile. It was a very depressing place and nobody in the place seemed entertained. They aren't exactly catering to the responsible gamblers. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

If you don't enjoy gambling, I can certainly understand that, but just appreciate the fact that lots of people do. My wife and I have been to Harrah's Chester many times. It is a nice escape to us. We go, play for a couple of hours, have a nice meal and come home. Their buffet is quite good. The sports bar is nice. We've gone a couple of times and watched the races, sitting outside soaking up the sun and fresh air looking out over the river. And we both enjoy playing. We don't gamble the mortgage money or the retirement fund. We just play with some fun money. We don't smoke or drink. We don't have premium cable. We don't buy designer clothes or take exotic vacations. This is an affordable form of entertainment for us.

Same goes for Atlantic City, though that is farther away. We will go down for a few hours, often meet friends for lunch, play for a while, walk on the Boardwalk, maybe see a show, do some shopping and come home. A very enjoyable day.