Do you play the lottery?

[oneupper]

Originally Posted by GIK

Interesting lotto winner and his story:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/20/maga...ion=2007022807

That guy had it together.

Nothing like the homeless dude who was on Oprah. They GAVE him $100.000 as an experiment and he pissed it away in 6 months (and is homeless again)

[creek14]

I don't consider the ~$50 I spend annually on the lottery a waste of money. It's entertainment for me. I love the dreaming about what I would do with that money.

I spend about that much a year on alcohol. I don't smoke. I've given up sugar. I'm married, so illicit sex is out. What am I talking about, I'm married, so all sex is out...

Heck, it's my only vice.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by creek14

I don't consider the ~$50 I spend annually on the lottery a waste of money. It's entertainment for me. I love the dreaming about what I would do with that money.

I spend about that much a year on alcohol. I don't smoke. I've given up sugar. I'm married, so illicit sex is out. What am I talking about, I'm married, so all sex is out...

Heck, it's my only vice.

I can understand that. If you get a kick out of it, then who's anyone to say it's a waste?

I don't get a similar thrill, so to me it's just pissing away money.

[vaticanplum]

I have zero interest in gambling, and dating a guy with a serious gambling addiction sent that down to the negatives. Even hearing about a large pot just turns my stomach. Years of being poor has also made me very cheap and I don't spend my money unless I can get a guaranteed satisfying result from it. So poor that I beg to differ with this statement:

If you are poor, playing the lottery makes sense. That $1 you spend will not change your life. The payoff will.

One dollar is a huge difference to me most of the time, let alone a dollar a week! Ahhh!!!

That said, creek is right: a vice is a vice, and if this is where people choose to spend their money, have at it. I spend too much money on alcohol. It's just personal taste.

[TeamSelig]

no way, waste of money IMO

[GAC]

Originally Posted by flyer85

Have heard it described as a tax on people who don't understand probability and statisitics.

So people who play the lottery are also the same people who complain about Dunn's K rate?

[GAC]

Originally Posted by RFS62

Your odds wouldn't be much different if you'd never been born.

You just blew my mind

[GAC]

Originally Posted by oneupper

If you are poor, playing the lottery makes sense. That $1 you spend will not change your life. The payoff will.

But it's not simply about a dollar. According to some past studies that I have read though, the lottery really hurts the poor the most. They don't have the money to be playing the lotto to begin with, yet are constantly playing it in hopes of cashing in. And again - what are the probabilities?

The rest of society that does play the lotto, for the most part, can afford to throw away 10-15 bucks a week on tickets. It's not gonna hurt them overall. The poor not so much.

[SandyD]

I play occasionally. Very occasionally. I'll join the pools at work when we have them ... haven't had one in years ... and a few times a year I'll buy one or two. I may have bought 5 all last year.

It's fun to dream.

[Ltlabner]

Originally Posted by GAC

But it's not simply about a dollar. According to some past studies that I have read though, the lottery really hurts the poor the most. They don't have the money to be playing the lotto to begin with, yet are constantly playing it in hopes of cashing in. And again - what are the probabilities?

The rest of society that does play the lotto, for the most part, can afford to throw away 10-15 bucks a week on tickets. It's not gonna hurt them overall. The poor not so much.

You hit the key GAC. Playing the lotto for kicks when you can afford to light the money on fire is one thing. Playing the lotto as a financial scheme or retirement plan when you don't have much disposable income anyway is a bad, bad idea.

[Redlegs23]

One of my buddies won about $450,000 on his first lotto ticket ever purchased. He only bought one because his friends all were buying them and they pressured him to.

I've bought about two in my life, and only when people at work get a group together to buy them. I could not live with myself if they all got rich and moved to the bahamas and I was still plugging away at the office.

[BuckWoody]

If the people at work take up money for lottery tickets, I am not able to pass it by. If they overcome the one in eleventy-billion odds to win and I didn't throw in a buck, I can't imagine the overwhelming angst that I'd live with the rest of my life. The dollar is worth my peace of mind...however twisted it may be.

I think my wife throws a couple of bucks at it every week. It's worth that if only just to daydream for a few minutes.

[15fan]

No Mega Millions winner last night.

Tuesday drawing is $340 million.

Cash option would get you somewhere in the neighborhood of $136 million.

All for a $1 wager.

That's a pretty small ante for a great big pot o' cash.

[Red in Chicago]

i was part of a pool last night...we had $200 worth of quick pick tickets and only won back $6 ...yet, somehow i can't wait for tuesday drawing

[creek14]

Big ticket sales, Mega Millions jackpot hits record
Tuesday, March 06, 2007

NEW YORK — Lottery machines cranked out tickets at a dizzying rate Tuesday as the Mega Millions game that includes Ohio and 11 other states drew bettors with a jackpot estimated at a record $355 million.

Because of the huge prize and publicity, the participating states agreed to move Tuesday night's drawing from the game's usual home in Atlanta to New York's Times Square.

Although this would be the biggest Mega Millions jackpot, there was a $363 million jackpot in 2000 when it was known as the seven-state Big Game. That prize was split by two winners.

The competing Powerball game — available in 29 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands — has the record for the largest single winner with $314.9 million, on Christmas Day.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 176 million. Besides Ohio, Mega Millions tickets are sold in California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Virginia and Washington state.


On the Net:

Mega Millions: http://www.megamillions.com/