Powerball now only $40m

[FoBoT]

i don't really know how
is there a youtube tutorial?

 

[Doppel]

I read recently that the poor are vastly disproportionately more likely to buy lotto tickets. This is not surprising, since part of the reason they are poor is because they are dumb or at the very least financially illiterate, which leads them to hail mary type approaches such as lotto games. This is also why a huge number of them end up bankrupt inside of a decade. The lotto is an amazing psychological study on human idiocy.

 

[chrisc615]

I hit 3 + powerball. Won $100!

 

[Possessed Freak]

I play in the office pool. While we were forced to change our numbers with the ticket change, we will stick with the same bank of numbers. We cover the spread on the powerball so we always get the minimum payout. We also try to cover as many different numbers as possible to get further payouts.

A couple of months ago the person in charge of the office pool called me. Told me in a hushed and excited voice that we won. I was shaking at the thought. I asked how much was each of our cuts? She said, oh we won the 100 dollar payout. Per our rules, anything over 50 is a payout, anything less just gets cycled into the next drawing. So she was excited that we finally had a payout. I was not as thrilled!

 

[Possessed Freak]

I read recently that the poor are vastly disproportionately more likely to buy lotto tickets. This is not surprising, since part of the reason they are poor is because they are dumb or at the very least financially illiterate, which leads them to hail mary type approaches such as lotto games. This is also why a huge number of them end up bankrupt inside of a decade. The lotto is an amazing psychological study on human idiocy.

Buying a ticket every drawing is not idiocy, or stupid, or anything like that. It is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment out there. The dream of winning is WELL WORTH my minimal waste of money.

 

[bfdd]

not statiscally significant.

1tix: odds of winning is 1:175M
2tix: 1:87.5M

hell, 100 tix: 1:1.75M. still not significant.

think of it this way:
deck of cards. shuffle then try and pick the the 3 of clubs. u know how hard that it, and it's only 1:52 chances.

yur suppose to treat the lottery as entertainment, like going to a casino. not to bet your rent $ on.

Actually it's not 1:52.

 

[thraashman]

Buying a ticket every drawing is not idiocy, or stupid, or anything like that. It is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment out there. The dream of winning is WELL WORTH my minimal waste of money.

I used to work in an office building that also housed the Georgia state lottery office. So obviously there was a keyosk to buy lottery tickets in the building. I'd buy 1 or 2 each time it topped 100 million. It's worth a couple bucks for the cheap thrill of anticipation. I bought 2 powerball a couple picks ago and got the powerball number, so I won back what I paid. I'll probably cycle that into two more tickets nad anticipate again!

 

[Lash444]

I play in the office pool. While we were forced to change our numbers with the ticket change, we will stick with the same bank of numbers. We cover the spread on the powerball so we always get the minimum payout. We also try to cover as many different numbers as possible to get further payouts.

A couple of months ago the person in charge of the office pool called me. Told me in a hushed and excited voice that we won. I was shaking at the thought. I asked how much was each of our cuts? She said, oh we won the 100 dollar payout. Per our rules, anything over 50 is a payout, anything less just gets cycled into the next drawing. So she was excited that we finally had a payout. I was not as thrilled!

LoL. "We won!" I certainly wouldn't announce it in anyway to be dramatic. Look at those poor chaps who scratch off those fake lottery tickets. My God its a miracle they don't go on a rampage.

 

[rudder]

I read recently that the poor are vastly disproportionately more likely to buy lotto tickets. This is not surprising, since part of the reason they are poor is because they are dumb or at the very least financially illiterate, which leads them to hail mary type approaches such as lotto games. This is also why a huge number of them end up bankrupt inside of a decade. The lotto is an amazing psychological study on human idiocy.

This is very true... which is why it shocked me that in Tennessee the lottery was championed by one of the top democrats in the state. The ones buying the large percentage of tickets will never make use of the college scholarship that the lottery funds. My guess is overall the size of colleges grew, employing more people... but now the lottery is hurting for money because Tennessee lowered the standards so much. Time to go kick some poor people and tell them to buy tickets cause my kids need that money.

 

[GotIssues]

Buying a ticket every drawing is not idiocy, or stupid, or anything like that. It is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment out there. The dream of winning is WELL WORTH my minimal waste of money.

Exactly.

If you are playing the lottery as a form of income or spending money that you can't afford to spend on it, then you are an idiot. If you are playing the lottery as a form of entertainment, it's really cheap (assuming you aren't going overboard buying 100 tickets).

For $2, I can have a couple hours (or more) of conversation/entertainment about what I would do if I won. There aren't many things out there that can provide entertainment at $1 or less/hour.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Its really not the same. 5 million you can probably set yourself up and your wife and kids for life.

5 billion you can set up everyone you know for life. Plus spend your days giving away the rest to best benefit humanity.

or more like build yourself a solid gold yacht

 

[Red Storm]

I read recently that the poor are vastly disproportionately more likely to buy lotto tickets. This is not surprising, since part of the reason they are poor is because they are dumb or at the very least financially illiterate, which leads them to hail mary type approaches such as lotto games. This is also why a huge number of them end up bankrupt inside of a decade. The lotto is an amazing psychological study on human idiocy.

I think those who buy $10 coffees or $200 shoes are bigger idiots IMHO.

 

[Train]

I think those who buy $10 coffees or $200 shoes are bigger idiots IMHO.

true dat.

The poor who only buy a ticket or two per week arent stupid, it's the poor who buy like $20 per drawing that are stupid. The neighborhood I grew up in had people on welfare and food stamps who would spend ridiculous amounts at the local carry out nearly every day.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I'll buy some every so often. This time I threw in $10 for 5 tickets. Had some single numbers hit, but that's it. I'll most likely pick up another $10 for this next drawing. Granted it's the first time I've played the lotto in 3 years or so, and first time I ever went and got tickets myself (previously was office pool).

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'll buy some every so often. This time I threw in $10 for 5 tickets. Had some single numbers hit, but that's it. I'll most likely pick up another $10 for this next drawing. Granted it's the first time I've played the lotto in 3 years or so, and first time I ever went and got tickets myself (previously was office pool).

Yeah, I had my wife get 5 tickets last night, just for the heck of it. Been probably 2 or 3 years since I played. It's fun to think about what you'd do with $100+ million after taxes, even though you know it won't happen.

 

[Noirish]

ca should join.

 

[Broheim]

Buying a ticket every drawing is not idiocy, or stupid, or anything like that. It is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment out there. The dream of winning is WELL WORTH my minimal waste of money.

this, so much this.

I know I'm not going to win but I take endless joy in dreaming about all the crap I'm going to buy if I ever did.

 

[zinfamous]

That sounds good, but honestly I wouldn't want to deal with the management of lots of property. I also wouldn't want to deal with farming out the management of the property. There's still a lot of oversight involved on your part no matter what you do, even if it's only worrying about whether your underlings are skimming money. It really all boils down to the fact that I don't really want the hassle.

I do want to work though, so to that end I'd probably just invest a sizable sum into my current business. Build a new, larger location. Double or triple the inventory, and put the rest of the money somewhere where it'll earn interest. The business is already headed in that direction anyway. This would just get me there maybe 10 years faster, and I'd be doing something I love.

well, what I'd really like to do is buy some land in Napa and open the first trappist brewery in the region. bring snobby beer to the snobby wine people. That's the kind of work that I really want to do--though it's a huge risk, of course. It's definitely the type of lifestyle I want, but I'd like the property on the side to minimize risk. Not sure if it's possible to do such things all at once, time wise, but this is fantasy time, no?

 

[BoberFett]

The lottery is only the tip of the iceberg. How many of the bottom 25% sit in bars every night playing pulltabs? How many sit in casinos and plunk quarter after quarter into slot machines? How many feel compelled to buy a few scratch offs every time they go into a gas station?

There's one rule in gambling: The house always wins. On average, the best a person can hope to do is break even. For every person that wins a million dollars in these schemes there are more than a million people who lost $1.

But no, it's the 1% keeping people poor. Not their complete inability to do math.

 

[Train]

The lottery is only the tip of the iceberg. How many of the bottom 25% sit in bars every night playing pulltabs? How many sit in casinos and plunk quarter after quarter into slot machines? How many feel compelled to buy a few scratch offs every time they go into a gas station?

There's one rule in gambling: The house always wins. On average, the best a person can hope to do is break even. For every person that wins a million dollars in these schemes there are more than a million people who lost $1.

But no, it's the 1% keeping people poor. Not their complete inability to do math.

preach it brother

 

[TwiceOver]

I'm in the work lottery pool, and the only reason I'm in on that is because I don't want the chance to be "that guy"...

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

I'm in the work lottery pool, and the only reason I'm in on that is because I don't want the chance to be "that guy"...

Yeah, I don't want to be the one guy still working here when they win either. I will always do a work pool.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

I'm in the work lottery pool, and the only reason I'm in on that is because I don't want the chance to be "that guy"...

A social normative influence toward purchasing.

Can't we dream about being rich by making a reasonable plan to get there?

let's argue for the lotto and compare it against arguing against it.

For:
I can dream and "you can't win if you don't play".

The second point first. there is a infinite increase in probability of winning by buying one ticket, so lets assume that a single ticket is purchased as that offers the best change in probability of winning.

First point, I can dream. If you want to keep the 'dream' going then you're going to want to play every time its enough to allow you to 'dream'. I assume that even the base-level of power-ball is enough to rock our collective bank-accounts and so you need to play every time you can.

so $4 per week, in order to 'dream'.

Against:
Let's put that $4 a week into a low-load aggressive growth mutual fund that makes 9.7%.

Over 40 years of playing the lotto, so you can dream, you have given up over $100,000.


So tell me, wouldn't you rather dream about making something of yourself than dream about someone just handing money to you?

 

[TwiceOver]

Doesn't really matter. $100,000 50 years from now or being "that guy" today... I'm not willing to take that risk. I spend $2/wk so it's not like I'm losing my ass or anything.

 

[Train]

snip

Your math is absolutely horrendous. You can only hit that $100k if you invest all the lottery money you would spend over the 40 years up front.

Not to mention you didn't factor in inflation. $100k 40 years from now is $29k in today's dollars