Retail-store "lootboxes" targeting KIDS??? When did this get to be a thing? Gambling with parent's money at an early age?

[Captante]

Combine the bullet points. The severity of losing $1 is negligible. The severity of gaining $100 million is immense. Thus, even though gambling on the lottery is a net negative, the negative point (losing $1) is so negligible that it isn't an issue and gambling could be done as far as I'm concerned. That is, until you repeat it to excess (such as dumping your life savings into $1 lottery tickets so the severity of a loss is no longer negligible).

Exactly.... nothing at all wrong with buying the occasional SINGLE lottery ticket.

When it becomes a "budget item" however (usually for those least able to afford it!) it's a serious problem.

That's actually interesting.

Makes perfect sense too.... an army made up completely of "scouts" but with no soldiers marching in formation isn't winning many battles either!

 

[Pohemi]

But I suppose with the moral panic around 'loot boxes' in games, it seems odd to be alarmed about the new-fangled computer version but not the traditional physical real-world kind.

I can see it from both perspectives, that it's just the modern version of lootbags and not a big deal, but also from the notion that kids have become use to the idea of digital lootboxes in games (that also often cost real money), and retail manufacturers capitalizing on that recognition by kids.

Exactly.... nothing at all wrong with buying the occasional SINGLE lottery ticket.
When it becomes a "budget item" however (usually for those least able to afford it!) it's a serious problem.

How about we ban the lottery too - morons who are poor spending their money on scratchers and quick picks.

I refer to lottery as "stupid tax" or "poor tax" due to the combination of odds of winning and the majority of lotto ticket buyers being poorer folks wasting what little money they have in the hopes of striking it rich.

 

[Captante]

I refer to lottery as "stupid tax" or "poor tax" due to the combination of odds of winning and the majority of lotto ticket buyers being poorer folks wasting what little money they have in the hopes of striking it rich.

Most people have essentially NO grasp of what all those zeros next to the words "odds of winning" actually mean.

That your chances of winning the jackpot don't increase appreciably even if you buy 500 "quick picks" instead of 1 completely escapes them.

Further, just like rolling dice it doesn't matter if you bet/hit "snake-eyes" 10 million times in a row, the odds of it hitting on the 10 millionth AND ONE toss are EXACTLY THE SAME as they were on the first.