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Why do people waste their money on Lottos?

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I have heard the lottery reffered to as a tax on nonmathmaticians!

I see it much like getting hit by lighting so I will put up a lighting rod 2 or 3 times a year, maybe. Otherwise I figure I win a buck everytime I don't play.
 
The lottery is a tax on the poor.

favorite line is from a tv commercial...I think E*trade..."Somebody's going to win the lottery...just not you"

-Ed
 


<< The lotto: what a wonderful regressive tax.
Oh and I would like to meet somme of these &quot;winners&quot; because personally, I doubt there are any. I think the government makes up fake winners, has actors play the part for publicity and keeps the money coming. >>





mmmmmmkay
 
I buy 1 lottery ticket when the jackpot gets above $125 million. In other words, not too often. $1 is no big deal, and doing it as rarely as I do, it's really no big deal. I know the chances of winning are next to nil, but I don't care. Once or twice a year my coke costs me $2 instead of $1. Whooopeee.

Now people that go an spend $50/week and complain about how broke they are -- that's just stupid.
 
Yeah, Perry I have about the same scheme, only I usually forget to buy one even for the big lotos. The odds are so small that even if you buy a 100 tickets you have not significantly improved your odds.

100* incredably small = still not far from 0
 
yes I do it to dream a little and when I say $5 bucks, I mean 5 bucks. 5 bucks is nothing to me regardless if you may think it adds up. And besides I only play the lotto when the jackpot it huge. I wouldn't spend more than 20 bucks in tickets unlike those that blow their entire pay checks.

danny~!
 
You've more chance to get overrun by a car the next time you cross a street than winning the lottery.

My parents spend 25 Guilders a month on the lottery and have won not even 40% back in the 10+ years they've participated. I'm smarter than my parents 😉
 
I agree, I'm really pissed off. I've got 150 tickets to check and I don't want to waste the time. What was I thinking. Oh yea, the money goes to the schools, that's why I play. Also, I was laughing my ass off with other people today about what we'd do with the money. I got about 30 people I'd be chaufeuring to Sacto if I win to share with, me being a commie and all. Out here in Cali we're hapy happy happy, and all for small change. Woopie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀
 
we arent always realists are we? sometimes we need those little incentives in our lives to keep us from falling to the pits of pessimism. after all, its all about self satisfaction, aint it? 🙂
 
I play a dollar when our state's lotto pot goes over $15 million (odds of winning are ~13 million to one). I probably spend/lose $6 per year. What it buys me is the right to dream what I would do if I won, and yes I know the odds are against it. I probably get a buck's worth of fun out of knowing that there is a (very very low) possibility of winning.

Besides which, I do this in a pool with friends and colleagues, and even more than the thought of possibly winning, there is the specter of &quot;What if they win when I'm not in the pool and they're all millionaires and I'm not?&quot; Man, that would suck big time.....Gotta avoid that!
 
Well, letssee . . . I buy 1 ticket twice a week . . . that's $104 a year.

Can you suggest what else I could &quot;invest&quot; my $100 in (I get back at least $8-10 in matching mega nos yearly, etc.)?

Yes, it IS gambling. It is also entertainment and (supposedly) helps CA schools.

However, I pay my own bills and don't ask anyone for a 'hand-out' to support my gambling addiction.

Can you find anything else wrong with my wonton wasteful lifestyle?

EDIT:

<< Why do people waste their money on Lottos? >>

Should be perhaps &quot;Why don't people mind their own business about what other people do as if they are so perfect to comment on other people's business?&quot;
 
When tickets went on sale for the CA lotto last week (before the Wed PM drawing) I heard a radio interview with some people lined up for tickets. They were waiting at like 6am outside of this one store that has sold tix to 3 jackpot winners in I'm-not-sure-how-many years (not very many, though) so these people think this place is made of gold or something. The interviewer was asking &quot;what would you do with the money if you won&quot; and everyone they talked to had these elaborate plans that they'd obviously been thinking about for a long time.

I think the reason the lotto brings in so much money is that even though people know they have almost no chance of winning, that tiny possibility only costs them a dollar, and then they get days or weeks worth of daydreaming out of it. I know I've done it myself - I'm in a huge amount of debt due to college loans, and winning even a small jackpot would sure take the heat off...
 
Besides, my odds of winning ar vastly superior to most. I don't need the money. I'm in the group that always wins. 😀
 


<< we arent always realists are we? sometimes we need those little incentives in our lives to keep us from falling to the pits of pessimism. after all, its all about self satisfaction, aint it? 🙂 >>



Exactly. Hope has allowed humans to go through some incredible things and this is just a small example I think. For a lot of people its the only way they could be a millionaire, even though the chances are so low they have hope.
 
What would you do in the following situation:

You play the same numbers every week, and this week the jackpot is 150 million. You lose your ticket, and don't think much of it since you've been buying these tickets for years. On the following day you are driving to work and overhear the winning numbers on the radio. They're your numbers!

Do you?

A) Kill yourself
B) Kill yourself
C) Kill yourself

 
Heh, just don't be like the guy who spent $1000 a month of lotto tickets, but his life was saved when he was shot in the pocket he had his huge stack on stubs in. 🙂
 
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