The Lottery, and what it means to me....

[Mitchell Andrus]

Every so often, I buy a few lottery tickets. I check the numbers on-line and then cancel the Mercedes.

Anyway..... I got a kick out of one of my quirks this morning.. After many years, I realized I bookmarked the NJ Lottery site under "Banking and Finance".

LOL

So... there it is.

Ummm.... you have a better category?
.

[Karl Brogger]

Is it sad that the only real dream I have in life is to win the lottery?


I wouldn't live lavishly, I wouldn't buy some super expensive 20+ bed room house. I'd invest all of it into something semi safe and just live off of the interest. There'd be toys for sure, but really all winning the lottery means to me is freedom. Wake up in the morning, and do what ever I want for the day. I'd definetly would have a rediculously nice shop for metal fabrication, and very nice wood shop.

For every million, one percent gets you $10k per year. So $1m, @ 4% gets you $40k. $40m @ 4% gets you $1.6m annually. Halve it for taxes, and I just might be able to live off of that.:D There would be sacrifices, but you do what you can, with what you've got.........

[Jim Becker]

Interestingly (or sadly) there are a lot of folks who do categorize the lottery (and Vegas...) as a "Banking and Finance" entry. It should really be under "Games and Entertainment". ;)

I admit that I occasionally will buy a PowerBall ticket when the number gets large...but it seems that most winners live in "different demographics" than I do...they either win the lottery or get hit by tornados. :)

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Like most, when the lottery first came out in my state I bought a lot more tickets than I do now. But whenever I do buy a ticket I put the purchase under the mental category of entertainment. What's sad are the number of people who think the only way they will ever get ahead financially is to win a game of chance of some kind. It's disheartening to go into a convenience store on Friday afternoon after work/paycheck hours and see the amount of tickets purchased and especially see people buying scratchoff after scratchoff.

[Randy Rose]

It's disheartening to go into a convenience store on Friday afternoon after work/paycheck hours and see the amount of tickets purchased and especially see people buying scratchoff after scratchoff.

Bumper sticker:)

" Lottery, a tax on people who can`t do math"

[Phil Thien]

If the market doesn't rebound in approx. 20 years, PowerBall is gonna be my retirement plan. :eek:

[James Jaragosky]

The lottery is nothing more than a tax on peoples dreams.

[Justin Leiwig]

I've realized that you have to be over 78 and live in a trailer to win the lottery around here. At least the big jackpots. I still go on kicks where I buy tickets, but it's more for the mental stimulation spent daydreaming about what I would do first, and how I would live if I ever won the lottery.

I don't ever go in expecting to win, but I think that if I did the massive heart attack from surprise would prevent me from enjoying it. That being said...thanks for reminding me that I need to check my ticket from last friday. :D

[Curt Harms]

Bumper sticker:)

" Lottery, a tax on people who can`t do math"

Same with gaming/gambling. When Atlantic City casinos first opened I took some people there. They asked me if I was going to play. I told them "They didn't build this place by losing money and they don't need mine". That was years ago. My view hasn't changed.


Curt

[John Schreiber]

I buy a ticket three or four times per year. I put it in my wallet and don't check it for a few months. I like the idea that I might be sitting on a couple of million dollars. So far, I've just been sitting on paper, but it's only cost me a few bucks a year.

[Chris Damm]

I buy the Mega Millions tickets when there is a big jackpot if I'm already in a place that sells them. It is not worth it to make a special trip. I figure I used to spend hundreds on beer every week that now being sober for almost 23 years I can waste a buck or two!

[Thomas Knighton]

The Georgia Lottery finances educational programs like the HOPE scholarship and Pre-K. Since the lottery is paying for these programs and my taxes aren't getting jacked up to pay for them instead, I'll buy a ticket every now and then.

I like to say that the Lottery should pay for my son's education one way or the other ;)

[John Schreiber]

The Georgia Lottery finances educational programs like . . .
I don't know about Georgia, but they say the same thing in Illinois and it's just a scam. The lottery money does go to education, but they take the same amount away from other funding.

[Thomas Knighton]

Actually, in Georgia they actually leave the lottery money alone and use it just for education. Most states say it's for education but then use it for something else. However, when your state is usually ranked near the bottom in education, you can't afford to monkey with the money to much.

Besides, it was a hard fight just getting the lottery in the first place. I'm thinking that the state is worried that if they start pulling the money for other stuff, they'll end up losing it all together.

However, Georgia is an anomoly in this regard from what I understand and my knowledge of where the money for HOPE and Pre-K programs come from is a little dated. However, I know both programs are available in the same form they were originally. Everyone can go to K-4 and a "B" average is required for HOPE...just like it was originally worded.

So far as I know, there's been no money pulled from other education spending. The lottery just pays for special programs, rather than education in general, and that makes it harder to pull other funding.

[Belinda Barfield]

My SO and I used to have a Friday night "date". On the way home from work we would stop at the convenience store on the corner near our house. We pooled whatever we had left over in our pockets from our weekly allowances, sometimes three bucks, sometimes five, sometimes more. We would buy scratchoffs and sometimes get lucky. Most Fridays we wasted several bucks, but we also won $100 three weeks in a row. We do play Mega Millions when the pot is big, and I always play the same numbers. I figure if I'm up, I'm up. After we buy the tickets we go home and talk about how we'll spend the winnings. All of the kids in the family get college tuition first, then our parents are taken care of, then we go from there (if there's anything left over). Thank goodness we only have two kids left to fund! Usually someone far, far away wins, but recently a man in a nearby town won some huge jackpot like $140 mil or so. The convenience store clerk refused to sell him a ticket because he was so inebriated. After much discussion the manager sold him the ticket just to get him out of the door.

[Eddie Watkins]

Interestingly (or sadly) there are a lot of folks who do categorize the lottery (and Vegas...) as a "Banking and Finance" entry. It should really be under "Games and Entertainment". ;)

I admit that I occasionally will buy a PowerBall ticket when the number gets large...but it seems that most winners live in "different demographics" than I do...they either win the lottery or get hit by tornados. :)

My chances are a whole lot better? to get hit by a tornado.:rolleyes: I buy a ticket for both drawings every week when I stop to get gas. I use the same numbers. Last week I didn't need gas so I didn't get a ticket. I would have won $35. :eek: Now I'll have to wait another year to hit a winner again.
LOML calls it her retirement program since I am already retired and she still has a few years to go.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Well on the up side the term "lottery" doesn't mean you get stoned by the village.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Well on the up side the term "lottery" doesn't mean you get stoned by the village.

One of my favorite short stories.

We really haven't come very far, have we?....
.

[Matt Ocel]

I file it under "it temporarily takes me away".

I typically spend $3 per week on the lottery. After I buy the ticket, (as probably everyone does), I daydream of all the good junk I would buy. After about 10 - 15 minutes, I quit daydreaming and get back to reality, but for that short time while I'm daydreaming, I'm in utopia.

BTW - When I win, I'm going to be spending money like a drunken sailor.


Anchors away my boy!!!!!

[mark page]

I play the same numbers every week. If I quit now, they'd be sure to win. If I did win, I'd probably have to hire Clardy to come over and cut wood while I watch. Maybe even get Larry Merlau to come down and supervise too!!!!!:D:D:D:D

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

I file it under "it temporarily takes me away".

I typically spend $3 per week on the lottery. After I buy the ticket, (as probably everyone does), I daydream of all the good junk I would buy. After about 10 - 15 minutes, I quit daydreaming and get back to reality, but for that short time while I'm daydreaming, I'm in utopia.

Bingo! (no pun intended ;)).
It's the "thrill" of the bet - win or lose.
I equate it with fishing as a past time.
I don't like to get "skunked", but w/out those fishless outings, the times I tie into a lunker or a "mess of em", wouldn't seem as special.

I file it under "drug of choice".

[Ken Fitzgerald]

When I was 5 years old, my father got so far in debt at a local VFW where we lived then.....playing poker......he had to sell the home he and Mom owned....to pay off his gambling debts. Dad died some 18 years later...never owning another home.

In 1977, the company by whom I was then employed had a regional meeting in Reno. Spouses were allowed to attend at company expense. The LOML and I took $100 with us. We attended meetings. My left handed wife came home with her right arm bigger than her left after 3 days.:eek: On Saturday night dinner and entertainment were our expense. We had stage side seats and dinner and saw Norm Crosby the comedian and Jack Jones the singer. We came home with $50 left of our original $100.

We have a casino on the Nez Perce reservation on the edge of town here. We've been there twice when they offered breakfast buffets on Sunday mornings. It cost me $5 each time for my wife to try her right arm on those one armed bandits.

If the lottery gets over $100 million....the LOML sometimes buys a single ticket. I bought one once.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

It just dawned on me.....


I'm a bigger gambler than my Dad was.....


Boys and girls can you say "401K and the stock market?":o

[Dennis Peacock]

Never bought a lottery ticket.....the only time I've ever even seen one was when I went to Philly on work related travel. So I say...What's a lottery any way.?? :p :)

[Benjamin Dahl]

i buy a ticket occasionally when the jackpot is large, like others here. I do know that if I ever won I would say "I've always been really good at the lottery". Unfortunately, I used to work with some people who thought skill was involved.

[John Schreiber]

Well on the up side the term "lottery" doesn't mean you get stoned by the village.
I don't get it. Please enlighten me.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I've been following the thread and the replies are the same as I usually hear. "I only buy a ticket if the pot gets big.........." I say "me too - - who wants to mess with a piddling fifteen or twenty million?".

My stepmother's favorite thing in life was to go to Las Vegas. She loved the glitz and sparkle. And she alsways fed the one armed bandits. Her philosophy was right; she had a set amount that she would lose and no more. But there was no way she was going to leave before she lost that much. If she had won big to start with she would have probably died of old age sitting in front of a slot.

[Thomas Knighton]

I don't get it. Please enlighten me.

Here ya go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery ;)

Tom

[Chris Padilla]

:confused: The Lottery: You can't win if you play and you can't win if you don't play. :confused:

:(

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

One of my favorite short stories.

Just don't call me Tessie.


We really haven't come very far, have we?....
.

All things considered ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I guess we haven't

[Pat Germain]

So, one million isn't worth a dollar, but 100 million is? :p I know. I think the same way. Actually, many people just don't think about the lottery until it hits some huge prize and starts getting media attention.

What puzzles me is it seems the more people are into gambling, the more clueless they are about how it works; which probably explains why they are so into gambling.

I had never gambled until a few years ago. I was going to Las Vegas and decided to do some reading. I learned about blackjack and slot machines. I had only a very basic knowledge. Yet, I knew more about those two subjects than almost everyone I met at casinos!

I met slot players who actually believed they had better odds if they pulled the lever instead of hitting the button. And they really thought they could get a machine "warmed up" by playing it for awhile. Many blackjack players had never of heard of "basic strategy" let alone knew how to do it.

I amazed a whole lot of people at the Tropicana when I stuck a $5.00 bill into a quarter slot and hit a $2,500 jackpot; on the second spin. That's how slot machines work. ;)

[Chris Padilla]

There is the odds, too, Pat. You are NEVER paid real odds...it's always something significantly less...SIGNIFICANTLY!!

Also, for the lottery, you have the same odds as everyone else. Random picks have the same odds as using your SSN, birthdate, anniversary, kid's ages, etc. The only way to increase your odds is to make more picks...that is it.

When the California Lottery hits in the $40M+ area, I start playing. They pull numbers every Wednesday and Saturday. So I do my usual 20 quick picks for each pull until somebody who isn't me wins. :)

Well, somebody wins, right?! I wish my name was Chris Somebody or Chris Body....

:D

[Pat Germain]

Well, somebody wins, right?!

Actually, no. Quite often nobody wins the lottery. That's how the jackpots get very high.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm reminded of an old Andy Capp cartoon, where he and the wife are buying food and use their last shilling to get a lottery ticket.

The punchline was, "We don't believe in miracles but we're inclined to depend on them." :p

[Lee DeRaud]

Many blackjack players had never of heard of "basic strategy" let alone knew how to do it.There was a smallish casino (I forget the name, this was maybe 30 years ago) in Vegas that advertised single-deck, both-dealer-card-showing blackjack. The fact that the house could still make money doing that tells you everything you need to know about how dumb most gamblers are.

(I seriously doubt any casino in Vegas still does anything like that. They got greedy when they discovered that they can sell rooms, food, and shows at prices that make DisneyWorld look cheap and still pack the tables.)

[Jim Becker]

Darn, I was in New Jersey today for a briefing and forgot to pick up a MegaMillions ticket! :o Oh, well...gas was only $1.59 the 11 gallons I bought only came to about $18. Nice change from the "large numbers" in the recent past... :)

[Matt Ocel]

Just remember -

The experts have come to the conclusion that it is mathamaticaly impossible to win, if you don't buy a ticket. :)

[John Daugherty]

Guys, I want you to know that you're talking to a genuine powerball winner. Yep, a little over a year ago. After I hit it, I took my winnings and bought me and my little boy a chocolate milk and a honey bun. I lite that baby up for 7 bucks. After my celebration meal I had a little over a buck left!

In all seriousness a lady I work with hit a scratch off for 250,000 and a neighbor hit the powerball for over 600,000. I might play the powerball once a month.

[Randal Stevenson]

Interestingly (or sadly) there are a lot of folks who do categorize the lottery (and Vegas...) as a "Banking and Finance" entry. It should really be under "Games and Entertainment". ;)
:)

I think the proper location is Sci Fi and Fantasy, thinking of the tools/shop I would like to buy and build and the chances of me winning. Now I have known a few people that have won what I consider big (more then 20K), but I don't have the funds to play like that. I spend maybe $30 a year. (not many vises, so this is one)


I don't know about Georgia, but they say the same thing in Illinois and it's just a scam. The lottery money does go to education, but they take the same amount away from other funding.


When it passed in Missouri, they said the proceeds would go to education. What people didn't realize, and the ads made no attempt to lead people from thinking, was that amount that went to education, would not be paid by the other "general funds" taxes, that would then go elsewhere. People believed that school budgets could double.

[Karl Brogger]

About five or six years ago the Powerball was up to something rediculous like $360 million. A co-worker of mine at the time got 4 numbers and the powerball. The number that was off, was off by ONE digit. I think he still got $10k.


How cruel would that be?

[Don Bullock]

In California the voters of our state voted in the lottery to help pay for education. What they didn't realize is that it brings in less than 2% of the education budget and soon after it started the state legislature cut the budget by at least 8%. I hope this isn't too political for the TOS.

[Joe Chritz]

My call name with the crew I work with is "gambler" and I don't play the lottery except very very rarely.

Now throw up a good hold em game and I am in with both feet.

Michigan is good about the money going to schools. All the profits get deposited in a "school aid account" to help K-12 education. It is a lot of money but only a tiny drop in the bucket.

Joe

[Belinda Barfield]

Well, Megamillions is up to $207 million so I will definitely be buying 7 tickets for the Friday draw. I won $7 in last night's draw, so I'll just give it right back to them! BTW, according to the GA Lottery website the lottery has given 10.3 billion to Georgia students.

[Jim Becker]

You're right about the total going up, Belenda. I don't feel so bad for forgetting to buy a ticket yesterday while in NJ. I was just talking to my boss who is driving to a meeting in Baltimore...she's stopping for a ticket for the next round. I told her to remember her "friends" if she hits... :)

[Dusty Fuller]

"In California the voters of our state voted in the lottery to help pay for education. What they didn't realize is that it brings in less than 2% of the education budget and soon after it started the state legislature cut the budget by at least 8%."

Same here in Georgia, perhaps not %-wise, but budgets have been cut according to my mother and wife...


DF

[Art Mulder]

. I told her to remember her "friends" if she hits... :)

Looks like I stand a better chance than you, Jim.
My brother buys lottery tickets regularly. (I never do). You're depending on a colleague... :cool::p

[Belinda Barfield]

You're right about the total going up, Belenda. I don't feel so bad for forgetting to buy a ticket yesterday while in NJ. I was just talking to my boss who is driving to a meeting in Baltimore...she's stopping for a ticket for the next round. I told her to remember her "friends" if she hits... :)

My SO has an "agreement" with five or six (probably more now) friends. They have to buy tickets also in order to get in the game. If my SO wins each of them will get a million, and vice versa. The agreement pertains only to jackpots over 100 million. It's good to have friends (hopefully honest ones)! :D

[Chris Padilla]

Money corrupts...but lets not go there...against the TOS...eventually.... ;)

:D

[Lee DeRaud]

Money corrupts...I believe I am immune to the corrupting influence of money, but have never had a really good opportunity to test the hypothesis. Anybody got a few million handy to fund a research study? :cool:

[Karl Brogger]

Money corrupts...but lets not go there...against the TOS...eventually.... ;)

:D


I know for a fact it wouldn't corrupt me. There isn't much to corrupt if you're planning on doing absolutely nothing like I am. Sober up, move to a different beach, commence liver hardening. Repeat.

[Mitchell Andrus]

My wife and I have actually talked abuot the changes that happen to family & freinds when there's a big winner. How do you spead the wealth - so to speak...

So.... in the event a uber-jackpot was won, we've decided that 35% after tax would be set aside for F&F distribution through a blind trust. Everyone on the 'list' would be able to distribute a given amount of money to whomever they felt, even themselves, but only for higher education costs - past and future. No new Corvettes, homes, etc. A blind trust master would keep distributions private.

I think this fairly takes "gimme some" off the table, and people without kids headed to college can retire their own loans or go back to school themselves.