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Do You Play the Lottery?
By JLP | August 27, 2007
I just saw on the Drudge Report that someone won a Powerball jackpot worth $314 million. I can’t even imagine coming into that much money all at one time.
I have never played the lottery. To me the odds of winning are so slim that it’s just not worth it. Besides I’m not so sure I want $314 million. But that’s just me. What about you?
Do you play the lottery? If so, do you play it all the time or just when the jackpot gets to a certain size?
Topics: Question of the Day | 30 Comments »
August 27th, 2007 at 8:57 am
I’ve never bought a ticket, and don’t think I ever will.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I play if it’s huge, like the megamillons tomorrow for $250 mil. I only buy like 1 or 2 tickets.. “A” chance is better than “no” chance!
August 27th, 2007 at 9:46 am
This Powerball was actually the first time I’ve played the lottery. I decided from now on that when the prize is higher than the probability of winning that I’ll play a few dollars. So if the odds are 1 out of 112 million and the prize is over 112 million I’ll play. That expected return on $1 is assuming, of course, that only one person wins the jackpot, but a few dollars a year isn’t going to kill me. God help me if I become a $50+ a week person.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I don’t play the lottery. Can’t remember the last time I bought a ticket. But if you are with a group of people, it can sometimes be fun. Cheaper than a movie!
August 27th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I thought that playing the lottery was actually a prerequisite to being a Drudge reader!
Seriously though, I can’t imagine that anyone who has an inkling about statistics would buy a lottery ticket.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:56 am
The Lottery is a tax on stupiity.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:44 am
I’ll play a few dollars for the “big win” My minimum jackpot to play is 100+ million. I recognize the odds of winning are horrible, but I do it for fun, not a financial plan. Five dollars is a cheap way to dream big
That said, here is an interesting article about the last guy who won a major Powerball, and his plans:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/20/magazines/fortune/lottery_winnings.fortune/index.htm
August 27th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I don’t play the big lotteries, but I do get a few kicks out of doing scratch-offs every few months. Usually my purchase of the scratch-offs coincides with a long road trip with the family. I buy each of them a scratch-off for fun. I probably spend about $20/yr buying them.
August 27th, 2007 at 10:56 am
“The Lottery is a tax on stupiity.”
Tom, that’s a fantastic line. Thanks. The best part is that in most states, lottey revenue helps to offset public education costs.
August 27th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I recently bought my first lottery ticket and realized why people can get addicted to it. I was so caught up I even wrote a blog entry about what I would do with the money. It’s fun to dream, isn’t it?
I would never buy the kind of game tickets that cost $5-$20 though. Nor would I get into a habit of buying the $1 Megamillions tickets. But it CAN be fun, especially if you realize it’s just paid-for entertainment–like gambling in vegas or arcade games.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I never play. My comment to those that ask me is to tell them I’ll make them a deal. Instead of paying the convenience store for their ticket, to give me the money (and their numbers) instead. I guarantee to match the payoff if they win. Just my way of bringing home how the statistics are horribly against winning.
Also, for those that play “only when its really big”, your chances of winning a large amount are actually SMALLER because you’ll almost assuredly share the prize with others that have picked the same numbers. This is because more people, like yourself, play when the payout is large. Thus, the chances of winning (alone) a large amount are best when the jackpot is less than $100 million.
BTW, I’ll make my first paragraph deal with anyone here as well. I’m that confident you won’t win.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I don’t go out of my way to buy tickets, but I usually grab a powerball ticket on the way home from work ($2 per week). And then I grab a megamillions ticket on my walk home from the metro ($2 per week).
I don’t care what the statistics are. The odds are infinitely against me that I’ll wake up tomorrow morning, or even make it out of the office or to my house alive or uninjured. But I keep living each day, ignoring the statistics that I eventually going to die.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I used to work in an office where the secretaries would sometimes set up a pool for lottery tickets when the awards got crazy large. Whenever I was invited to join in, I’d throw in a couple of dollars, figuring, first of all, it was a way to have some fun with the admin staff, and second, if they all won and quit en mass, I’d be pretty bummed out.
I’ve never gone out of my way to buy a ticket and I’ve never won the lottery, though I’m treated by family as if I did win the lottery. I’m economically fortunate, and extended family often forgets how much hard work, risks, and sacrifices its taken me to get where I’ve gotten. They only see the money.
I can only imagine what kind of crazy emotional problems winning would create. At least I know deep down that I worked hard for what I have even if others might resent it.
August 27th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
When the lottery jackpot gets large enough you actually have a positive expectation.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
I rarely buy them, but occasionally I’ll be at the quick checkout line and wind up with like a buck fifty in change and just throw that towards a ticket. Once I won $100, and that has probably made back more than I’ve ever spent on lotto tickets in my life.
I wouldn’t make it a regular thing, but the way I see it is that someone has to eventually win. You hear about the amazing stories where people win, and most aren’t those who are degenerate gamblers who spend every last cent on lotto tickets. You usually hear about regular people who picked up a ticket on the way home from work and woke up millionaires.
I think spending 4 bucks on a cup of coffee at starbucks is a bigger waste of money than a $1 lottery ticket every so often.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I’ve played on occasion when the expectation was positive. I know better (I teach statistics and other math classes). It was surprisingly fun. Even though I knew I was wasting my money, I got $1 of entertainment out of it.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
I’ll play a few times a year. Mostly just to prove to myself that it’s not worth the money.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
I’ve bought tickets every now and again, when the jackpot was very large and I remembered to buy them when I was out and about. I never expect to win, but “dreaming” does help me in the sense that I’ve actually developed a fairly detailed plan of what I would do with a large sum of money should I ever gain said money.
To me, as long as your hopes and dreams don’t DEPEND on winning the lottery to financially survive, what’s a couple of bucks every now and again for the novelty of dreaming?
August 27th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Our pick 6 lottery is now 3 times a week–it used to only be 2. We can pay for a set # of draws, so I choose 15 (that way I don’t buy a ticket for another 15 weeks, thus I don’t forget to play.) I’ve played the same 6 numbers for probably 12 years. I have never won more than $30 at a time, but it’s my little bit of fun. I figure what I cut and save in coupons easily covers my lottery outlay many times over.
Some guys shoot.
Some women get manicures.
I play the lottery. I’ll take the minimal chance I’ll win. I get enough utils from playing! That and the chance of winning are more than many other activities net you!
August 28th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I can’t remember the last time I bought a lottery ticket. I remember buying a few scratch-offs here and there when I turned 18, but that’s about it.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Nope. The lottery / gambling in any form doesn’t interest me in the slightest!
August 28th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
I prefer the line that “The lottery is a tax on people who do not understand basic math” to “a tax on stupid people”, although I consider both statements accurate!
I tell people that I have a system for winning the lottery with every drawing (a win being categorized as anything that nets me more money than I put in.) I take the money that I could spend on a lottery ticket, and instead put it in an interest bearing savings account. Look at that, I’ve just outperformed 99.9% of all lottery players! I not only get to keep that dollar, but I even get to keep the 5.25% interest that I earn on it (minus taxes which would have to paid on the lotto tickets as well if you won something…)
August 28th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I’m buying one for Mega Millions tonight!
I know it’s a tax on the stupid, but it’s good entertainment for me and my co-workers. We like to fantasize what we’d do with the money.
I’m all for a tax on the stupid since it paid for college! An exaggeration to be sure, but my parents sell lottery tickets and it is quite a money maker, especially large jackpots like the Powerball one.
Blaine does have pretty convincing math as far as keeping my money to myself. Hm……
August 28th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Whenever lotto frenzy takes hold, it really rubs me the wrong way. So, I was thinking: Why do I resent lotteries so much:
1) I’m not immune to maybe just this once temptation and I hate feeling left out when I don’t play (which is 99.99% of the time).
2) In general, I think lotteries promote the populist attitude that economic fortune is all about luck. While I do believe fate plays a major role in life, I also believe people should aggressively control the things they can control (not that I’d have to convince this crowd). I also think the “attitude” leads people to view those more fortunate than they are as simply “lucky” without accounting for exactly how it is thru brains, balls, or hard work they got to where they are (to my earlier post).
Too many people chalk their poor finances up to fate – the same people wasting money on lotto tiks, new cars, and flat screen TV’s, while complaining about being behind on CC payments.
3) I just don’t think govt should encourage or prey on peoples’ worst impulses – there is something plain ole sleazy about state-run lotteries (not that private ones are any better of an idea). Isn’t govt supposed to protect us, not steal from us (I’m so naive).
4) The complete arbitrariness of it really really bugs me. But, I guess that’s what a lot of people like about it. Anybody can win whether they put 2 seconds of thought to it or they spent years developing a complex number generating system (I used to know a guy years ago who’s probably still working on his computer-modeled lotto guessing system).
5) And most of all: I never win. Perhaps its my defeatist attitude that is keeping me from winning the lotto jackpot that is rightfully mine.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
I don’t normally play, but I’m working on a big project right now with a bunch of people. We’re in the testing phase of our project, and we’ve all been working long hours & weekends over the last several weeks & will be for a few more. So we all started joking that if we won the lottery we could all quit en masse & laugh our butts off at the people who had to pick up our slack. So we’re all pitching in $2 a week to play Mega Millions. The really hilarious part is that I have to keep borrowing dollars from my co-workers because I don’t normally carry cash with me. I pay them back though before we check the numbers.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I always throw this at people who hammer me because I don’t care much for lottery:
Question — are you confident that given the lifetime odds of 1 in 1.8 million you will die from a snakebite or lizard bite, this will actually never happen to you?
http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm
Answer — just about always, the answer is YES, I am confident that over my lifetime, this will NOT be the manner of my death. No how, no WAY!
So then I ask why, and they say the odds are JUST TOO GREAT for such a thing to happen. I say, well then, if the odds are 1 in 200 million that you will win the lottery (two hudred times worse odds), WHY WOULD YOU PLAY?
Then the say…….(see many entries above)
August 28th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Instead of paying the convenience store for their ticket, to give me the money (and their numbers) instead. I guarantee to match the payoff if they win.
Going short on a lottery ticket. I love it!
BTW: Clever Dude, I donno if this is a joke or not, but unless you are sick or elderly, the odds greatly with you that you’re going to live, not die. Check out the mortality tables for someone your age.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Instead of paying the convenience store for their ticket, to give me the money (and their numbers) instead. I guarantee to match the payoff if they win.
Going short on a lottery ticket. I love it!
BTW: Clever Dude, I donno if this is a joke or not, but unless you are sick or elderly, the odds greatly with you that you’re going to live, not die. Check out the mortality tables for someone your age.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
With only 25% of the population being “gamblers”, you wouldn’t expect to see a lot of support for playing the lottery, let alone on a financial board.
As a responcible person who also enjoys the thrills of gambling, I only use expendible funds from my entertainment budget. I usually only buy a single chance for anything over $4 million.
I am a statiscal aberration when it comes to gambling – I have been lucky enough to score 5 out of 6 (for $1,200) and several 4 of 6. I also hit a 25c slot machine once for $175,000 which I invested (mostly!) wisely. So call me stupid AND lucky!
With a small child in the house I no longer hit the casinos, but I still get my $1 lottery ticket because I enjoy dreaming what I’d do if I won… (I’d be smart about it)
And you can’t win if you don’t play.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:24 am
The odds of winning the California Super Lotto Jackpot are 1 in 18 million. (1)
The odds of winning the lottery are 1 in 15 million. (2)
The odds of winning the Lotto Jackpot are about 1 in 14 million. (3)
If one person purchases 50 Lotto tickets each week, they will win the jackpot about once every 5,000 years. (4)
If a car gets 25 miles per gallon, and a gallon of gas is bought for every Lotto ticket bought, there will be enough gas for about 750 round trips to the moon before the jackpot is won. (5)
It is three times more likely for a person driving ten miles to buy a Lotto ticket to be killed in a car accident than to win the jackpot. (6)
The odds are greater to be:
Dealt a royal flush on the opening hand in a poker game (1 in 649,739) (7)
Killed by terrorists while traveling abroad (1 in 650,000) (8)
Die during an average life span from:
flesh-eating bacteria (1 in 1 million)
heart disease from eating a broiled steak a week (1 in 48,000)
a lightning strike (1 in 30,000)
cancer from eating a peanut butter sandwich a day (1 in 5,000) (9)