Do you play any kind of lottery?


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Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
Why not play a lottery? The reason is simple - the odds are such that there's no point.

One time, I did buy a lottery ticket, for a very specific reason. The jackpot was going to be exceedingly large, and I thought it would be fun to have an excuse to ponder, really, what would I do if I won. The concrete ticket was to shift the consideration from entirely theoretical to merely the implausibly remote possibility :)

As a form of entertainment, that $1 I spent was actually an okay thing, in terms of time spent on the amusement per dollar expended. Got more entertainment than I would have from, say, a can of soda or a candy bar.
 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
I don't, but my Mom does. Sometimes, as a favor, I will buy her tickets.

Side note: someone I know DID win the PCH Sweepstakes.
 

Occasionally, for the same reason Umbran does -- it's fun to dream, and people do win from time to time. But I harbor no illusions that with a usual probability of 176,000,000 to 1 that I'll ever be a winner.
 

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator
Staff member
Supporter
Even so, I think the speculation of winning it makes for a good basis for an exercise in financial planning. I think everyone should engage in a little "windfall" planning, because lotteries aren't the only windfalls in life.

And the surest way to waste a windfall is to not have a plan.
 

Even so, I think the speculation of winning it makes for a good basis for an exercise in financial planning. I think everyone should engage in a little "windfall" planning, because lotteries aren't the only windfalls in life.

And the surest way to waste a windfall is to not have a plan.

I may not play any of the big money prizes, but I do have a nice list of things i'd do with the money from PCH lol
 

Jhaelen

First Post
Why not play a lottery? The reason is simple - the odds are such that there's no point.
This.
I actually used to play in a few lotteries for a while before I thought of actually calculating the odds. Then I realized, that for lottery variants with high odds of winning, the price for participating was higher than the expected wins, making them just as futile as the 'normal' lottery types with abysmally low odds.

Now, I consider myself winning a lottery whenever I see someone wasting money on them :)
 

PigKnight

First Post
I have a rediculous ability to win small time raffles.

Also, in high school instead of getting a job for money I went to the casino and played Black Jack and Texas Hold 'Em. I don't really count that as gambling as I played safe and only tended to net $100ish per visit and immediatel blew it on MTG cards and/or video games.
 

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