From Longtime Reader GT3Ted:
“The Lottery is a Tax on the people were not paying attention in math class.”
Absolutely, except for one small quibble.
It’s only a tax when you are compelled by government to pay it, at gunpoint. Last time I looked, buying a lottery ticket was voluntary.
It’s also therapeutic. In my case, it prevents me from using my AK-47 outside the shooting range every day (if you get my drift).
Cheap at the price.
I’ve played the lottery off and on. My family played it regularly. I worked the overnight shift at a stop ‘n rob in the early 90s. I had regular customers who came in each day and often times multiple times a day. One guy confessed that every time he bought five tickets he felt that he should have bought a sixth ticket for scratch offs. Dude had a real problem.
the casinos near here are filled with retirees who wander from machine to machine, plunking in their contribution and pressing buttons until they decide to move to another machine to repeat the process. I suppose the upside is that they’re getting some exercise moving between the machines.
If the lottery, slot machines and other gambling isn’t putting you into the poor house then have at it. Fishermen buy the latest lures to catch more fish. Golfers buy golf balls to chase and lose. Gambling isn’t much different from any other hobby.
One of my most popular lectures in my undergrad statistics courses was calculating the odds for the Texas Lottery. The title graphic read “Congratulations! You May Already Be A Loser.”
One guy described gambling as entertainment – i.e. he had an entertainment budget. He could spend it on traveling, watching movies, fishing, etc. but instead he spent it at the casino. That’s what he enjoyed. And as long as the budget was reasonable, the money was going to get spent anyway, then why not?
There’s also the lure of small investment, GIANT pay-off. $5 isn’t going to make or break me, but if it gives me a one in a million chance of being really rich, why not. I might not win, but someone will eventually. Yeah, the math truly sucks and all, but think of the pay-off.
And no, I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in several decades.
I only play when the jackpot gets into the twelve figure range. I look at it as paying a few bucks to dream for a few hours or days. I know that the odds of me winning anything substantial (I do win a few bucks every now and again) are next to nil, but I do like to think about what I’d do if I did win all that money.
At $ 2.00 for an occasional lottery ticket certainly qualifies as entertainment. I certainly have bought tickets for the Large Jackpots if only for an excuse to spend a couple of hours shopping for a good used 120 foot Motoryacht that I can run with a small crew, or a nice custom Gulfstream. They are talking about raising the cost of a ticket to $ 5.00. I think they will that will be an overreach. It will be for me.
In the late 60’s I had an apartment in Somerville. There was no lottery. Across from the Large Catholic Church at the end of the block was the Local “Spa” ( Irish for Bodega ) where any known local could freely play “the Nunba” and/or participate in Wednesday night Bingo. The KofC ran Bingo, but the Winter Hill Gang ran the Numbers ( the last four digits of the daily attendance at dog Track as published in the Boston Herald) just don’t win big and hit all the numbers – it might not be healthy. The State run Lottery at least put an end to all that.
There are other ” Voluntary” Taxes. Gas Taxes – ( buy an electric – No road Taxes – for now ), State Sales Taxes – I live close enough to the NH boarder that I can avoid the 5.5 % mass sales Tax on Consumer goods. Hotel and Airfare Taxes and so on.
But every time I go into my local “Gas and Go” I wind up behind some guy with a stack of scratch Tickets putting down another $50 toward more tickets. That can’t be good. Those are the people who are the true victims of the States take over from the Mob.
Voluntary or not, State or Mob run, it’s still the powerful praying on the week and separating them from their hard eared wages. and it might as well be at gunpoint for all the power some people have to aviod it.
We get a ticket or two per month (only one chance per drawing) when the jackpot is over $100k. We know we probably won’t win, but if we don’t buy a ticket we absolutely won’t win. $50 per year won’t make any difference to our lifestyle. I’m really too cheap to enjoy gambling.
It is only a stupid tax if you think you will win. As others mentioned, a couple bucks here or there for fun is trivia.
NEWS FM LOS ANGELES…..
The guy who, a few years back, won that Billion Dollar Lotto/whatever jackpot, watched his multi-million $ mansion that he bought with part of his winnings, go up in smoke in one of the fires last week.
Oh Well …
That isn’t the lottery’s fault.
That is because the winner was too fucking stupid to leave the communist shithole when he had the means.
If he still has millions – take whatever insurance pays out, give the property away to anyone who will take it so you don’t have tax liability and move to a freedom loving part of the country.
“a fool and his money are soon parted”