I Want to be Rich, Very Badly

[Dan in Pasadena]

Okay, okay the thread title is stolen from a rammstein comment in the Hawaii thread, so sue me....I don't have any money anyway!

Wondering how many of us (obviously I am) sacrificing themselves to the,
"...tax for people who are terrible at math..." otherwise known as the lottery? Specifically the Mega drawing this week is now supposed to be up to about $325,000,000.00 (I like tying all the zeroes and the comma's).

I bought $5 (yeah, big spender) and of course I bought $5 worth over the weekend and lost. I don't buy all the time. Weeks and months come and go when I do not buy then for some reason it sorta comes over me. I've never spent all that much on it; like $100 or something....but sometimes I just feel like I've GOT to buy. I buy when I travel a long distance out of my local area - as if that makes the slightest difference.

Confess your guilty indulgence or preach your superior understanding here!

[pwd72s]

Dan, I'm even more of a cheapskate than you, blowing a WHOLE DOLLAR when a jackpot gets huge. Thinking about it though, winning a prize that large could be more of a curse than a blessing.

Get out you calculator and read the odds...then imagine each of those chances to hit all the numbers right as one inch of highway...how many miles is that? From Seattle to L.A.?

Imagine yourself driving that distance, and tossing a gum wrapper out the window, having your gum wrapper falling on that one inch!

Still, somebody wins once in a while...and a few bucks spent in order to fantasize for a few hours isn't really a sin, is it?

[LeeH]

I used the same sort of explanation when my 7 year old asked about the lottery, but I used the 1 ft. tiles in our house. I had her try to guess which tile I was thinking about. We started with1 out of 10, then 8, then 4. Our house has about 500 tiles... we didn't even try the whole house. It just seems silly to even bet a dollar at those odds... and they're excellent compared to the real thing.

[scottmandue]

I only play two or three times a year for five bucks, knowing that the odds are astronomical I only buy when something crazy lucky happens to me during the course of the day. Still pretty silly when you think about it...

[azasadny]

I have only purchased one lottery ticket in my entire life and I don't plan on doing it again. Moment of weakness, I guess...

[Dan in Pasadena]

Paul, That's really the point of buying the ticket, isn't it? The fantasy and few minutes discussing what you'd do? I think I heard the odds stated as 176,000,000 to 1. Roughly like getting hit by lightning in the same spot TWICE. Still, someone IS going to win.

Yes, if I won it would undoubtedly come with its own set of problems. I won't trivialize those...too many winners have had tragedy in their lives as a result. I undoubtedly would quit my job, pay off the few I owe, travel and buy cars - the usual. But the biggest enticement to me is the freedom.

In one of my favorite books, (those of you who are readers will know this reference) there is an exchange that goes,

"Then you mean that money is everything?"

"I'm saying that without power you canna be a saint in this day and age. Power for its own sake is a sin. Money for its own sake is a sin"

Is it so important to have money and power?"

"Nay laddie"......."The lack of money's what's important"

Having come through a mid life divorce and the financial outfall of that, I truly know what this passage means now. I'm buying the tickets.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

From Seattle to L.A.?

Powerball odds are 1:146,107,962.
146,107,962/12=12175663.5 ft.
12175663.5/5280=2306 miles or a little further than driving from L.A. to Atlanta. Yikes!

[MBAtarga]

I've got a small book titled "Why Buses Come in Threes". The book is about probabilities and some logic problems, and explains them in layman's terms.

In it, the author claims if you are planning to buy a weekly lottery ticket, always wait until Friday. The reason is simple. The odds of you dieing any one day are GREATER than the odds of you winning the lottery. Simply put, if you buy the ticket on Monday, you are more likely to die by Friday than you are to win the drawing. And you would have wasted that dollar.

Having said that, I still by 5 or 10 tickets about once a year - when the amount gets high ($200M or more).

[tabs]

325M U say?

[URY914]

You'll NEVER win if you don't play.

You might win if you do play.

[RoninLB]

$1 is cheap entertainment.


in a group work setting $1 each into a partnership provides lol's.

[on-ramp]

why do some people buy lottery tickets only when the jackpot gets very high, like 300 Million. What's the matter, isn't 10 million or 20 million enough money for them?

[pwd72s]

Well Dan, Should your gum wrapper fall on the right inch? Your EX would not be entitled to higher alimony. Of course, upping child support, if any, would be
your option.

How's that for a beautiful few hours of fantasy, purchased for only a few bucks?

[Aerkuld]

The only time I will spend money on the lottery is if there is an office pool. That isn't because we might win just that if by some freak chance we did I don't want to be the one sitting there the next morning by myself.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by Aerkuld

I don't want to be the one sitting there the next morning by myself.

HAHA! That's great! I've got the attitude, why go down to the 7/11 when I can just stay home, wad up dollar bills and toss 'em in the waste basket?

[Dottore]

Saw this on a bumber sticker:

Lotteries are a tax on people who can't do the math.

[BeyGon]

I look at the odds of winning the lottery and it seems I have a better chance of being eaten by a shark in my bathtub, but, I spend a dollar on them all the time. The odds are great but I know, without a doubt, not a chance in the world, zip, nada, no way will I ever get that much money at work. So it is my little chance.

[berettafan]

we buy maybe $10 a year in tickets. cheap entertainment IMO.


in regards to alimony i came to a conclusion today while working on a clients tax woes; alimony is prostitution paid in arrears.

[sketchers356]

I can maybe understand paying $1 for a fantasy but is the fantasy any better when you have 5 chances at it. If you are going to win it you don't need 5 chances.

But don't listen to me, I'm a physicist, I don't pay attention to the rules of math.

[speeder]

I've heard that your odds are about the same if you play or don't play.