# Do You Buy the Lottery **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772 "2011-09-09T23:56:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/1 "2011-09-09T23:56:04Z")
Do you buy the lottery in any form or variety? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/2 "2011-09-09T23:58:38Z")
I voted yes but it’s really just occasionally, about as often as I drink socially and more or less for the same reason (because a friend is buying or I’m jumping into a pool). ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/3 "2011-09-10T00:37:00Z")
I voted yes, but very rarely, only when the jackpot is some stupendously stupid amount. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/4 "2011-09-10T01:06:42Z")
I’ve bought 2 lottery tickets in my life, which counts as “No” IMO. Why is this a public poll? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/5 "2011-09-10T02:16:56Z")
Only about once or twice. My grandmother, on the other hand, is a fiend for the lottery. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/6 "2011-09-10T02:22:25Z")
I wait for the smallest game (i.e., the one with the greatest chance of winning the jackpot) to get to a level that would permit me to quit my job permanently, and then I buy tickets until someone wins. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/7 "2011-09-10T02:41:52Z")
As I said to the manager of my local Holiday recently; “Every time I think I might be wasting money on the lottery, I see other people buying tobacco and energy drinks. I think I’d rather waste a few dollars on a shot at more money than a few dollars on something that might kill me.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/8 "2011-09-10T03:24:09Z")
Sure, every now and then. It’s a cheap thrill. t’s nice to imagine what I’d do with the loot. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/9 "2011-09-10T03:50:36Z")
Isn’t it about time someone came along to tell us that the lottery is “a tax on people who are bad at maths”? That’s such a sanctimonious smart-arse line. No, it’d only be a tax on people who are bad at maths if everyone who bought a ticket believed they had a good chance of winning. Almost everyone who buys a lottery ticket is well aware that their chance of winning is extremely small, and buying a lottery ticket for most people is a chance to fantasise about what one would do with real money. It’s a harmless gamble. There are people with real gambling problems who apparently believe that a big win is always just around the corner, but most people who gamble just enjoy the excitement. The price of a ticket compared to the entertainment value of a fantasy about winning a large prize makes a lottery ticket very good value, in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/10 "2011-09-10T04:19:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Sure, every now and then. It’s a cheap thrill. t’s nice to imagine what I’d do with the loot. This, it’s a license to dream. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/11 "2011-09-10T04:40:21Z")
I was always amused when I’d sell lottery tickets to people back in high school. (I was working at a grocery store). You’d have people who’d spend fifty bucks, win twenty-five, and figure they’d come out ahead. We had a LOT of old people would come in and it wasn’t unusual for them to spend one hundred bucks at a time. Yikes. I think the biggest payout was about $500. The winning number? 666. I shit you not. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/12 "2011-09-10T05:02:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Sure, every now and then. It’s a cheap thrill. t’s nice to imagine what I’d do with the loot. Exactly. Coincidentally I bought a ticket today at a 7-11. I often do when I go into one - which is about two to three times a year. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/13 "2011-09-10T11:36:13Z")
Yes. It comes out of my Entertainment budget. (You know, the money that I would otherwise spend on junk food and bad movies.) ---
**Author:** ![Bri2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/48db29/32.png) [@Bri2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bri2k)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/14 "2011-09-10T11:57:35Z")
In Soviet Russia, Lottery buy YOU! I play sometimes when there’s a really big jackpot. However, I suck at picking numbers (my skill is picking boxes in football pools) so I always use the random “quick pick”. A friend of mine once said he believes quick picks never win. I wonder if that’s true. Bri2k ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/15 "2011-09-10T12:05:35Z")
Once in a blue moon, as a hoot. Sometimes on impulse I’ll buy some scratch lottery cards. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/16 "2011-09-10T12:21:25Z")
No. The last lottery ticket I bought was before I got married (1994) and done more along the lines of “Hey, I’m in Florida and can buy a lottery ticket!” (I lived in non-lottery Georgia at the time, so this would have been 1992 or so). ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/17 "2011-09-10T13:09:29Z")
I toss in a buck when people at the office are buying tickets, about once a month. I always have at least a dollar in change laying around and in the extreme off chance that we get a winner, it sure would suck to be the one guy left in the office while everyone else quits. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/18 "2011-09-10T13:17:22Z")
How come my vote wasn’t counted? I voted and it’s telling me I already voted if I try to vote again but my name isn’t there… ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/19 "2011-09-10T16:07:24Z")
Not even once. I just don’t have the money to spend like that. My SO’s brother plays regularly and often wins enough to justify what he spent. He may come out 20 or so dollars ahead, so I don’t see the harm. He’s not expecting to strike it rich; it’s just like playing nickel slots I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772/20 "2011-09-10T16:14:41Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > How come my vote wasn’t counted? I voted and it’s telling me I already voted if I try to vote again but my name isn’t there… It’s there! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-buy-the-lottery/595772.md?page=2)