# Do you play the lottery? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 3, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590 "2011-05-03T17:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/61 "2011-05-25T08:01:22Z")
I play, using a multi week style ticket. I never know what the jackpot is, or whether I’ve won anything, until I front up at the newsagents every few months to renew. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/62 "2011-05-25T08:44:38Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Unfortunately, because this poll got more yes responses, he will not stop playing, but at least it didn’t skew as heavily towards the yes responses as he had predicted. Thanks for participating! If you want valid poll results, you don’t poll a very specific non-random interest group. It’s bound to skew. If I had to guess, the results of a poll of a true cross section of US society would be even worse for you. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/63 "2011-05-25T20:18:41Z")
I voted no. I just don’t get the appeal at all. How can you enjoy a fantasy that is so unlikely to come true? To me, it would be just setting myself up to be disappointed every week. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/64 "2011-05-25T20:57:57Z")
When the pool gets over $50M I’ll drop a five on tickets. It gives a little extra hope to the day. Besides, I firmly believe that Og wants to do wonderful things for me. It’s my job to give him every possible opportunity! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/65 "2011-05-25T21:03:31Z")
Every once in a while, especially when the jackpot gets fairly big. It’s a buck. I know it’s an almost certainty that I’m not going to win, but - it’s a buck. For the small price every once in while, for less then the change that gathers in my car seat console, for even the extremely small chance to win a life-changing amount of money… sure, I do it every once in a while, when I think about it. I always have to roll my eyes at the people who sniff, “The lottery is just a tax on the stupid.” Look, we’re not stupid. We’re not basing future plans on winning the damn thing. We KNOW we’re almost certainly not going to win. But someone does, and for an amount of money that’s insignificant to me (even if you add up all those bucks I spend over the course of a year), I have no regrets. I’ll always think of my high school science teacher, who stopped showing up one day. Turns out he won the lottery. Bummer for us, since he was actually one of the cool teachers, but still… good for him. I hope he’s still living off of investments from that win to this day. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/66 "2011-05-27T03:24:32Z")
I play maybe 5-10 times/year, Powerball w/ powerplay, only when it’s above $100 million. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/67 "2011-05-27T03:31:26Z")
I’ll grab a ticket everyone once in a while, to the tune of about $10 a year. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/68 "2011-05-27T03:35:17Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Yes, I _get_ that it’s a voluntary tax, or a tax on people who can’t do math, blah blah blah. > > But you know what? The guy who won $100 million last week? The odds were the same for him as they are for me. The difference is, he won. > > Also, not playing _guarantees_ that I won’t win, with 100% certainty. > > All that being said: I can’t remember the last time I bought an instant ticket. Usually I play on-line games like MegaMillions or Powerball. But rarely-- less than ten times per year. I came here to say exactly this, but you beat me to it. As long as someone recognizes that the odds make it just south of impossible to win when they play, it’s perfectly OK. It’s when they actually think they can win that it becomes a stupid tax on people bad at math. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/69 "2011-05-27T11:50:30Z")
Yes. It comes out of my entertainment budget. You know, the money I would otherwise spend on junk food and bad movies. Also, since I live in a state with strong victim-restitution laws, it gives me an incentive to refrain from strangling my co-workers. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/70 "2011-05-27T12:41:05Z")
Not only do I not play, I feel it is immoral for the government to sell false hope like this. If they wanted to privatize this sort of gambling I would be mostly OK with it. I would definitely buy stock in such a company. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/71 "2011-05-27T14:25:44Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Not only do I not play, I feel it is immoral for the government to sell false hope like this. If they wanted to privatize this sort of gambling I would be mostly OK with it. I would definitely buy stock in such a company. Screw that. As it is, a large chunk of lottery earnings is returned to the community via various benefit programs; it helps pay for mass transit, schools, and other stuff. The exact beneficiaries and amount of money vary by state, but I’ve seen figures around 30% of the money taken in. We would be very much the worse off if the lottery was privatized and all of that went to executives and stockholders instead. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/72 "2011-05-27T14:37:25Z")
Most weeks I put €3 down for a change to win between 2-15 million depending on if it’s been won in the last few weeks. I know the odds are crazy but I don’t care. I buy and dream for a few seconds adn then just get on with my life. If I win something then Yay but I don’t expect to and waste more money on sillier things. Oh and also the money goes to good causes so that’s all good to. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/73 "2011-05-27T14:44:13Z")
About once every month or so I get a wild hair across my ass when I see “Powerball Jackpot: $150 Million!” and I throw away a dollar. It’s a fair price for a few days of “I’m gonna quit my job and buy a Porsche” fantasies. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/74 "2011-05-27T14:55:53Z")
What bugs me about certain Powerball players, that shall remain unidentified (hi mom), is when the jackpot gets really huge so they up their investment from $1 to $10 or $20 or whatever. My mother just doesn’t seem to get that changing the odds from 1:1,000,000,000 to 1:999,999,999.99 doesn’t really do anything for her. I can see tossing a buck a that particular ridiculous dream, but why throw away another $9. Hell, I’ll take it … I’ll even give you a dollar for it. Then again, I’m even dumber about the whole rigamarole because I’ll throw the dollar away, collect my ticket, have my little fantasy and then forget completely that I’ve bought the friggin’ thing so I never check to see if I’ve won anyway. Hell, I could have been a millionaire several times over by now for all I know. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590/75 "2011-05-27T15:43:29Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Screw that. As it is, a large chunk of lottery earnings is returned to the community via various benefit programs; it helps pay for mass transit, schools, and other stuff. The exact beneficiaries and amount of money vary by state, but I’ve seen figures around 30% of the money taken in. We would be very much the worse off if the lottery was privatized and all of that went to executives and stockholders instead. This 100%! [Ontario Lottery and Gaming](http://www.olg.ca/about/economic_benefits/index.jsp) publishes an accounting of where lottery profits are disbursed and how the expenses associated with lottery add to the local economies. I’m not a real fan of lotteries (although I play with some people from work) but I would be opposed to any corporation except one I start making the crazy profits they do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-play-the-lottery/580590.md?page=3)