No one buys a ticket without first already having dreamed how they’ll spend the winnings.
That’s how it worked out in Florida, despite contrary promises made when a state lottery was first proposed.
And that is the only valid reason to play. I imagine a ticket in hand lends some feeling of legitimacy to your daydreams.
DrDeth, not to be overly rude, but I think even buying a couple is idiocy. That first one may serve you as fuel for your fantasies, but there is no benefit to the second one.
But it doubles your chances. 
No, most of the proceeds from the lottery actually do go towards the Hope Scholarship in Georgia. Probably this is because of the huge uproar that would happen if the funds for it were depleted and the scholarship was eliminated. It’s not a risk many politicians are willing to make. In fact, there was a newspaper article yesterday talking about how the funds for the scholarship are increasing because of increased lottery playing. Note, though, that I’m talking about the Hope specifically, not education funding in general.
While living in Massachussets I noticed that more people seemed to play the lottery than where I grew up in Virginia. This turned out to be not just my perception, the Boston Globe ran a long series on the people spending money on the lottery and how the poorest locales were the biggest spenders. I was staggered by the numbers.
Check out this link, http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1302.html. The average Rhode Islander spends $1,373 annually on the lottery. With the state vig they get back roughly $686 in winnings. So they are volunteering to pay an additional tax to the state of nearly $700 bucks a year. I find it even more frightening when I wonder what the average expenditure is per capita once you exclude people who never buy a ticket. It is just amazing.
I always thought this was dumb, but once I started to play poker seriously I started to understand just how larcenous the lottery is. If you go to a casino the house has an edge that is tiny compared to the state sponsored edge on the lottery. Even the sucker games are excellent bets compared to buying a lottery ticket. When you look at poker it is an even finer line. Good players work on their game relentlessly to squeeze another 1/10 % of advantage from their play. I pay the house (Poker Stars or Full Tilt) around 2% to run the game and make it up from my edge over other players by being more skilled. The lottery player gives a 50% edge to the house with no chance of developing superior skill.
This is why anti-gambling laws are the basest hypocrisy. The state creates a monopoly on gambling and grants itself an unconscionable edge through the use of force and coercion. They are essentially robbing people too stupid to fend for themselves on one hand, and preventing them from being robbed more slowly on the other. If private legal lotteries were allowed I guarantee you the edge would be somewhere around 5%.
To all the anti-lottery folks:
FUCK ALL OF YOU. You self-righteous pricks look your noses up at all lottery players whether they buy 200 tickets or 2.
I buy maybe one scratch-off every few weeks and a “Mega Millions” ticket when the jackpot is $150 million +. All told I probably spend around $30 a year. Less than most of you spend on crap I’m sure I disapprove of. But I’m polite enough to know it’s your money so it’s your business.
So once again, fuck you all, I think I’ll buy a lottery ticket during lunch.
There is a check cashing place across the street from my office that cashes welfare checks. There is a convenience store down the street from them that sells lottery tickets.
There is a very well worn path between the two places.
That’s the way it went in Missouri when gambling came in.
Before: 100K from the state to a school district from the general revenue fund.
After: 50K from gambling and 50K from the general revenue fund.
Advertising: Money from gambling goes to support education! :smack:
Well this finally makes it look like a Pit Thread at least and not IMHO.
I do not think many of us would condemn you for the $30 per year. It is more the very poor who spend $30 per week that are being pitted for their stupidity.
I think it is only a few that would condemn you for your very minor purchases. I probably drop $10-15 per year in company mass purchases for huge prizes. That is almost defensive and it is superstitious. I do not want to be the one left behind and I would rather chip in my $2 or $3.
Jim
While very few are coming out and saying any lottery playing is bad. There’s enough general condemnation in this thread to piss me off.
I’ll let you all know how I do on that lunchtime scratch-off later.
Good Luck.
You’re right, I do look down on you a bit. Much the same way as people who give their money to psychics. Sure, it is completely their right to do it, and it is completely my right to laugh at them for doing so. At least psychics give you a show.
How much did you win? 
So the stack of money I’ve won from pocket change is somehow analagous to a psychic reading? Once again, it’s $30, in an entire year. How much did you spend last weekend at the bar? What about the $60 carton of cigarettes upthread?
The lottery isn’t a tax on stupid people, it’s a test for a whimsical personality.
Congratulations, you fail.
Oh, and I guess you’ll be happy to know I lost $1 on the scratch-off I just bought.
We run several Lottos a week here in CA, I will buy up to one ticket per drawing but sometimes only one ticket a week, and sometimes none. I also like looking through the glossy Real Estate catalog magazines and picking which one I’d buy if I won the Lotto. But that’s only when I have run out of real things to read.
This is the thing that gets me about gambling. Most states have all these restrictions on certain types of gambling, but they’re running a numbers game! Slots would contribute to all sorts of social ills! Casinos are bad! We’ll raid your poker game!
But, hey, we’ll sell you numbers at a 50% vig.
Like mentioned upthread, even the absoulte *worst * bets in a casino are miles ahead of a lottery as far as return to player goes. And I guess that right there is the reason the state wants to maintain its monopoly.
And they use budget concerns as the rationalization. Managing a budget on the backs of the poor and the stupid is morally indefensible (IMHO).
If states really cared about their citizens they would privatize the numbers games (which would, like stated above, run about a 5% vig) and tax the proceeds like any other business.
Dude, did you even bother to read the thread? Chill. No one is talking about people like you, who buy a ticket every now and then for amusement.
We’re talking about people who probably have a serious gambling problem AND who are rude, pushy, and inconvenience others, because of their own selfishness. People who spend almost ALL of their money, money they really can’t afford, to buy a whole bunch of tickets.
Now settle down, Beavis.
(Oh, and here in PA, most of the lottery proceeds benefit the elderly. So there is THAT).
I never understood the draw of the scratchers. When I (rarely) buy a ticket, it’s always for the biggest payout. Who wants to fantasize about winning $500 when you can fantasize about winning $100 million? And, yeah, I think that the entertainment value of fantasizing is easily worth a few dozen dollars a year. I’d probably buy more than the one or two tickets a year I do buy if it were more convenient for me to do so.
Guin, you are mistaken, there are a few condemning lottery playing period. It is only a few and only those few should consider what Justin_Bailey wrote to be directed at them. His post is aimed at the “self-righteous pricks look your noses up at all lottery players whether they buy 200 tickets or 2” not everyone that posted in the thread.
I hope that helps to clarify the confusion.
Jim