What is with people that think is a tax and that everyone who plays doesn’t understand statistics? It isn’t a tax. Different people play for different reasons but I think most as a dream. I took statistics in college, I understand the odds. Ten bucks to watch a 90 min movie or 90 minutes of daydreaming about winning the lottery, each about the same entertainment value to me.
I’m confused if the current payout after taxes is 616,280,000 in Colorado and the odds of winning is 1/292,200,000 then isn’t the expected value of a ticket $2.109 which is greater then the cost of the ticket so by buying a ticket you are making 5.45% on your investment. Of course that doesn’t account for the value of the smaller prizes. It seems anyone saying it’s a tax on the math challenged haven’t done the math and are repeating what someone told them.
:smack: I’m used to people calling taxes regressive when they’re actually flat, but rarely do they use both words in the same sentence!
I never think about the possibility of being very rich because it won’t happen. If I buy a ticket, there is a chance, however tiny, of it happening. I would have to buy a ticket to have that enjoyment.
To each his own, indeed, especially with regard to where you draw the line between economy and convenience. But there are several discount gas stations near me and I usually fill up there unless I’m going in a different direction and they’re out of my way, in which case I don’t. So I’m never inconvenienced. It’s probably more than $100 in savings over the year with absolutely zero effort, so why not?
As I mentioned elsewhere, the first lottery in North America AFAIK was a municipal one in Montreal in 1968 that was used to help pay for Expo 67 and the new subway, and which was the start of the government-run lottery craze. The Montreal mayor at the time referred to this pioneering initiative as a “voluntary tax”.
I have no idea what you’re on about. I explained why lottery expenditures amount to a regressive tax in that same post, because of the disproportionate impact on the poor, which is also why simple flat tax rates are regressive. This is hardly a controversial position …
A week after America went crazy over the record Mega Millions jackpot, we want to reiterate the cruel truth about lotteries. They are (1) regressive taxes on poor people, in that a ticket costs relatively more for a poor person than a rich person, and (2) punitive taxes on the poor and uneducated people who are the most avid buyers.
Wow, people actually enjoy throwing away money? I am in the wrong business.
Not like you can get into the lottery business unless you are the government. Although you’ve apparently never heard of “casinos” either (albeit still a pretty high barrier-to-entry business).
As I’ve read someone point out, which set of odds do you think is better for you: that you’ll win a billion dollars in the lottery, or that you’ll earn a billion dollars through your own personal work ethic and networking?
Now that I think about it, I think that answers the OP, and why many people tend to only play when the jackpots get newsworthy large.
I lost ten grand in the stock market last week, thank you for asking.
Do you have any concept of how our economy works?
Please don’t call other people mathematically challenged when it’s clear that you either haven’t done the math yourself, or you don’t understand the concept of “expected value”. As Oredigger77 points out, large jackpots like the current one have an expected value higher than the cost of a ticket.
(Though that doesn’t matter quite so much to the individual, since $100 million and $1 billion are both life-changing-huge.)
From the OP to this point, it seems like you’re really interested in ranting about people who play the lottery.
As such, this seems more appropriate in the Pit. Thread relocated from IMHO.
I dunno, why not just start another one
Yes, yes, you’re very smart. Here’s a cookie - go away now.
Don’t send him away. He will come back with -
What’s up with smoking?
What’s up with all these people eating fast food?
What’s up with all this alcohol consumption?
What’s up with hover-boards?
To be fair: things like making coffee at home or moving retirement accounts take time and effort. You pay more because you’re no good at making coffee, or you’re too lazy to have a comprehensive understanding of the stock market. With the lottery… You pay more in order to have a one-in-a-billion shot of earning a lot of money. Huh.
Like, I get that it’s a “we can dream, dammit” thing, but that doesn’t stop it from being really stupid if done regularly.
Yes, but some of those other decisions (like where and how to invest your life savings) can be a lot more costly than an occasional lottery ticket. My point is that people are so smug about this one thing and so careless or irrational in making a thousand other decisions.
…and it doesn’t count on a second (or third or fourth) winner. Any split throws those odds back into the house’s favor, and the odds of having to split the prize are pretty high (my back of the envelope says 75%, anyone else got a real number?).
It’s foolish to play the lottery.
But it’s also foolish to not play the lottery.
[sub]further zen aphorisms will be provided as appropriate[/sub]
Gambling isn’t just about odds, it’s about risk vs. reward. The lottery presents negligible risk and massive reward, hence it’s not a bad decision mathematically to buy one lottery ticket (as others have said, if you are buying dozens of tickets a week then the risk becomes notable and the decision-making more questionable). But for the most part people uttering this trope about “a tax on the stupid” are demonstrating ignorance of very basic principles.