# Wow, what a crappy lottery ticket. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 28, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879 "2004-12-28T03:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/21 "2004-12-28T17:12:16Z")
Some people say that lotteries are a tax on stupidity. I don’t think it’s that well defined. They’re a tax on dreams **or** stupidity. If somebody on welfare is buying lottery tickets instead of food, they’re a tax on stupidity. If somebody has some spare cash, would not be caused any problems if they threw away a few $, and buys lottery tickets, they’re a tax on dreams. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/22 "2004-12-28T17:23:06Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > I agree. It’s entertainment. For $1, you can believe for a few hours that you might wake up a multi-millionaire. As long as you look at it that way, and don’t spend too much money on it, it’s not as stupid as all those econogurus say. Yes, I look at it exactly this way. A particularly fun game you can play is “What would I do on the first day after I won?” What you’d tell your boss, purchases you would make, etc. Dang, I’m starting to fantasize already and I don’t even have a ticket. Maybe I’ll have to pick up one of the $26,000,000 Texas lotto tickets at lunch. Although every time I am tempted to do so, I remember this visual analogy: winning the lottery is like trying to pick the right single sheet of paper out of a stack that’s 5 miles high.\* \*no cite ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/23 "2004-12-28T17:37:11Z")
Yeah…just use it for the fun, what-the-hell, dream for a buck. Spending anything more than that is stupid. Still, someone has to win, and I personally know a guy in Germany who won the lottery. He bought a condo, a printing business with his partner which eventully failed, and he bought a big-ass expensive car that he drove for many years. He took a lot of vacations, bought lots of rounds of drinks for friends, had some nice watches and clothes. But all he has left now is the condo, which is actually very nice and the smartest thing he bought. So, someone has to win, and for a buck, you can at least spend a few minutes imagining yourself as the winner while you boss is asking you to data entry that box of records by tomorrow afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/24 "2004-12-28T18:19:44Z")
I see purchasing a lottery ticket as only slightly improving my one and a gazillion chance of winning. It’s worth more for it’s entertainment value. But I still buy them. Well, at least I used to. I _can’t_ win the lottery. The ad agency I work for has the Minnesota State Lottery as a client. So to avoid the appearance of impropriety, nobody I work with can win the lottery. I did buy a few weeks worth of tickets when I was in Chicago for work. Just to get my fix. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/25 "2004-12-28T22:50:04Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Still, someone has to win > … > So, someone has to win. Not true. Someone has to win eventually\*, but no one _has_ to win a particular drawing. \*perhaps not strictly true, but close enough. ---
**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:** [December 28, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/26 "2004-12-28T23:19:47Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > I believe lotteries are a tax on stupid people. I believe buying one ticket in your entire life has statistically equivalent odds of success compared to buying five tickets every week of your life. I believe lotteries are basically pointless and without merit. > > However, I _love_ your logic here, and find it impeccable. Not trying to be overly PC here, but I’d prefer to think it’s a tax on people who are _bad at math._ I know perfectly sane people (present company included) who KNOW they’ll never win, but play on occasion cause, hey, 2/3rds of 110mill would ROCK! ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/27 "2004-12-28T23:59:31Z")
> [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > Not trying to be overly PC here, but I’d prefer to think it’s a tax on people who are _bad at math._ Fair enough. I’ll pad this reply with my standard lottery debunker. Imagine a 1% chance at winning. How likely is it to win a 1% chance drawing? Any RPG’er will tell you the odds aren’t good. Now consider the lottery. You can put 5 sets of numbers on a ticket. So if you buy a full $5 five-entry ticket every single lottery, without fail, you will have reached an aggregate 1% chance to have won in a mere **1500 years**. Good luck. There is no real distinction between buying a ticket and not buying a ticket. The odds of walking down the street and having a winning lottery ticket, carried by the wind, land in your hand are fairly close to the odds of buying a winning ticket straight up. So you can still do the fantasizing thing with just as legitimate a chance to win it all even if you don’t buy a ticket. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/28 "2004-12-29T00:20:31Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > So you can still do the fantasizing thing True > [@](#): > > … with just as legitimate a chance to win it all even if you don’t buy a ticket. Not true. An infinitesmal is **not** repeat **not** the same thing as zero. If it were I don’t think it would be possible to form dy/dx. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/29 "2004-12-29T00:25:04Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > Not true. An infinitesmal is **not** repeat **not** the same thing as zero. If it were I don’t think it would be possible to form dy/dx. But it isn’t zero. An unknown person could will a winning ticket to you. Or the wind could carry the winning ticket into your hand, as I mentioned before. Or you could be walking down the street and just see it sitting there. The chance is _not_ zero. The infinitesimal chance is statistically indistinguishable from the buying a ticket chance, and both are most assuredly _not zero_. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/30 "2004-12-29T03:08:42Z")
If the lottery is truly random, you have an equal chance to win with any six numbers. Your ‘pattern recognition’ is not relevant here. The only difference is the size of the win - here Colophon made the useful point that you might as well pick numbers that are not ‘popular’ choices, since then you will share the same total with less people. As for entering, I personally agree with posters who have said that this is a poor idea (e.g. the UK lottery only gives back 50% of entry fees as prizes), but as long as you use only money you can afford to lose, that’s your free choice. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/31 "2004-12-29T03:19:17Z")
Which of those points aren’t implied in the OP, **glee**? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/32 "2004-12-29T03:21:48Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > There is no real distinction between buying a ticket and not buying a ticket. The odds of walking down the street and having a winning lottery ticket, carried by the wind, land in your hand are fairly close to the odds of buying a winning ticket straight up. I’m not able to do the math but I think you are mistaken. First, you’d have to consider the odds of a lottery ticket-- ANY lottery ticket blowing right into your hand. That’s gotta been astromical right there. And, if it’s blowing around on the street, odds are that it was a losing ticket from a previous drawing that someone threw away. So that reduces your chances a great deal more. Now, even if the one in maybe 1,000,000,000,000 chance a ticket lands in your hand (has it ever happened to anyone? At least people have actually _won_ lotteries before) it’s probably expired. Even if it’s not, you still have to face the already loooong odds that it is a winner. So, there is in fact a VERY real distinction, odds-wise, of buying and not buying a ticket. “You can’t win if you don’t play” seems to hold up pretty well to me (logically speaking). ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/33 "2004-12-29T04:39:13Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Lotteries don’t help fund schools in anything they _need_, because lottery money is variable and thus can’t be earmarked for _required_ materials. > > So lottery money is channelled toward schools in essentially meaningless “fluff” ways. Or so said a 60 Minutes piece, but I’ve been having my doubts about 60 Minutes of late. I think it depends on what state. Georgia apparently does it pretty well. The lottery paid for my boyfriend’s college education, as I understand it. [http://www.galottery.com/gen/education/hopeScholarship.jsp?focus=education](http://www.galottery.com/gen/education/hopeScholarship.jsp?focus=education) ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/34 "2004-12-29T06:29:14Z")
Those who are reading my posts know I am in Bulgaria right now. Just a frame of reference so you understand the weird dream I had last night. After reading this thread I dreamt that I bought a ticket in the “Bulgarian lottery” at a ticket stand for the metro, and it gave me the numbers “0 0 0 0 0 0”. I’m sure Freud could write a book on that. Regardless of Freud, in my dream I won the lottery (I forget how much), but as a foreign citizen I could not collect any winnings. Furthermore, it was illegal for foreigners to buy lottery tickets, and I got deported. The dream just got stranger from there, but i’ll spare you. I just thought it amusing that SMDB threads are now inspiring my weird dreams. As long as the voices don’t start talking about 1920’s style death rays… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/35 "2004-12-31T23:43:54Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Which of those points aren’t implied in the OP, **glee**? 😛 I posted: “If the lottery is truly random, you have an equal chance to win with any six numbers. Your ‘pattern recognition’ is not relevant here.” Read the title of the thread. :rolleyes: I posted: “the UK lottery only gives back 50% of entry fees as prizes.” I think you’ll find this fact is not only not implied, but not mentioned at all in the OP. In fact. 😛😛 ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/36 "2004-12-31T23:52:02Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > So lottery money is channelled toward schools in essentially meaningless “fluff” ways. Or so said a 60 Minutes piece, but I’ve been having my doubts about 60 Minutes of late. My daughter is attending the University of Central Florida with a Bright Futures scholarship - paid by lottery funds. She’s got 100% tuition, plus $300 per semester for expenses. So I feel like the coupla hundred dollars I spent on tickets over the years paid off for us. I don’t think her degree in education will be fluff - she wants to teach elementary school. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879/37 "2005-01-01T00:00:43Z")
Does it say Quick Pick on the ticket? If so, a losing lottery ticket with consecutive numbers, picked by the machine, might be worth something to a collector on eBay. Give it a shot – you might at least get your buck back. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-what-a-crappy-lottery-ticket/281879.md?page=1)