T
TINY
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Have you ever won anything. Is it a waste of money?. I play it daily hoping to win one day but was told the chances of winning are the same as being struck by lightning. How true is that?.
A
Art Mann
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- Thread starter
- #3
"Playing" lotteries strikes me as a misnomer. The phrase makes no sense to me. No skill is required, no sense of individual or team spirit, no game psychology, no breathtaking spectacle of human endeavour.
As I see it, buying a lottery ticket is merely an opportunity to pay voluntary tax to the government.
That said, I admit to buying lottery tickets on occasion. Apart from the satisfaction of being a contributing taxpayer, a lottery ticket allows me to indulge in a week-long fantasy about winning (and spending) insane amounts of dollars.
Two things I don't understand about many other people who "play" lotteries:
1) Why buy more than one ticket for a specific draw date?
A single ticket makes all the difference in the world. Without a ticket: impossible to win. With a ticket: possible. Ten or twenty tickets? Still the same chance of winning as being struck by lightning.
2) Scratch and lose tickets: what's the appeal?
I've seen people buy handfuls of these as I walk into the variety store. Several minutes later while standing in line to pay for my purchase, I've watched them still standing near the exit scratching tickets and throwing them away. Or sometimes they're in the lineup in front of me to spend another $20 or $30 bucks for the pleasure of scratch and lose.
I just don't get it.
As I see it, buying a lottery ticket is merely an opportunity to pay voluntary tax to the government.
That said, I admit to buying lottery tickets on occasion. Apart from the satisfaction of being a contributing taxpayer, a lottery ticket allows me to indulge in a week-long fantasy about winning (and spending) insane amounts of dollars.
Two things I don't understand about many other people who "play" lotteries:
1) Why buy more than one ticket for a specific draw date?
A single ticket makes all the difference in the world. Without a ticket: impossible to win. With a ticket: possible. Ten or twenty tickets? Still the same chance of winning as being struck by lightning.
2) Scratch and lose tickets: what's the appeal?
I've seen people buy handfuls of these as I walk into the variety store. Several minutes later while standing in line to pay for my purchase, I've watched them still standing near the exit scratching tickets and throwing them away. Or sometimes they're in the lineup in front of me to spend another $20 or $30 bucks for the pleasure of scratch and lose.
I just don't get it.
Madman
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- Aug 12, 2011
- Messages
- 17,534
I buy tickets with a group at work. Imagine saying no thank you and then seeing all their smiling faces on the front page of paper holding their winning ticket. Then they all retire while the sucker I was has to keep coming in to work-no thanks!!
J
Jesus Quintana
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- Thread starter
- #5
Lotteries are a tax on the gullible.
I pay my taxes every week.
I budget myself at $10 per week and if I get a decent winning ticket (beyond a free ticket) it goes into a "kitty" for the next draw.
So I blow 500 a year on lottery tickets but I also take that out of my cigarette budget.
I pay my taxes every week.
I budget myself at $10 per week and if I get a decent winning ticket (beyond a free ticket) it goes into a "kitty" for the next draw.
So I blow 500 a year on lottery tickets but I also take that out of my cigarette budget.
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Guido
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- Thread starter
- #6
I play, I don't win but I do know 3 big winners.
J
Jesus Quintana
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- Thread starter
- #7
The OLG, The Bureaucrats, and the ticket sellers?
Damn you beat me to it :bomb:
SillyGirl
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- Apr 7, 2017
- Messages
- 7,246
I used to play Megabucks and Powerball occasionally, when the jackpots got huge. I always got Quick Picks, where the computer picks your numbers for you.
Recently I actually settled on a set of numbers, and play the same ones each time. But now I feel like I have to play every week, because if those numbers come up and I didn't play, I'll know I would have won if I had just spent a buck.
Once many years ago someone who was into numerology did my numbers for me, and she gave me a 4-digit number that she said was my number. I played it every day in the daily lottery for a couple months, and didn't win a dime. Finally I stopped playing it. Two weeks later it came up exact, and I would have won thousands.
Scratch-offs...I love them. The most I ever won was $500.
I could never live in Vegas, because I'm always sure I'll at least break-even when I gamble.
Recently I actually settled on a set of numbers, and play the same ones each time. But now I feel like I have to play every week, because if those numbers come up and I didn't play, I'll know I would have won if I had just spent a buck.
Once many years ago someone who was into numerology did my numbers for me, and she gave me a 4-digit number that she said was my number. I played it every day in the daily lottery for a couple months, and didn't win a dime. Finally I stopped playing it. Two weeks later it came up exact, and I would have won thousands.
Scratch-offs...I love them. The most I ever won was $500.
I could never live in Vegas, because I'm always sure I'll at least break-even when I gamble.
Hey, we agree on something!
Only difference is I say "lotteries are a tax on the stupid"........
I read somewhere that on most lotteries, and Lotto Max in particular, the odds of winning are about the same whether you actually buy a ticket or not......
Did you not read Curly's ?.
I have the same fear too. No way am I'm getting in a shiny van!
J
Jesus Quintana
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- Thread starter
- #16
Even if the driver has free candy?
and for lotto max it is 1 in 28,633,528
again, you have about the same odds whether you play or not.....
I rarely watch that show but did have it on once while I made dinner.....in the first "game" they blew 2 of their 3 chances on the first questions. I hadn't watched much so I thought that it was normal for the first questions to be so difficult. Then the next contestants their first 3 questions were so fricken easy. I think one was "what is the symbol on the Canadian Flag" or something like that. In the previous game the first question was something like "what is the banished tibetan ruler's cousin's first name".....lol....
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