Do You Purchase Lotto Tickets ?

[fordy]

..............I purchase a few , every so often IF I 'Think' about it ! Almost always , I just buy 2 or 3 $1.00 dollar tickets and let the computer pick my numbers for me , I'm lazy .
..............When I really want to "Gamble" to quote Blue Duck from Lonesome Dove I drive 75 miles north to the casino in OK and blow 50 to 100 on the slot machines ! I did win $180 once on a dime slot but it wasn't enough to make me acquire a habit for gambling . I figure it'll be atleast 2 years before I have any extra $$ to throw away at the Casino , But , I can still afford a few Lotto tickets every so often . , fordy

[Nevada]

The house take is too high for me. I never buy any kind of lottery ticket.

[Kmac15]

well, I don't smoke, don't drink and don't run around. So I figure the $2-$5 a month I may spend is cheap entertainment. I get several hours of good thoughts from each one.
The most I have ever won is $2.

[Bret]

No. I buy I insurance in case my number comes up.

[brownegg]

Yep, but I only spend $1 for a ticket just to have a chance....if I buy one ticket a week for the whole year at $52 bucks and get afew small winners along the way, which I do, then it's fun to never have a winning ticket that we all would love to have, Eh! Keep it fun and never spend more than a buck or two....

[DaleK]

No. I don't send the government my spare change either.

[watcher]

I have a wide view on lottery tickets.

First I figure I'm way ahead of 99.999% of all the people who have bought them. I was living in Missouri when it first started a lottery. I bought a $1 ticket which was a $2 winner. I cashed in, put one dollar in my pocket, bought a second ticket which lost. I haven't bought a ticket since. How many other players out there can say they have broken even playing.

For my views. I see it as first and foremost a tax on the stupid for those playing it actually thinking they'll win something. Same thought for all gambling, if there was a true winning system then there would not be any gambling places because they'd be broke.

I also look at it another way. Where else can you get an entire week's worth of entertainment for a buck? You buy your ticket on the first day after the drawing and you can spend seven whole days enjoying dreaming up the ways you'd spend the money if you win.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by watcher

For my views. I see it as first and foremost a tax on the stupid for those playing it actually thinking they'll win something. Same thought for all gambling, if there was a true winning system then there would not be any gambling places because they'd be broke.

I also look at it another way. Where else can you get an entire week's worth of entertainment for a buck? You buy your ticket on the first day after the drawing and you can spend seven whole days enjoying dreaming up the ways you'd spend the money if you win.

Realistically, it's a way to tax the poor. It's not entertainment that they're buying, it's a dream. The poor need that dream so the price of a lottery ticket is worth it to them. People who don't need the money quite so badly can look at lottery gambling more rationally.

But there are ways to beat casinos. It's just that they don't like it so they chase advantage gamblers out.

[Harry Chickpea]

If the payout is extremely high I might buy one or two. I have bought a few in the past as "gifts" in the obligatory $5 gift office parties. For a couple of years a place I worked sold the scratch-off tickets. Sitting there selling them and SEEING the minimal rate of return was very instructive.

[TnAndy]

Games for the math challenged. I don't play.

[fordy]

..............Texas supposedly , doesn't have any Casino type gambling establishments !
Buuuuuuuuuut , we do have FamilyBingo ! , fordy

[Ross]

Sure once and a while, but only if the prize is 30 million plus. I probably miss most of those lotteries too.

[gilberte]

Let's see it's illegal for me to run a lottery but it's okay for the State?

[geo in mi]

I don't gamble.

geo

[glock26USMC]

Negative, don't play the lottery, however, I do enjoy my Vegas trips

[logbuilder]

Can't say I have ever played it. And no intention. But if it works for you, good luck.

I know of no other LV game with anywhere near the odds of the lottery. Nobody would play it.

I play blackjack. It is enjoyable. I'm happy to break even.

Best odds are on the pass line on the craps table. That takes stamina to play that line but it will win in the long run. You are playing with the house. Only bet like that in the place. Of course, you follow the hot rollers for bit.

Just an alternative view to lottery.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by geo in mi

I don't gamble.

geo

It's not even a gamble....it's a near sure fired loss.

Take the "big" ones, for example. Odds are usually one in a hundred million or more. I explain it to folks this way:

You ever been killed by lightning ? No ? ( obviously )

Know anyone that has been ? No ? (or rarely you do run into one).

Well, every year in this country about 300 people ARE killed by lightning. There are about 300 million folks here, so that is one out of a million odds....yet it never happened to you, nor anyone you know, even though you've been in THAT lottery for all your life....year after year....

WHY would you think you're gonna win a lottery with 100 (or more) times those odds ?

Answer: You're not. What you are doing is paying a math tax to the State for the inability to understand large numbers.

[Laura Zone 10]

Yep
Cheap entertainment.

[CountryMom22]

No, never. We occasionally talk about buying a ticket when it gets super high, but we never do. Hubby went to Atlantic City once, gambled away $50 and never saw the point in it. We figure just trying to make ends meet each month is gambling enough for us. We work too hard for our money to waste it. To each his own.

[Ozarks Tom]

Not since I left Texas. My ex-wife used to play our birthdays every week, so I bought one ticket every week with the same numbers. No way was she becoming a millionaire alone with my birthday!