I'm not saying you need permission (so you can give up on that distractive line of reasoning), just that you are on notice of tax consequences before taking a voluntarily action.
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Powerball jackpot hits $550 million, whose buying lottery tickets?
- Thread starter ace99
- Start date
Ha, boy don't I wish
But sadly no. The winner bought their ticket about 100 miles north of me, apparently.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Murky
Deity
I must have been one of the most unlucky in this drawing. Not even a $1 back on my purchase.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
As a comedian on the Comedy Channel once put it, the lottery is a tax on those who aren't good at math.
Murky
Deity
What if you could devise a system where by putting a small amount of money into a savings account automatically enters you into a lottery drawing? That way they could use the interest off the money to pay out the prize and the poor would still have their money (in savings).
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
If that were true, states wouldn't have lotteries because they would be losing money instead of making billions:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-11/dismal-odds-winning-lottery-infographic
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
I've never lost money on a scratch-off ticket.
kochman
Deity
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Formy is absolutely right on this one... Lotteries are run specifically to raise revenue.
It's not just a random entitlement or something. Over the long haul, you will most likely lose more than you spend. It's a very similar premise to a casino... you may get lucky here or there, but chances are against you. The difference is, in the lotto, chances are really really really against you but the ultimate pay off is gigantic.
Bamspeedy
CheeseBob
Scratch-offs have better chances of getting your money back than the drawings, but even then it's not 40% (almost 1/2).
Powerball:
(The two possibilities of winning $4 is 1/55 and 1/110, then winning the higher prizes brings the overall odds of winning at least something to 1/31.85).
Scratch-offs have better odds at the smaller prizes, and much smaller 'grand prizes'.
In that example a scratch off has overall odds of what, 1/7 or maybe 1/6, but what will most do when they win $1 or $2 on a scratch off? Spend it on buying another one right away. With the twice weekly drawings you have to wait 3-4 days before spending your winnings on another ticket (ok if you want to get technical, you can buy a ticket the next day but you have to wait 3-4 days to find out if you won again).
I've worked at a convenience store as well and over the course of a half hour I sold a woman $150 worth of tickets. Sure, she won some but then spent it on buying more, so she still lost $60 or something (can't remember how much she did spend of her own money since it was so long ago).
Powerball:
(The two possibilities of winning $4 is 1/55 and 1/110, then winning the higher prizes brings the overall odds of winning at least something to 1/31.85).
Scratch-offs have better odds at the smaller prizes, and much smaller 'grand prizes'.
In that example a scratch off has overall odds of what, 1/7 or maybe 1/6, but what will most do when they win $1 or $2 on a scratch off? Spend it on buying another one right away. With the twice weekly drawings you have to wait 3-4 days before spending your winnings on another ticket (ok if you want to get technical, you can buy a ticket the next day but you have to wait 3-4 days to find out if you won again).
I've worked at a convenience store as well and over the course of a half hour I sold a woman $150 worth of tickets. Sure, she won some but then spent it on buying more, so she still lost $60 or something (can't remember how much she did spend of her own money since it was so long ago).
kochman
Deity
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1 in 31.85... even if a ticket costs just $1 (I have no idea)... you're a sucker if you play.
Unless you those two people who won... and then look out for lightning, because it will probably be striking you 3-4 times in the near future based on your odds.
Unless you those two people who won... and then look out for lightning, because it will probably be striking you 3-4 times in the near future based on your odds.
Stop spamming threads with this crap.
I don't think his stats are mutually exclusive with states still making billions.
As I understand it, he's saying 60% of people lose small, 25% of people break even, 10% win small and 5% win some amount larger than small.
Synobun
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Statistical odds /=/ Results. Thank you, please come again. Like Zelig said, most people still lose.
For clarification, I've had people come in and buy over 30 lottery tickets, only to come back the next week and getting maybe $20 back out of it. However, they would do this every week and there were times when their 30 tickets got them over $70 back. It's a huge risk to buy so many tickets but if you get lucky, you can get your money back and then some, and if you're really lucky, well, you've got some extra spending cash then.
I agree that excessive lottery ticket purchasing is ridiculous and akin to gambling addiction, but buying a $7 ticket every week if it's no strain on your finances is no problem at all. If you don't win, oh well. If you do win, cool! Most of the people who came in with that mindset usually bought scratch tickets with the money they gained or they pocketed it and bought something at the store, like a bag of beef jerky.
If you've got the money and you're not obsessive over it, it's really no big deal. The chances are low but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
FWIW, I used to also think that lottery and scratch tickets were 100% a sham and pointless to buy. Then I worked at a lotto stand. I have seen people walk in, buy a $5 scratch ticket, come back a minute later, and they would walk out with over $20 in profit.
Down to statistics, yes, it's not worth the effort, but nature is inherently random and it's not really up to us to determine whether or not we'll win. I'm sure the past lottery winners also thought they wouldn't win, yet they did. It's a game of chance. Play wisely and you'll be alright.
Ha, boy don't I wish
That's all right, because this sitch would get really awkward if you won after all of us were dumping on the odds.
Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
But that's not what you wrote:
That is 55% of the people winning or breaking even. It isn't anything like that.
The odds with any sort of lottery are abysmal. They have one of the lowest paybacks of any forms of gambling. It is essentially legalized stealing, at least when the state does it.
Even in this extraordinary case with an overwhelmingly large bonus carryover, every dollar you spend will only return $.98. And that is only if you agree to take the money in installments. If you don't take it in installments and want it all at once, your dollar is down to a $.68 payoff. And that doesn't include taxes...
But in most cases it is far worse than that.
If you want to gamble, learn how to play blackjack or craps and go to a heavily regulated casino. Or learn how to play poker. At least then you have a reasonable chance of only losing 5% or less of you money.
Synobun
Deity
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I have no interest in your stat links. Have you worked at a lotto stand?
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