the lottery

[noncents]

My thoughts are a little hard to explain but I will do my best.

Obviously, if we were immortals, playing the lotto is -EV as there is a HUGE rake by the government/lottery officials. For most of my adult life, I`ve stayed away from the lotto figuring I`m better off playing poker with the $ because I am a (slightly) winning player. Recently it has occured to me that maybe playing the lotto isn`t necessarly as worthless as it may seem reasoning is as follows:

Where I live there are 3 draws per week and they each cost $2 so a year`s worth of lotto is $312 from previous experience and that of my relatives and friends I`d say you`ll probably win back around $30-$40 a year. (Someone else is welcome to do the math if they want) So say it costs $270 a year and lets say I play for 40 years (at a certain age I think winning would have less of a total life impact) for a total life cost of $10,800. Now this is a decent sum of money but most individuals are likely to waist this sum in their lives anyway: smoking, impulse buys whatever....

Now my question is this: Given we only live once (most people believe this anyway) and that we could spend less than 11k (not even couting winning 4/6 or 5/7 which usually pay a couple of hundred) for the chance of changing our lives completly, is the lotto 'worth' it, simply beacause in a lifetime you wouldn`t spend as much as you would potentially win?

Don`t get me wrong, I`m not advocating playing every draw for $40 or something. Just one ticket. Sorry if this post makes no sense, I tried to make my point as clear as possible and I appriciate all feedback so flame away.

[jono]

the lotto is a horrible bet - you will never win anyway, huge taxes, interactions with friends/family/strangers generally changed for the worse, etc. Nearly all lotto winners go back to their original financial condition within 5 years FYI.

Put that $11K in a mutual fund now and consider yourself the wiser.

[-zero-]

meh, I buy the occasional ticket for fun.

[garcia1000]

Go to the roulette table and place a $10000 bet on a single number, if you win put the entire $350k on it again

Less -EV

[jlp_2908]

I get what your point is but nobody on here will get it.
Its TWO bucks, you could spend it on a tip, fall out of your pocket, coffee, it doesnt mean anything...its ONLY two bucks. If you add it up over the years its alot yah but if a person is that much of a nit they probaly save their pennies in jars and drive across town to save a dollar because "they have a coupon".
Now IF you win that will change your life forever. And what did you do? Nothing really. The -2 bucks a day wont change your life in one bit. At all. I dont care how many years you add up that 2 bucks it still wont matter.

BTW I dont play lotto but I do agree with you.

[Flip-Flop]

Most of the people that play lotto don`t expect to win because they know the odds.

The reasons for playing lotto are more psychological (hope, desperation, feelings of "only way out of misery",excitement, plain fun etc. etc...)
then mathematical (odds, RoI etc..)

That`s why the most common reaction of winners is:
"I CANT BELIEVE I WON!"

[coffeegirl]

Where i live the odds of winning is 1 in 14,000,000 and we have another which is 1 in 20,000,000. I know im throwing away money when i play. I find it a cheap form of entertainment. I know some people who dont tip servers,drink,smoke etc. I could do that and have a huge bank account but then life would be boring.

[ozdg3nr8]

all the people i know who play lotto suck at poker, coincidence?

[coffeegirl]

Probably majority of poker players play the lotto atleast once in their lifetime. So i guess you think the majority of poker players suck.

[ozdg3nr8]

well LDO.
i dont only think the majority of poker players suck, its a well known fact that the majority of poker players suck. thats how we tiny % of winners make money
DUCY