What is your opinion of lotteries?

[jaminmd]

I'm posting this on the budget board because I'm curious to see what budget minded people think. ***I am in no way being judgmental, I am simply curious if anyone feels they way I do and to hear opinions other than mine***

I hate the lottery and I have always been of the opinion that the lottery keeps poor people poor. To me, it is the same as throwing money in the garbage can.

I ask this because I was thinking of one my loved ones who spends $75 a week ($300 a month) on lottery tickets. She is always broke and has no retirement or savings.

Opinions?

 

[wdwfan16]

The lottery is gambling. If one only gambles with extra money and is not addicted then no problem. The lottery is a voluntary income tax. Most who play just give money to the state.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

My DH refers to lotteries as a "Tax on the Mathematically Impaired".

 

[wdwpins]

I play an unofficial lottery game called, "Saved That Money!"

It goes like this:

I don't play the lottery. I then watch the drawing or go to the web site to check the results. When I see my numbers yet again didn't come out, I yell, "Saved That Money!"

Remember, when there's an astronomically huge jackpot in any given hyperlottery game, that means for weeks and weeks, even months and months no one won the big jackpot (allowing it to rollover). Is that necessarily a good thing?

 

[HM]

I agree that the lottery is a waste of money.
I hate that my state instituted one (on the sly really) a couple years back.
We pay way to much for the personnel to run it, for the infrastructure, and get very little in return.
The people who play it are throwing away their money.

 

[Nicholfamily5]

I feel it is a tax on the poor. Rarely do you see a well to do person in their three piece suit step out of their BMW to head into the corner store and blow $50 on lottery tickets.

I do not play, I don't buy into the whole "It helps our local schools" cr@p either. What helps our local schools are donations of time, money, and supplies. I volunteer.

I don't buy scratch tickets for gifts either. I'd rather just hand the $20 bucks

 

[ShortyNBug]

I don't play either. My hubby and a few guys in his department at work throw $2 in a week and go together on a ticket. Some weeks they win enough for the next ticket and do on. I don't play and I hear people all the time say, "you can't win if you don't play." To that I just want to say, "You've been wasting money for how long and haven't won so it seems our odds are the same."

 

[downsouth]

I pay enough tax as it is. I don't need to pay the voluntary tax the gov. offers disguised as a lottery!

 

[ajk912]

I ,too, think it's just throwing away money. Though if I knew I was going to win I would buy a lottery ticket.

 

[Disneyjamie]

I play $1.00 per week for the Tuesday MegaMillions (but not Friday), just so I have some hope that I could win. I feel that the dollar for that dream is worth it. Am I really thinking that I could win, no. But its fun to have that possibility, and if I don't buy the ticket, then I don't get to realistically fantasize about it.

 

[pjm-guy]

We get in on them when there's a huge jackpot (at least $100 million). But even then only for $5 or $10. I grew up in a family business that had a lottery machine and saw first-hand the destructive power of the addiction to the games. And the states just bring out more and more of them to entice poeple to give them even more of their money. And like some of the previous posters say, it's the poorer people who think it'll be a quick way for them to make money. But the reality is far worse.......

 

[lovebuzz]

Here in Georgia the lottery funds the Hope Scholarship and Georgia Pre-K. My son has attended 3 years of college and he is in his 4th year thanks to the lottery! When ever the jackpot get to be over $150,000, I will throw a buck or two at it. After all they are paying his tuition.

 

[Suzanna1973]

We play Powerball. My husband spends $2 a week on tickets. $1 for the Wednesday drawing, $1 for the Saturday drawing. It only takes 1 ticket to win, so I can't understand all of those people that spend more than the $1.

 

[Inigo]

My DH refers to lotteries as a "Tax on the Mathematically Impaired".

I agree. I've always said it's a tax on those who can't do math. That said, DH buys his weekly $5 worth of numbers. I don't like it, but he earns a paycheck and can do it if he wants. If he spent much more than that, I'd probably throw a fit. He says it's just a way of being hopeful. Whatever.

 

[skw444]

I don't buy lottery tickets, by like a pp, I'm in Georgia where the lottery can pay for college and pre-K. The lottery paid for part of my college and is paying for my dd to attend Pre-K this year.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Here in Georgia the lottery funds the Hope Scholarship and Georgia Pre-K. My son has attended 3 years of college and he is in his 4th year thanks to the lottery! When ever the jackpot get to be over $150,000, I will throw a buck or two at it. After all they are paying his tuition.

How much more efficiently would it be funded if the money didn't have to go through so many hands. In OH the lottery money for the schools didn't mean more school funds, merely redistributed funds.

As I heard on some show or another, the lottery is a tax on the stupid. It is like betting money that you will be struck with lightening on a sunny day.

 

[kacaju]

I play $1.00 per week for the Tuesday MegaMillions (but not Friday), just so I have some hope that I could win. I feel that the dollar for that dream is worth it. Am I really thinking that I could win, no. But its fun to have that possibility, and if I don't buy the ticket, then I don't get to realistically fantasize about it.

This is what I do to!! Then I forget to check the numbers so I have a pile sitting at my desk.
I see no harm in spending a dollar here and there.

 

[timmac]

Lottery is, in general, a bad investment. Even when the rollover jackpots get huge, in theory it's a good investment, but because so many more people play, the odds are higher that you'll be splitting the pot with many people, thus negating any statistical advantage.

That said, I don't see it as evil, or anything like that. I wouldn't even go as far as to call it a tax on the stupid. People who spend money they can't afford on it have a gambling problem, and that's one issue. Those who spend a few bucks here and there are basically paying for entertainment, however unlikely any real payoff.

 

[ers26]

This is what I do to!! Then I forget to check the numbers so I have a pile sitting at my desk.
I see no harm in spending a dollar here and there.

I agree with you. I see no harm in spending a dollar or two on the lottery. As a matter of fact, I am living proof that if you don't play you can't win. A few years ago, we won $150,000 on a $2 ticket!

 

[crisi]

My DH refers to lotteries as a "Tax on the Mathematically Impaired".

We use similar words, but they aren't as nice.....

That said....a buck once in a while (if that is all you put in) is a small price to pay to dream. I just dream without paying the buck.

Its when people who can't afford it drop $20 a week or more in lottery tickets that I shake my head and think history will judge us poorly.