Lottery? Easy money or tax the stupid?
So at my work there’s lots of people and there’s lottery pools GALORE. Everyone that wants to there’s a general pool, then there’s one-off pools. Then there’s the “private” pools between two or three closer-knit co-workers.
And I’m sitting back most of the time wondering how people afford all these lotterys. I’ve joined in on a few of the one-off’s when it was a big gigantic lottery for shits and giggles. And I joined in on the Princess Margret lottery that’s $100/ticket with a limited number sold and where you know exactly which charity the money goes to.
But I listen to people sometimes. and it baffles my mind.
A few people at my work are talking about how much money they spend per week, or per month on lottery tickets, both the picking-numbers ones and the scratch cards. And… that’s crazy. I can understand some fun in buying one ticket a week. Or even two tickets a week when it’s a twice-weekly draw. That’s 4 bucks a week, 16 bucks a month (thereabouts) That I can understand.
But buying into multiple draws, at 2-3 bucks per ticket, every week, plus cards, and spending nearly $50 on tickets? To win…. not a whole lot? Generally… more tickets? I would honestly rather keep my 50 bucks a month (that’s $600/year!! more than I make in one week!) and do something else.
Like the Millionaire for Life draw that’s at the end of the month. For 20 bucks you get 7 unique lines where 1 could land you winning one million bucks a year for 25 years. And I was debating, should I spend my 20 bucks on 7 lines of this lottery? Or a bottle of vodka?
I bought the vodka. At least I *KNEW* I was going to get something out of it.
At the same time, I hold no jealousy over people who DO win the big jackpots. I’ve seen some people win jackpots. I don’t like what they turn into.
I think this all stems from my highschool economics class. Where my teacher actually said that the easiest way to get more money out of the general public for the government was by creating a new lottery. Because the lottery is taxing the stupid. I think that forever changed me.
Lotterys are fun, but when you’re spending that much money I think it can be classified as a gambling addiction.
