The Lottery: How I Despise It

[roo_ster]

Howdy:

I was musing in my car about the Texas State Lottery and I found that I despise for many and varied reasons.

The Stupid Tax
The TSL is a tax on stupidity.  The odds make a Vegas casino look like it runs about slinging cash at gamblers, wily-nilly.  Lotto, scratch-offs, whatever.  The return expected for the expenditure is something MS Excel would likely round off to zero, even in its memory space.

So, you'd have to be an idiot or have a momentary lapse of reason to buy a ticket.

I can see the libertoids coming out of the woodwork (I thought I sprayed for them last week?).  "They make their own choices and spend their own money.  What's the problem?  You just want to control peoples' live, you statist."

Yeah, whatever.  I am no advocate for the gooberment solving every one of life's problems, of which stupid folks have more than their fair share.  I also don't think gooberment ought to actively work to make stupid folks' lives harder.

Extortion, Monopoly, and the State
If I tried to set up a numbers game along the lines of the lottery and guaranteed the profits would go to my kids education, I would still go to jail.  The State will brook no competition in its bilking of the mouth-breathers.

It Helps Education
Right.  The folks who make that argument have many misunderstandings or are just plain lying.  One of many problems with that claim: the profit the lottery makes may go directly into the Dept Ed coffers, but that means only that that many dollars of general revenue can go someplace other than the Dept of Ed.  No more (net) dollars for the Dept of Ed to (mis)spend.

Gas Station Decision-Makers
Every once in a while I actually go inside to pay so I can get a drink.  It never fails that I get behind a lottery scratch-off player.  It usually takes them quite a while to figure out how to toss thier money away.  I must fight the urge to say, "Pick the one with the prettiest colors.  That way, in a few years, you can paper your bathroom in them and have the world's most expensively papered bathroom."

[Boomhauer]

Yeah, I really don't see how it provides a benefit at all.

Add the fact that most, if not all of the lottery winners go broke after winning it. They get on a buying spree and try to maintain that lifestyle beyond the reach. Even if you when something like 300 mil, it is really not that much.

There was a thread discussing this very subject some months ago.

[RevDisk]

So, you'd have to be an idiot or have a momentary lapse of reason to buy a ticket.

I can see the libertoids coming out of the woodwork (I thought I sprayed for them last week?).  "They make their own choices and spend their own money.  What's the problem?  You just want to control peoples' live, you statist."

Yeah, whatever.  I am no advocate for the gooberment solving every one of life's problems, of which stupid folks have more than their fair share.  I also don't think gooberment ought to actively work to make stupid folks' lives harder.

I admit, I've bought a couple lotto tickets over the years.  Maybe five or six times in the entire span of my life.  Probably less than $30 combined, which is less than a trip to the movies these days.  It was neither stupidity nor lapse of reason, just entertainment.   I got a chuckle out of it and pondering immense wealth tickled for a bit.  Which is more than some of the gods-awful crap Hollywood has provided.

No one is holding a gun to folks' head and making them lay down their money.  Yes, it's a tax on people that can't do math, but it's a voluntary one. 

[The Rabbi]

I'd rather have a lottery (stupid tax) than a state income tax.
That said, if private companies promoted lotteries the way the state does they'd be sued.  And a feature of lotteries is that they become less and less profitable as time goes on, forcing the state to spend more money on ads and promising even more outlandish things.
And yes, since money is fungible, the money flowing to ed departments (like they need any more anyway) merely replaces other money which feeds big gov't.

[onions!]

I drop about $10 on them every year or so.I use 'em as bookmarks,they last a long time.

I work with a woman who just turned forty.She has three kids(10,15,&17) & a forty year old husband who won't work.The guy hasn't worked since his eldest was in pre-school.Useless,he plays computer games & smokes pot for a life (I call my co-worker,the wife,The Enabler).Any ways,her gross pay is $25-26K/yr.Her federal return is "over five thousand"/yr.& they both buy lottery tickets.So,the rest of us pay taxes so that they can re-cycle tax dollars back into the States' coffers.& drive a newer car.& go on vacations.&,oh yeah,not have to work.

I sometimes wonder how someones brain can be programmed such that they don't even feel a little guilty about living on other peoples' backs.

[K Frame]

I buy lottery tickets occasionally.

I've won a couple hundred in instant scratch over the years, and nothing in drawings.

Why do I buy them?

Because they AMUSE me. They don't amuse you? That's fine, you're not me, and I'm not, nor do I want to be, you.

Some people like to wager small stakes, and the lottery provides a way of doing that without having to find a casino, or without going to a quasi-legal sports book.

Ultimately, who are you to say how people find their diversions.

As for it being a tax on the stupid, there are precious few taxes that aren't taxes on the stupid.


Now, just think about it.

In the time it took you to post that protracted whine and cheese festival, you could have scratched off a winning lottery ticket and set yourself up for your next vacation.... 

[Art Eatman]

At 14 million to one, yeah, a lottery is a tax on stupid.  Even Vegas gives  better odds...

The only part of it that gripes me is the same as folks above have said:  Hypocrisy, in that the state can promote gambling but I can't legally have friends over for money poker.

Art

[Jamisjockey]

I buy lottery tickets occasionally.

I've won a couple hundred in instant scratch over the years, and nothing in drawings.

Why do I buy them?

Because they AMUSE me. They don't amuse you? That's fine, you're not me, and I'm not, nor do I want to be, you.

Some people like to wager small stakes, and the lottery provides a way of doing that without having to find a casino, or without going to a quasi-legal sports book.

Ultimately, who are you to say how people find their diversions.

As for it being a tax on the stupid, there are precious few taxes that aren't taxes on the stupid.


Now, just think about it.

In the time it took you to post that protracted whine and cheese festival, you could have scratched off a winning lottery ticket and set yourself up for your next vacation.... 

You nailed my sentiments exactly.

Add the fact that most, if not all of the lottery winners go broke after winning it. They get on a buying spree and try to maintain that lifestyle beyond the reach. Even if you when something like 300 mil, it is really not that much.

How is it my problem that if someone has a multi-million dollar windfall, they are too stupid or lazy or irresponsible to be smart about it?  How is it any different than if they were to win a multi-million dollar lawsuit and piss it away?  How someone spends thier money is not my problem.

[Ben]

I've bought one lottery ticket in my life. My sister buys everyone in the family a lottery ticket as a stocking stuffer every Christmas. We, like others here, just do it for the entertainment value.

If the Libertarian philosophy is that ticket buyers can do whatever they want, my Republitarian philosophy is that the lottery is poetic justice for me. I have to pull the cart for the majority of the demographic that buys lottery tickets. If the bajillion to one odds get that same demographic to unknowingly chip in, if only for a token amount, I at least get some small satisfaction.

Now if only the overhead to run the lottery would also be contributed to the coffers....

[Chuck Dye]

Murray was an observant Jew, regularly part of the minyan at shul.  Always as he was leaving, Murray would say, " And God, would it be so terrible I should win the lottery?"  This went on for years until finally there came the voice from everywhere and nowhere at once:

[reverb]"Murray!  Ya gotta buy a ticket!"[/reverb]


So, to amuse myself and feed the fantasy, I occasionally buy a ticket, but only if the jackpot exceeds the odds against for the game at hand.

[auschip]

I see it as buying a fantasy.  Remember, the only worse odds, are not playing at all!   

[crt360]

I've never purchased a lottery ticket.  Maybe it's because I get so pissed off at the old ladies who stand at the convenience store counter forever picking their scratch offs.  Even worse, the ones who buy a dozen or more, then stand at the counter to scratch them off and redeem the one or two $1 winners, while people are standing in line behind them to check out.  Saturday, I was one of about six people in line who gave up, put the stuff we were going to buy back and left a store, all because some woman had made the counter her personal lottery playground.  I don't have any problem with people spending money for entertainment purposes - I'd hate to imagine how much I've spent on ammo that wasn't used to overthrow a foreign government, kill exotic beasts, or protect myself from deadly threats.  I just haven't found the desire to spend it on the lottery, yet.

[roo_ster]

My last reply got nailed in all the DDOS fun & games, so I'll be brief. <cheers form the audience>

Do any of y'all who are buyers of current state-produced lottery tickets think you will derive less pleasure scratching off privately-produced  cards in a privately-run lottery with better odds of winning?

My problem with state lotteries is not with folks deriving pleasure from them.  My problem is more along the lines of:
1. It is run by the gooberment.
2. The gooberment is making life more difficult for those less encumbered with intelligence, rather than remaining neutral and letting the market fleece them in its good time.
3. The gooberment gives odds worse than any private company would dare, under risk of prosecution.
4. The gooberment protects its monopoly with the threat of force.
5. The gooberment pretends to do it "for the children."

The mouth-breathers inconveniencing everyone at the stop-n-rob counter are annoying, but not outrageous in the way the gooberment is. crt360 gave some of the detail.

[K Frame]

"I was one of about six people in line who gave up, put the stuff we were going to buy back and left a store, all because some woman had made the counter her personal lottery playground."

That's the store clerk's fault.

You try that at a 7-11 around here and you get moved along.

Also saw a clerk tell a lady to go to the back of the line when she walked up and tried to butt in to redeem a ticket.

[K Frame]

My last reply got nailed in all the DDOS fun & games, so I'll be brief. <cheers form the audience>

Do any of y'all who are buyers of current state-produced lottery tickets think you will derive less pleasure scratching off privately-produced  cards in a privately-run lottery with better odds of winning?

My problem with state lotteries is not with folks deriving pleasure from them.  My problem is more along the lines of:
1. It is run by the gooberment.
2. The gooberment is making life more difficult for those less encumbered with intelligence, rather than remaining neutral and letting the market fleece them in its good time.
3. The gooberment gives odds worse than any private company would dare, under risk of prosecution.
4. The gooberment protects its monopoly with the threat of force.
5. The gooberment pretends to do it "for the children."

The mouth-breathers inconveniencing everyone at the stop-n-rob counter are annoying, but not outrageous in the way the gooberment is. crt360 gave some of the detail.

Yeah yeah we get it...

THE BIG EVIL GOVERNMENT IS CRUSHING MY SKULL WITH THE LOTTERY OF DOOM!

You been reading Shirley Jackson stories again?

[roo_ster]

Mike:

No, my skull is not being crushed by the state lottery.  It is the disposable income of the feebs who play the lottery that takes the hit.  Also, folks who want a better gambling product and a choice with whom to gamble are are left without options.

I am not a money-gambler and find no attraction to it.  However, if gambling is to be legal, I would much rather it be run in the private/commercial sphere where competition would provide a better product to the players.

But, if one's pleasure is found in the scratching, I guess it doesn't matter what the odds of winning are.  In that case, a $0.99 bag of McDonald's fries with a scratch-off ought to serve, with the added bonus of fries.

[K Frame]

"However, if gambling is to be legal, I would much rather it be run in the private/commercial sphere where competition would provide a better product to the players."

Bugsy Siegle, had he not been killed by his organized crime partners, would give you a big old kiss.

Hopefully it wouldn't be the kiss of death. 


"The gooberment is making life more difficult for those less encumbered with intelligence..."

Oy veh.

[Paddy]

"I was one of about six people in line who gave up, put the stuff we were going to buy back and left a store, all because some woman had made the counter her personal lottery playground."

That's the store clerk's fault.

Exactly right.

My only beef with the lottery is the spread between payoffs.  Top prize is $$ millions and next prize is only a few tens of thousands.  Need something in between.  $70,000 for example is not a life changing amount of money; $500,000 is.

[K Frame]

"Exactly right."

I should also add that it's also the CUSTOMER'S fault for not asking the lady to move her butt so that the people behind her can check out while she's playing.

[Brad Johnson]

I should also add that it's also the CUSTOMER'S fault for not asking the lady to move her butt so that the people behind her can check out while she's playing.

I don't know. Judging by butt-tonnage on some people that insist on counter-hogging for scratchoffs, I'd be scared they might back over me.

 - which brings up another related topic -

Some people really need to be reminded that Spandex is a privilege, not a right.

Brad

[HankB]

I indulge myself by buying a Mega Millions ticket . . . when the jackpot is over $100,000,000. (Cash value option? About a third of that, after taxes.) Maybe a Texas lottery ticket when that jackpot is over $50,000,000.

In the course of a year, I doubt I spend a grand total of $50 on tickets . . .

I do it for the dream, the fantasy of winning . . . I can daydream about how I could live off the interest (I wouldn't go broke!) and still greatly improve my lifestyle. 

And then they draw the numbers, and reality sets in. 

[Jamisjockey]

Now that I can get on board with.  The Goobermint shouldn't be the Gamblmint.  Government has no business running lotteries, running ABC stores, etc etc. 

[Perd Hapley]

Every once in a while I actually go inside to pay so I can get a drink.  It never fails that I get behind a lottery scratch-off player.  It usually takes them quite a while to figure out how to toss thier money away.

Yes.  Waiting for people to pick three of those and two of those, and two of them other kind is more than I should have to bear.  Even if they don't scratch them off while I'm waiting. 

Also, govt. should not be involved in such nonsense.  It has enough nonsense going on in other areas. 


I should add I'm putting on my spandex right, now, under my running pants.     The wife and I are actually going to start burning off some of her cooking. 

[MechAg94]

If you want an intermediate payoff, play the Texas Two Step.  My brother likes that one. 

I play it for the fun and fantasy of it.  The amount I spend is trivial to me at least.  They had a $1000 a week for life game several years ago that I liked.  It is for 20 years now and the odds are poor so I play it about once or twice a year.  No other scratch offs.

The State Legislature did reduce the odds of winning on all the scratch off tickets several years ago.  For some reason sales slumped.  Who would have figured? 

[thebaldguy]

I buy a few tickets when the jackpot gets over 100 million. Just a buck and a hope.

Here in Minnesota, we were told how much good the lottery money would do. It would be a windfall for the state. Turns out our taxes have only went up since the lottery began. And they still need more money from the taxpayers. Figure that one out. What the hell have they done with all the money?

Many states have a daily 3 or pick 3 game. The odds of winning are 1000 to 1. The payout is only 500 to 1. Out east, the mafia run pick 3 pays 600 to 1. I've been told that the mob run game is more popular than the state run game. If I remember right, Gen. Colin Powell's father won a mob run daily 3 that he used as a down payment for a family home. I think he placed a $20 bet instead of a buck, and won a ton of cash.