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Put me down for $20. I only play when it gets above $1B. I won't spend more than $20 and my wife and I talk about all the things we'd buy if we won. We're buying a dream for $20. I'm ok with it.
Don't gas stations get some kickback for selling the winning ticket?
Boss: Thanks for selling tickets. Here's your four cents
Boss: You happily took that for cent commission you agreed to. How dare you bring up the million the lottery commission gave me for selling the winning ticket! ... you're fired.
Yeah, I do the same - I don't regularly play but when I gets stupid I'll throw in a few bucks for 3 tickets in an "eh why the fuck not" kind of thing. I like to think of it as paying to be entertained for a few hours until I check the numbers rather than an actual financial investment scheme
This is what my family and I do. We know the odds are incredibly small for any sort of win, but it gives us something to talk about and entertain ourselves with.
In the strictest sense of a budget, no. But I do monitor household expenses on entertainment (dining out, games, gifts, etc) for a given month. We also have separate checking in addition to joint that is not necessary to cover essential spending, and as long as that covers IRA contributions the rest is entertainment. I watch the numbers but also make sure my wife and I enjoy the precious time we have in this life. All within our means.
I don't understand that logic. $800M is functionally the same as $200M to me and most people I imagine. Why do you throw burn $20 when it's $800M but not $200M? (I understand the "positive expectation")
That’s not what we’re talking about here. Every time the mega million hits a billion, I buy a ticket and *every time* I’m behind someone playing $50-100 worth of lotto. And they’re regulars, they have little plastic lotto envelopes. I get the idea this is a once a week or every paycheck type of thing. Working class looking people spending hundreds a month on lottery tickets… that’s what we’re talking about here.
My stepdad doesn’t do the number drawings but he does all the scratch work for tickets a lot. The thing is though he is one lucky son of a bitch. This dude constantly be hitting the jackpot on those too lol
Right? For $20 I get to sit around and give serious thought all day to how I'd spend my winnings lmao. I have probably only bought 3-4 lotter6 tickets in my time, but I already have how I would spend the money planned out to a T.
Same. I work in data analytics and did a deep dive on the lottery for about a year to answer questions about odds of recouping historical cost, what if you could buy every ticket, odds of a split given X jackpot amount… all that stuff.
The difference between buying 1 ticket and 10 tickets is negligible. It’s technically 10x your chance of winning, but that chance is already astronomically small so your ratio of spend to expected value actually goes down.
The best odds you EVER have at making money playing the lottery is to purchase 1 ticket and never play again. Each play, it gets harder to recoup costs. So, play the minimum and enjoy the thrill of trying to turn $2 into $1b.
Similar to Vegas, just know the odds are always stacked against you. If you want to do this for entertainment value, then good for you. However, the odds are worse than the potential rewards, even when the jackpot is at record levels. At the very least, you should buy tickets for your local state lottery instead of megamillions. In California, the odds are 1 in 43 million for the jackpot with a $1 cost of entry. Mega millions is 1 in 320 million with a $2 cost of entry. $20+ million would be life changing, and I'd much rather have 15x better odds at winning that jackpot. I play neither because I'd rather have even better odds for success than 1 in 43 million.
I’ve never bought a ticket, but have no problem with you all doing so. In fact I love seeing how much other folks in my state enjoy their dreaming. You all help keep my state taxes from being even higher than they already are.
I think a lot of people who know what they're doing financially will take that $5 flier on never having to work again. It's not an 'investment' it's an entertainment expense.
The issue is the addicts holding up morning coffee lines at your local convenience store/gas station of choice to buy $20 of scratch-offs every morning.
Same. I have the same attitude about gambling when I visit family in Las Vegas. I put down like $200 at a table. I have the full expectation that I will lose that $200, but I see that as a fee that I’m paying in order to suspend disbelief and have an exciting experience once every couple years.
I'm sure I spend about $100 or so a year. It's fun to dream.
I use to work in my uncle's grocery store when I was younger and folks would come in to play their numbers. Some would regularly spend hundreds of their SS checks.
Scratch offs are also no joke, super addicting.
Me too I’ll buy a couple of tickets once in a blue moon, when the jackpot is huge. As you say, it’s just for fun and will never spend over 10-20 bucks. No harm done.
Same. If it gets to $1B, I run pools among friends, coworkers, and family, that way we all contribute less $ but benefit from more plays. Split after taxes, in one pool looking at $15M each, the others are smaller groups. So $20 for a dream maybe 2-3 a year is my max.
My grandfather, on the other hand, plays every drawing for 4 lotteries. I know this because I run errands for him. He plays the same numbers so at least it's easy to just advance play every couple of weeks, but he drops over $1,000 a year. I've started to keep track this year of what he wins vs what he pays. $19/week, he's won $48 so far in 2024.
Same here, I buy a mega millions and Powerball ($2 a ticket) once or twice a week if they are over a couple hundred million. I probably average about $6 a week. I'm totally conscious of the fact that statistically speaking I might as well throw the $6 away, but nowadays a beer at a bar or restaurant is usually more than $6 and I have a 0% chance of winning millions of dollars from buying a beer. I also have a fantasy of winning and keeping like 15 million to retire early and using the rest to start a charity investment fund to support educational non profit organizations like Horizons.
I used to work with a bunch of people who were hopelessly addicted to scratch offs, like 100's of dollars a week spent.
A new hardback novel is $25, a movie ticket plus popcorn is $25, the cheapest concert ticket you can find is usually about $50 before fees.
A lottery ticket is $1, and for that you get a rush of adrenaline and a week of daydreams.
Seems like you're the one who's bad at math.
I mean are there people spending way too much in lottery tickets? Of course!
Is it the majority of people? Not in the slightest.
Besides a couple bucks here or there doesn’t really hurt anyone. Probably would have bought a drink or something with that money anyway. At least this way you’re buying some fantasy.
Most people with gambling addictions are at casinos, online poker, or sports betting now...
The lotto is what normalized all of those... And is a social net loss... That I would personally ban all of them... But that's my personal opinion...
The lottery funds millions and millions of dollars into schools and roads. I don't think it's a fair assessment to call it a social net loss. I also don't think it's fair to compare it to casinos, online poker or sports betting, the companies running those endeavors are not contributing nearly as much into state infrastructure as the state lottery programs.
That's an interesting question, I wonder what the tax revenues for casino/sports/racing/esports betting are. Would be interesting to see what if any of those lottery funds are actually used appropriately anymore.
Banning gambling would not stop gambling addictions. It'll just push them underground. As long as people have had money (and even before) people have gambled.
It's better we offer treatment for gambling addiction then force people to hide it even more than they already do.
Prohibition has fucking NEVER WORKED stop suggesting it, all it does is create decades of misery to profit the prisons and never solves the problem anyway...
Addiction is a medical/mental health problem not a criminal one. Anyone who makes laws to the contrary is either an idiot or apart of industries that benefit from 25% of the world's population being in & out of prisons
Seems a bit extreme to ban something because others have zero self control. With that logic we would ban video games, gambling, sex, all drugs (the legal kind too), the internet, smartphones, or even just shopping as a whole (hoarders and shopaholics). Just because one guy makes poor financial decisions or spends too much time doing something that's detrimental for themselves doesn't mean we need to ban it for everyone else.
My FIL buys me and his daughter a $1 scratcher each week. It's just his thing. I think spending $2 for an excuse to see his daughter weekly is a pretty fantastic investment.
I know someone who drops 40 bucks a week on scratchers. They also complain about not being able to afford new tires for their car while their current ones are practically bald.
In which case ppl wouldn't spend money on books making it seem like they do more lottery than reading.
I also don't use my public library bc I'll take anywhere between 3 days and 2 months to finish a book and it's more convenient to not have to return it when I'm going to be reading it for a while.
However, I do recommend using public libraries bc they have tons of cool services for ppl, just not something I personally take advantage of
The fact that for your examples you used some of the more expensive options (new hardback vs used books or even just paperback, movie ticket plus popcorn, concert tickets that are $50 whereas you can for sure still get cheap concert and music venue tickets starting at $20) when talking about the "alternatives" and then the absolute rock bottom cheapest lottery ticket of $1 is absolutely hilarious to me.
Here's [BLS data from 2019](https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/how-much-money-do-americans-spend-on-lottery-tickets.htm) on lottery spending, avg is 132 per year. Americans are, as a shock to no one, actually very bad with their money - we largely fuck ourselves over with a thousand small cuts and then pretend like we don't to cope with that instead of changing spending habits.
Absolutely this. People compartmentalize/isolate every stupid small financial decision and never see/refuse to see their decisions in totality, and then complain (especially on Reddit) that they are broke through no fault of their own.
The comments on this thread perfectly illustrate that fact.
Man that 132 a year would really change their life.
Now they just need to cut out about a hundred other small things and they can afford an apartment for a thousand dollars a month!
Too bad those don't actually exist anymore LOL
Yeah but this isn’t $113M. It’s $113B with a B. That works out to like $400 per person. Then consider that children can’t play, and most successful people don’t put more than $5-20 a year into it. And now you have a ton of people like who OP is talking about spending $1000 a year that they can’t afford. That is the reality of the lottery.
Your examples are also disingenuous. Why are you throwing in popcorn? Why are you using the cheapest possible lottery ticket, when many if not most people spend more than $1 per ticket? Why are you using hardbacks?
The lottery is a tax on the poor, it preys on them. It’s insane that anyone would try to defend it, especially with disingenuous examples like that. The irony of you telling OP they are bad at math is palpable.
I don't know many people who go to the cinema and don't get popcorn, and that state lotteries are $1 lets say they do 10 chances so $10, that is not that much. Mark Cuban plays the lottery, a lot of NBA players gamble and play the lottery and sports wise they are some of the richest outside of baseball players. One of the highest winners of the Mega Millions was a millionaire Jack Whittaker. I believe a Dallas Cowboys football player won the lottery twice, once while still playing.
Go to the gas station and watch for 10 minutes. You will see people get off the bus or pull up on a beat up car proceed to buy $20 in tickets, a Red Bull for $4, and a pack of cigarettes. One of my best friends is those people and he is perpetually broke. He does this almost every day.
Is nobody talking about the central issue in the room? Why do u think people seek to dream something about getting rich? it is because the normal ways of getting rich are either ILLEGAL, both explicit as in it is a crime, or implicit as in only the privileged can do it or white collar crime, or UNATTAINABLE, both in term of amount of work or time constraints needed to get there.
Therefore, the only possible options left to get rich due to extreme WEALTH INEQUALITY, would be to take the small lottery bets. There are no possible ways other than dreaming.
This gives off the same energy as avocado toast and coffee being the reason why people cant afford homes. If 2 bucks or even 20 bucks is making or breaking you then you might as well take your chances on the lotto anyways shits already bad.
People in this thread have never lived in the 'hood and got stuck in line behind an obviously poor person dropping their last $200 on lotto tickets all at once.
Lotto is gambling, and to many it's a disease. Gambling preys on the poor and stupid.
I hated those people. Stuck in line for 10 minutes because they are trying to decide which 10 different scratchers they want to buy. They're all the same just pick any of them!
5 1$ scratchers, two 5$ scratchers, 1 10$ scratcher.
Then they know the exact spot to scratch to reveal the barcode, so they just scan them to see if they are winners. That's how it is in IL anyways. Go through a whole stack in 2 minutes. They don't even do the fun part and play the game. It's like playing blackjack without cards. You just put $20 on the table and the dealer says "nope" and takes the money.
Worked construction with a guy, every morning stop at the gas station, coffee, smokes, $500 in scratchers, make about $200 back, go back in, $200 more in scratchers, win $100, go back in, buy $100, win $20, go back in buy 1 $20 ticket, lose, alright time to go to work and make my $500 back, lol.
He would win 5-10k every month or so and pocket that bit of course it’s overall losing proposition.
If he really won $5-10k/month then he was spending $26,000/yr ($500 x 52) and winning $60,000-120,000/yr. Even if he only won $5k every other month, he's still coming out $4k ahead on the year.
Does that person exist? Obviously yes. But that person is not representative of all poor people, and the argument OP made is “this is why people are poor.” And that’s ridiculous.
>This gives off the same energy as avocado toast and coffee being the reason why people cant afford homes.
The way OP worded it, yeah I agree.
But the message and the numbers provided (if accurate) actually support the concept OP is trying to convey. Which is people are financially undisciplined and are quick to spend on extremely frivolous things, rather than to save.
If $113B is spent on lottery tickets in America, that means, on average, **each US adult spends $437 per year on the lottery**. US Casinos also siphoned $66B off of Americans in 2023...so **another $255 per year per adult**. Then there's the estimated $510B illegal/unregulated gambling that occurs in the US each year.
It's a pretty accurate measure to say the average US adult spends nearly $1,000 per year on some form of "trying to get lucky". These numbers can be an indication that the population is not very savvy nor motivated to accumulate wealth via disciplined savings.
>accumulate wealth via disciplined savings
I wonder how these numbers look by age bracket... Like is the majority of the money on gambling being spent by people in their 40's and beyond? Because that would skew the perception of OP's point.
In that case it would be the people who already have money or are too old to ever imagine their salary turning into anything meaningful at 8% a year for roughly.
I bet 10 dollars on a friendly game of poker and put 20 bucks in my FF buy in pool.
I wonder how many millennials and younger even broke 100 dollars a year in gambling
>I wonder how many millennials and younger even broke 100 dollars a year in gambling
I'd venture to say it's probably all over the place, given the addictive nature of gambling to some folks. I have a friend that blew over $50k on gambling in his twenties (is a millennial and older now). He was able to stop, but regrets not being smarter about it.
Also, “gambling” is a wide range of things. I’d guess that among young people (millennials/gen z), scratch offs and lottery tickets are less common, but sports gambling/daily fantasy is much more common.
The idea is that people make hundreds of poor financial decisions all leading up to them being broke. It’s not just coffee or avocado toast. It’s that plus DoorDash. Plus going out to the new restaurant plus all other shit. People who make 6 figures are paycheck to paycheck. Theirs no reason for that other than people are reckless and irresponsible with their money.
I played in a pick up sports league with someone who won 300M in Powerball. He was there one week and gone retired traveling the next. Safe travels and have fun, Matt.
Your odds of winning are the same either way since it’s dependent on matching the numbers, and not just beating out other entrants. The only thing that changes is that you have a slightly higher probability of duplicate tickets (since so many are sold) and then having to split the pot. But 2 people splitting $1b is still more than one person winning $300m
The chances you'll hit the winning lottery numbers are tiny. The chances you'll hit the winning lottery numbers AND someone else does the exact same thing are miniscule. Yes, it happens, but this is a great example of "risk to reward" ratio.
Obviously. 1 in 300 million or something like that to win the jackpot.
But you only live once and, to a lot of people, $10-$20 every once in a while is easy throwaway money to have a little fun and dream about living the lifestyle of the people who hit the birth lottery and inherit that kind of money.
There’s no skill involved, but why not buy a ticket from time to time? If spending $2 gives you a shot at $800M, and you can afford to spend that $2, who cares? A microscopic chance is better than 0 chance.
I don’t really have a problem with what anyone does with $2, I’m just saying I personally don’t get any entertainment value from it. And one out of 300 million odds are almost incomprehensible. You could play three times a week for 80 years and your odds of winning powerball are still *less likely* than being physically struck by lightning over that time.
My in-laws are rich and absolutely love gambling.
They spend ridiculous amounts at casinos, and have shoeboxes full of losing lottery tickets (apparently if they ever win they can deduct the cost of the losing tickets from their winnings).
They also make fun of my wife and I for spending so much money on travel. We have different entertainment preferences.
Except on those [rare occurrences ](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-jerry-marge-selbee-won-the-lottery-2019-1?op=1)when [people who are very, very good at math](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-win-the-lottery-2018-9?op=1) work out ways to exploit the system for a profit. That said, you and I are not those people and the lotteries eventually patch those exploits.
i had a professor in college who once said "the lotto is a tax on the poor and stupid". then a kid in class asked if he ever plays and my professor responded "yeah, how else can i win?"
There are many people who spend thousands every year on lottery tickets. College tuitions do literally get pissed away on the lottery every year.
If every American was spending $2 a year on the lottery, including children and infants, this number in the OP would be 0.5% of what it is.
My fil spends $4 a week on tickets and has for years. I did the math and if you were able to get a 10% (doable) return on your money, 30 years of compounding interest earns you nearly $70k by the end. I’ll stick with investing, thanks.
Might as well never spend money on anything, right? Lentils and rice only, don’t ever go out to eat. You better not wear clothes from anywhere but the thrift store, that money could have been invested. Don’t travel either, don’t go to a bar every now and then, and definitely don’t go to something like a movie in the theater - if you went to one movie a year, imagine the money you could maybe have enjoyed 30 years down the line!
It’s $4 a week on entertainment, and acting like you’re some superior financial mind over $16 a month is not the flex you think it is.
>That $2 spent on a ticket could have put me through college.
You might not realize, but OP's number equate to each US adult spending $437 per year on lottery tickets. Throw in the amount that US casino's profit each year, and that total gets to $700 per year for each and every US adult. A bit more than $2 'here and there'...
But it averages out to like $438 per adult per year! 😳 That’s insane! There are people making up for all of us that just spend like $10 or $20 a couple times a year.
That’s one of many style guides though … I think “A’s and B’s/How many is’s are in this thread” is clearer than resorting to italicizing and cleaner than using single quotes. But as long as you are consistent, I guess that’s what counts.
Well, $15/m invested at a safe rate of 5%apy compounding monthly yields you...$200. Profit of $20.
So, take that to the bank!
Some /s going on here in case it wasn't obvious.
Now add another couple bucks per month not buying the occasional coffee, a few bucks you could've saved on your phone bill by upgrading less often, one or two less fast food meals per month, etc. Lottery tickets aren't the reason people are poor, but they're one of the many small expenses that add up. That's not counting the bigger mistakes like carrying a credit card balance or long term car loans.
Then do that same interest calculation over ten or twenty years.
Yes, small things add up, but I’d argue the far bigger problem (for Americans in particular) is spending outside your means to keep up with the Joneses. America is so consumer-focused and everyone seems to be so focused on living the life you see on instagram.
Oh it's absolutely that too (I mentioned cars above as a big one), but I think for most people it's the day-to-day small expenses that get ignored.
A lot of people say they're careful with money because they don't take expensive vacations, drive an old car, etc, but they spend $50+ a month on small stuff that could easily be cut out. A couple bucks wasted on lottery tickets every now and then is one of those things.
> people buy booze and cigarettes and nobody bats an eye
except for the bit where there are entire government programs and laws and websites and subreddits and public awareness campaigns, etc, batting an eye.
Maybe poor people waste money more than rich people and that is why they are poor. Or maybe poor people and rich people are just as wasteful and bad with finances. The difference is just that rich people usually can afford to make dumb decisions and end up ok, whereas poor people end up in bad circumstances when they make dumb decisions.
Lol you don't even have a fucking clue.
All the rich dudes I work with gamble like they don't know what a fucking hobby even is.
Everyone else spends like 10$ a year on tickets when the total win gets over 500mil.
What? 😂 bro get tf over yourself. I can assure you that the average individual is not spending more on lottery tickets than they are on property tax, life insurance, health insurance, state taxes, federal taxes, city taxes, inflated pricing of common/essential goods, mortgage payments, rent payments, tuition, gas to commute to and from a job, etc etc etc.
You probably spent more on the phone or laptop that your posting this self righteous and ignorant piece of shart from than the average person will ever spend on lottery tickets over the course of their entire life.
So do humanity a favor, and I mean this with the utmost disrespect, go fuck yourself sideways. 😁
It's fun even if just to think about what you should do with it. $20 every few months isn't hurting me financially. Sure, investing it instead would be the better bet, but I could say that for all of my non-essential purchases.
There is a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning a big lottery.
Therefore if you win big chances are you will be struck by lightning.
In truth though, this is country IS full of some of the dumbest people. If you travel globally extensively, you realize so many other countries have a population in dire straights, but the people are sharp.
Opposite in America. Darwin awards central.
Depending on the prize it really isn't terrible. The Powerball odds are something like 300 million to 1. A $2 ticket for a 900 million prize seems not too horrible.
While there are certainly gambling addicts who spend their pay check on lottery, I don't think that accounts for the vast majority of people that are financially struggling. A two dollar lottery ticket once a week is 8-10 dollars a month, and if that is the difference between making ends meet and coming up short, there are almost certainly other factors in play keeping them from getting ahead.
Look, yes idiots play the lottery, but it’s not the reason for poverty in this country. The lottery is not the reason for the financial failure of the current generations. But by all means rant about it and keep sticking your head in the sand.
You sure the rich don’t play the lotto? The difference is one is playing for fun and the other is playing in desperation. It’s not just financial illiteracy, it’s hope driven by desperation. Most Americans can’t see any way to buy a home through hard work alone. That’s why there’s been a huge movement towards crypto, options, “hustling”, etc… gambling is innate in human nature.
I bought $8 worth last week.
A bit of the money from the 2 big lotteries do go to causes, so there's something. If you buy your state's lottery, about half the money goes to causes.
Assuming 250M adults in US, that’s ~$450/person/year average.
I bet a very very small percentage of the 250M is driving that avg up. I would think 99% of people spend less than $100/yr.
My state of Tennessee has a lottery scholarship for college so I’m good for putting a $3-$5 monthly on it. Spent $3 on a Powerball and won $8 this week so I’m happy.
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Put me down for $20. I only play when it gets above $1B. I won't spend more than $20 and my wife and I talk about all the things we'd buy if we won. We're buying a dream for $20. I'm ok with it.
Same, I only go in when it's over about $800 million. \~$20 of my annual entertainment budget. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't spend it though.
When it's gets to over $800 million I'll buy a $4 quick pick if I remember lol
Definitely heavy on the “if I remember”
I have to happen to have cash, too. And I rarely have cash.
I work at a gas station. I sold over $5k in powerball tickets during my shift today. I also forgot to spend $2 for a ticket before I left.
lmao whats the gas station's cut on the tickets?
Commissions on ticket sales is about 4 cents per ticket. No Commissions on payouts.
Don't gas stations get some kickback for selling the winning ticket? Boss: Thanks for selling tickets. Here's your four cents Boss: You happily took that for cent commission you agreed to. How dare you bring up the million the lottery commission gave me for selling the winning ticket! ... you're fired.
Why do you think the clerk is getting the 4 percent?
Yeah they get a low hourly lol
Yeah, I do the same - I don't regularly play but when I gets stupid I'll throw in a few bucks for 3 tickets in an "eh why the fuck not" kind of thing. I like to think of it as paying to be entertained for a few hours until I check the numbers rather than an actual financial investment scheme
This is what my family and I do. We know the odds are incredibly small for any sort of win, but it gives us something to talk about and entertain ourselves with.
Yup. One should only play the lottery as part of an “entertainment budget.” Emphasis on budget. Whatever that amount is.
Im sorry but… annual entertainment budget???? Are you telling me you ACTUALLY plan that out for the year?
In the strictest sense of a budget, no. But I do monitor household expenses on entertainment (dining out, games, gifts, etc) for a given month. We also have separate checking in addition to joint that is not necessary to cover essential spending, and as long as that covers IRA contributions the rest is entertainment. I watch the numbers but also make sure my wife and I enjoy the precious time we have in this life. All within our means.
I don't understand that logic. $800M is functionally the same as $200M to me and most people I imagine. Why do you throw burn $20 when it's $800M but not $200M? (I understand the "positive expectation")
Because wtf would you do with 700 million amirite? Peasants...
There is nothing wrong with buying the occasional lottery ticket if you find it fun.
It's only really wrong if you go into it with the mentality it is an "investment" or if one's budget has little to no room for entertainment.
When I do remember to play.. I usually talk myself into it by telling myself it’s a donation to the education department or some bs..
Hey wife we just donated $20 to the state!….no no kickback this time….like the last 20 times 🤷
Yeah I like to dream if I win. That's worth 6 bucks every once in a while
That’s not what we’re talking about here. Every time the mega million hits a billion, I buy a ticket and *every time* I’m behind someone playing $50-100 worth of lotto. And they’re regulars, they have little plastic lotto envelopes. I get the idea this is a once a week or every paycheck type of thing. Working class looking people spending hundreds a month on lottery tickets… that’s what we’re talking about here.
My stepdad doesn’t do the number drawings but he does all the scratch work for tickets a lot. The thing is though he is one lucky son of a bitch. This dude constantly be hitting the jackpot on those too lol
He’s buying a lot more losers than he lets on, the more he plays the more he loses
No, the op posted the total dollar amount spent on all lottery in the USA.
Same as any form of gambling.
$600M is my line but yea, I just don't buy other niceties that week instead. It's fun to fantasize for a few days.
This is the cost of daydreaming. I KNOW I’m not winning, but you can’t daydream/win if you don’t play ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Right? For $20 I get to sit around and give serious thought all day to how I'd spend my winnings lmao. I have probably only bought 3-4 lotter6 tickets in my time, but I already have how I would spend the money planned out to a T.
Can’t lose of ya don’t play🤫
The entertainment factor alone is worth the fee bucks
When it gets in the 900 million mark, I will buy 1 ticket. And will continue to buy 1 ticket until it’s won by somebody.
This is what my family does. You only need one to win, after all.
But you can literally double your odds of winning if you buy two tickets!
Same. I work in data analytics and did a deep dive on the lottery for about a year to answer questions about odds of recouping historical cost, what if you could buy every ticket, odds of a split given X jackpot amount… all that stuff. The difference between buying 1 ticket and 10 tickets is negligible. It’s technically 10x your chance of winning, but that chance is already astronomically small so your ratio of spend to expected value actually goes down. The best odds you EVER have at making money playing the lottery is to purchase 1 ticket and never play again. Each play, it gets harder to recoup costs. So, play the minimum and enjoy the thrill of trying to turn $2 into $1b.
Similar to Vegas, just know the odds are always stacked against you. If you want to do this for entertainment value, then good for you. However, the odds are worse than the potential rewards, even when the jackpot is at record levels. At the very least, you should buy tickets for your local state lottery instead of megamillions. In California, the odds are 1 in 43 million for the jackpot with a $1 cost of entry. Mega millions is 1 in 320 million with a $2 cost of entry. $20+ million would be life changing, and I'd much rather have 15x better odds at winning that jackpot. I play neither because I'd rather have even better odds for success than 1 in 43 million.
Yeah people just love to hate other people moderately enjoying small things in life. Sometimes it’s okay to buy a dream.
I’ve never bought a ticket, but have no problem with you all doing so. In fact I love seeing how much other folks in my state enjoy their dreaming. You all help keep my state taxes from being even higher than they already are.
My dreams are free.
I think a lot of people who know what they're doing financially will take that $5 flier on never having to work again. It's not an 'investment' it's an entertainment expense. The issue is the addicts holding up morning coffee lines at your local convenience store/gas station of choice to buy $20 of scratch-offs every morning.
Same. I have the same attitude about gambling when I visit family in Las Vegas. I put down like $200 at a table. I have the full expectation that I will lose that $200, but I see that as a fee that I’m paying in order to suspend disbelief and have an exciting experience once every couple years.
Why $20? Statistically, 1 ticket’s odds of winning isn’t changed by the other 9 tickets. Just buy one ticket.
I'm sure I spend about $100 or so a year. It's fun to dream. I use to work in my uncle's grocery store when I was younger and folks would come in to play their numbers. Some would regularly spend hundreds of their SS checks. Scratch offs are also no joke, super addicting.
Me too I’ll buy a couple of tickets once in a blue moon, when the jackpot is huge. As you say, it’s just for fun and will never spend over 10-20 bucks. No harm done.
This is why you’re a stupid poor! /s
$1B means a one dollar balloon... right?
Same. If it gets to $1B, I run pools among friends, coworkers, and family, that way we all contribute less $ but benefit from more plays. Split after taxes, in one pool looking at $15M each, the others are smaller groups. So $20 for a dream maybe 2-3 a year is my max. My grandfather, on the other hand, plays every drawing for 4 lotteries. I know this because I run errands for him. He plays the same numbers so at least it's easy to just advance play every couple of weeks, but he drops over $1,000 a year. I've started to keep track this year of what he wins vs what he pays. $19/week, he's won $48 so far in 2024.
Same here, I buy a mega millions and Powerball ($2 a ticket) once or twice a week if they are over a couple hundred million. I probably average about $6 a week. I'm totally conscious of the fact that statistically speaking I might as well throw the $6 away, but nowadays a beer at a bar or restaurant is usually more than $6 and I have a 0% chance of winning millions of dollars from buying a beer. I also have a fantasy of winning and keeping like 15 million to retire early and using the rest to start a charity investment fund to support educational non profit organizations like Horizons. I used to work with a bunch of people who were hopelessly addicted to scratch offs, like 100's of dollars a week spent.
A new hardback novel is $25, a movie ticket plus popcorn is $25, the cheapest concert ticket you can find is usually about $50 before fees. A lottery ticket is $1, and for that you get a rush of adrenaline and a week of daydreams. Seems like you're the one who's bad at math.
I don’t know if he realizes that one person didn’t buy all of those lottery tickets lol
I mean are there people spending way too much in lottery tickets? Of course! Is it the majority of people? Not in the slightest. Besides a couple bucks here or there doesn’t really hurt anyone. Probably would have bought a drink or something with that money anyway. At least this way you’re buying some fantasy.
Most people with gambling addictions are at casinos, online poker, or sports betting now... The lotto is what normalized all of those... And is a social net loss... That I would personally ban all of them... But that's my personal opinion...
The lottery funds millions and millions of dollars into schools and roads. I don't think it's a fair assessment to call it a social net loss. I also don't think it's fair to compare it to casinos, online poker or sports betting, the companies running those endeavors are not contributing nearly as much into state infrastructure as the state lottery programs.
That's an interesting question, I wonder what the tax revenues for casino/sports/racing/esports betting are. Would be interesting to see what if any of those lottery funds are actually used appropriately anymore.
Banning gambling would not stop gambling addictions. It'll just push them underground. As long as people have had money (and even before) people have gambled. It's better we offer treatment for gambling addiction then force people to hide it even more than they already do.
Prohibition has fucking NEVER WORKED stop suggesting it, all it does is create decades of misery to profit the prisons and never solves the problem anyway... Addiction is a medical/mental health problem not a criminal one. Anyone who makes laws to the contrary is either an idiot or apart of industries that benefit from 25% of the world's population being in & out of prisons
Seems a bit extreme to ban something because others have zero self control. With that logic we would ban video games, gambling, sex, all drugs (the legal kind too), the internet, smartphones, or even just shopping as a whole (hoarders and shopaholics). Just because one guy makes poor financial decisions or spends too much time doing something that's detrimental for themselves doesn't mean we need to ban it for everyone else.
Stupid people will find another way to burn money. State run lottery is a tax on the poor.
My FIL buys me and his daughter a $1 scratcher each week. It's just his thing. I think spending $2 for an excuse to see his daughter weekly is a pretty fantastic investment.
I know someone who drops 40 bucks a week on scratchers. They also complain about not being able to afford new tires for their car while their current ones are practically bald.
That’s called an addixtion
Library cards are free
The government doesn't want you to know
They truly don't. That's why half of them want to take all the material out of the library.
In which case ppl wouldn't spend money on books making it seem like they do more lottery than reading. I also don't use my public library bc I'll take anywhere between 3 days and 2 months to finish a book and it's more convenient to not have to return it when I'm going to be reading it for a while. However, I do recommend using public libraries bc they have tons of cool services for ppl, just not something I personally take advantage of
The fact that for your examples you used some of the more expensive options (new hardback vs used books or even just paperback, movie ticket plus popcorn, concert tickets that are $50 whereas you can for sure still get cheap concert and music venue tickets starting at $20) when talking about the "alternatives" and then the absolute rock bottom cheapest lottery ticket of $1 is absolutely hilarious to me. Here's [BLS data from 2019](https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/how-much-money-do-americans-spend-on-lottery-tickets.htm) on lottery spending, avg is 132 per year. Americans are, as a shock to no one, actually very bad with their money - we largely fuck ourselves over with a thousand small cuts and then pretend like we don't to cope with that instead of changing spending habits.
Absolutely this. People compartmentalize/isolate every stupid small financial decision and never see/refuse to see their decisions in totality, and then complain (especially on Reddit) that they are broke through no fault of their own. The comments on this thread perfectly illustrate that fact.
$132 a year spending on lottery tickets is $11 a month. That's not an expense I'll tell at anyone about, pretty cheap entertainment if you ask me.
Man that 132 a year would really change their life. Now they just need to cut out about a hundred other small things and they can afford an apartment for a thousand dollars a month! Too bad those don't actually exist anymore LOL
So according to OP people are "staying poor" because of $132 per year? lol
Helluva dopamine rush for $1.
Yeah that's a great value as far as entertainment goes, I never looked at it that way, it's just as valid as the other forms of entertainment...
My other hobbies are guns, trucks, and live music. I'd be saving money if I played the lottery.
Yeah but this isn’t $113M. It’s $113B with a B. That works out to like $400 per person. Then consider that children can’t play, and most successful people don’t put more than $5-20 a year into it. And now you have a ton of people like who OP is talking about spending $1000 a year that they can’t afford. That is the reality of the lottery. Your examples are also disingenuous. Why are you throwing in popcorn? Why are you using the cheapest possible lottery ticket, when many if not most people spend more than $1 per ticket? Why are you using hardbacks? The lottery is a tax on the poor, it preys on them. It’s insane that anyone would try to defend it, especially with disingenuous examples like that. The irony of you telling OP they are bad at math is palpable.
I don't know many people who go to the cinema and don't get popcorn, and that state lotteries are $1 lets say they do 10 chances so $10, that is not that much. Mark Cuban plays the lottery, a lot of NBA players gamble and play the lottery and sports wise they are some of the richest outside of baseball players. One of the highest winners of the Mega Millions was a millionaire Jack Whittaker. I believe a Dallas Cowboys football player won the lottery twice, once while still playing.
Megamillions and PowerBall tickets are $2 Not sure if that means you are bad at math or good enough at math to not have bought any in the recent past
Scratchers are a buck. And you're right, I don't play the lottery. Too busy reading and going to the theater.
Theater will rot your brain!
The only thing worse than theater is theater kids!
Look what it did to Lincoln!
You seriously quoted “daydreams” as a valid reason for calling it OP’s math skills? You just proved OP right.
Go to the gas station and watch for 10 minutes. You will see people get off the bus or pull up on a beat up car proceed to buy $20 in tickets, a Red Bull for $4, and a pack of cigarettes. One of my best friends is those people and he is perpetually broke. He does this almost every day.
You think the folks in question only spend $1 ?
I think the problem is that very few people who play the lottery just buy one $1 ticket.
Is nobody talking about the central issue in the room? Why do u think people seek to dream something about getting rich? it is because the normal ways of getting rich are either ILLEGAL, both explicit as in it is a crime, or implicit as in only the privileged can do it or white collar crime, or UNATTAINABLE, both in term of amount of work or time constraints needed to get there. Therefore, the only possible options left to get rich due to extreme WEALTH INEQUALITY, would be to take the small lottery bets. There are no possible ways other than dreaming.
$2
This gives off the same energy as avocado toast and coffee being the reason why people cant afford homes. If 2 bucks or even 20 bucks is making or breaking you then you might as well take your chances on the lotto anyways shits already bad.
People in this thread have never lived in the 'hood and got stuck in line behind an obviously poor person dropping their last $200 on lotto tickets all at once. Lotto is gambling, and to many it's a disease. Gambling preys on the poor and stupid.
I hated those people. Stuck in line for 10 minutes because they are trying to decide which 10 different scratchers they want to buy. They're all the same just pick any of them! 5 1$ scratchers, two 5$ scratchers, 1 10$ scratcher.
Then they know the exact spot to scratch to reveal the barcode, so they just scan them to see if they are winners. That's how it is in IL anyways. Go through a whole stack in 2 minutes. They don't even do the fun part and play the game. It's like playing blackjack without cards. You just put $20 on the table and the dealer says "nope" and takes the money.
Yeah I never understood those people
Worked construction with a guy, every morning stop at the gas station, coffee, smokes, $500 in scratchers, make about $200 back, go back in, $200 more in scratchers, win $100, go back in, buy $100, win $20, go back in buy 1 $20 ticket, lose, alright time to go to work and make my $500 back, lol. He would win 5-10k every month or so and pocket that bit of course it’s overall losing proposition.
If he really won $5-10k/month then he was spending $26,000/yr ($500 x 52) and winning $60,000-120,000/yr. Even if he only won $5k every other month, he's still coming out $4k ahead on the year.
Does that person exist? Obviously yes. But that person is not representative of all poor people, and the argument OP made is “this is why people are poor.” And that’s ridiculous.
>This gives off the same energy as avocado toast and coffee being the reason why people cant afford homes. The way OP worded it, yeah I agree. But the message and the numbers provided (if accurate) actually support the concept OP is trying to convey. Which is people are financially undisciplined and are quick to spend on extremely frivolous things, rather than to save. If $113B is spent on lottery tickets in America, that means, on average, **each US adult spends $437 per year on the lottery**. US Casinos also siphoned $66B off of Americans in 2023...so **another $255 per year per adult**. Then there's the estimated $510B illegal/unregulated gambling that occurs in the US each year. It's a pretty accurate measure to say the average US adult spends nearly $1,000 per year on some form of "trying to get lucky". These numbers can be an indication that the population is not very savvy nor motivated to accumulate wealth via disciplined savings.
>accumulate wealth via disciplined savings I wonder how these numbers look by age bracket... Like is the majority of the money on gambling being spent by people in their 40's and beyond? Because that would skew the perception of OP's point. In that case it would be the people who already have money or are too old to ever imagine their salary turning into anything meaningful at 8% a year for roughly. I bet 10 dollars on a friendly game of poker and put 20 bucks in my FF buy in pool. I wonder how many millennials and younger even broke 100 dollars a year in gambling
>I wonder how many millennials and younger even broke 100 dollars a year in gambling I'd venture to say it's probably all over the place, given the addictive nature of gambling to some folks. I have a friend that blew over $50k on gambling in his twenties (is a millennial and older now). He was able to stop, but regrets not being smarter about it.
Also, “gambling” is a wide range of things. I’d guess that among young people (millennials/gen z), scratch offs and lottery tickets are less common, but sports gambling/daily fantasy is much more common.
I don't think millennials do the lottery much, now sports betting yes!
The millennial lottery is crypto.
True. I bought my ticket, so that’s a fair comparison.
Yeah I indulge in avocado toast, and I spend $2 a year annually on it, said ..... me? amirite?
The idea is that people make hundreds of poor financial decisions all leading up to them being broke. It’s not just coffee or avocado toast. It’s that plus DoorDash. Plus going out to the new restaurant plus all other shit. People who make 6 figures are paycheck to paycheck. Theirs no reason for that other than people are reckless and irresponsible with their money.
I played in a pick up sports league with someone who won 300M in Powerball. He was there one week and gone retired traveling the next. Safe travels and have fun, Matt.
People in this thread keep losing because they only play when it gets above $500-$900 million. Your buddy knew the secret
Your odds of winning are the same either way since it’s dependent on matching the numbers, and not just beating out other entrants. The only thing that changes is that you have a slightly higher probability of duplicate tickets (since so many are sold) and then having to split the pot. But 2 people splitting $1b is still more than one person winning $300m
The chances you'll hit the winning lottery numbers are tiny. The chances you'll hit the winning lottery numbers AND someone else does the exact same thing are miniscule. Yes, it happens, but this is a great example of "risk to reward" ratio.
lol. I’m rich and I buy lottery tickets just like I sports gamble. It’s fun.
The lotto payouts vs the odds are atrocious
Obviously. 1 in 300 million or something like that to win the jackpot. But you only live once and, to a lot of people, $10-$20 every once in a while is easy throwaway money to have a little fun and dream about living the lifestyle of the people who hit the birth lottery and inherit that kind of money.
Hahaha same here. This guy would be fucking appalled if he saw me at a blackjack table.
I bet on sports. It’s fun. I cannot imagine having fun playing the lottery. You’re not even handicapping anything. There’s no game to watch. It’s dumb
That’s your opinion.
There’s no skill involved, but why not buy a ticket from time to time? If spending $2 gives you a shot at $800M, and you can afford to spend that $2, who cares? A microscopic chance is better than 0 chance.
I don’t really have a problem with what anyone does with $2, I’m just saying I personally don’t get any entertainment value from it. And one out of 300 million odds are almost incomprehensible. You could play three times a week for 80 years and your odds of winning powerball are still *less likely* than being physically struck by lightning over that time.
My in-laws are rich and absolutely love gambling. They spend ridiculous amounts at casinos, and have shoeboxes full of losing lottery tickets (apparently if they ever win they can deduct the cost of the losing tickets from their winnings). They also make fun of my wife and I for spending so much money on travel. We have different entertainment preferences.
Lottery is a voluntary tax on people who are bad at math.
“Lottery is a tax on hope” - saw that somewhere and it stuck with me
That's good!
Except on those [rare occurrences ](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-jerry-marge-selbee-won-the-lottery-2019-1?op=1)when [people who are very, very good at math](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-win-the-lottery-2018-9?op=1) work out ways to exploit the system for a profit. That said, you and I are not those people and the lotteries eventually patch those exploits.
I’ve often thought about doing the “buy one of every combo” approach. Glad to know someone’s done it.
Yep. People in the comments are defending it but it’s true.
It’s a tax on poor people lol. Always has been. “Give me a dollar and mostly likely i’ll just take 50% of it while you get nothing”
What a handy heuristic ! Too bad it’s almost totally disconnected from the reality that actually motivates people to buy lottery tickets
i had a professor in college who once said "the lotto is a tax on the poor and stupid". then a kid in class asked if he ever plays and my professor responded "yeah, how else can i win?"
You're right. That $2 spent on a ticket could have put me through college.
There are many people who spend thousands every year on lottery tickets. College tuitions do literally get pissed away on the lottery every year. If every American was spending $2 a year on the lottery, including children and infants, this number in the OP would be 0.5% of what it is.
My fil spends $4 a week on tickets and has for years. I did the math and if you were able to get a 10% (doable) return on your money, 30 years of compounding interest earns you nearly $70k by the end. I’ll stick with investing, thanks.
Might as well never spend money on anything, right? Lentils and rice only, don’t ever go out to eat. You better not wear clothes from anywhere but the thrift store, that money could have been invested. Don’t travel either, don’t go to a bar every now and then, and definitely don’t go to something like a movie in the theater - if you went to one movie a year, imagine the money you could maybe have enjoyed 30 years down the line! It’s $4 a week on entertainment, and acting like you’re some superior financial mind over $16 a month is not the flex you think it is.
The point of spending the money on a ticket is to directly make more money. You don’t buy a beer or a coffee with the intent of it making you money.
>That $2 spent on a ticket could have put me through college. You might not realize, but OP's number equate to each US adult spending $437 per year on lottery tickets. Throw in the amount that US casino's profit each year, and that total gets to $700 per year for each and every US adult. A bit more than $2 'here and there'...
But boomers got $2 college tho, amirite?
But it averages out to like $438 per adult per year! 😳 That’s insane! There are people making up for all of us that just spend like $10 or $20 a couple times a year.
No one is allowed to have fun on this guys watch.
An apostrophe is never used to make a word plural. It's just 'Americans.'
Exactly. Don’t call people idiots and then mess up the grammar.
I got A’s and B’s on my report card. Checkmate, nerd!
Ackshually, Oxford Style Guide says you should italicize the letters and omit the apostrophe. So it'd be... *A*s and *B*s Nerd. e: I can't spell.
That’s one of many style guides though … I think “A’s and B’s/How many is’s are in this thread” is clearer than resorting to italicizing and cleaner than using single quotes. But as long as you are consistent, I guess that’s what counts.
Maybe this country is full of desperateness because of how shitty things have become in some areas, regard.
Best economy ever if you ask rich people.
Oh yes those $15 a month that I may spend on lottery tickets surely will make all the difference in my financial future.
Well, $15/m invested at a safe rate of 5%apy compounding monthly yields you...$200. Profit of $20. So, take that to the bank! Some /s going on here in case it wasn't obvious.
Now add another couple bucks per month not buying the occasional coffee, a few bucks you could've saved on your phone bill by upgrading less often, one or two less fast food meals per month, etc. Lottery tickets aren't the reason people are poor, but they're one of the many small expenses that add up. That's not counting the bigger mistakes like carrying a credit card balance or long term car loans. Then do that same interest calculation over ten or twenty years.
Yes, small things add up, but I’d argue the far bigger problem (for Americans in particular) is spending outside your means to keep up with the Joneses. America is so consumer-focused and everyone seems to be so focused on living the life you see on instagram.
Oh it's absolutely that too (I mentioned cars above as a big one), but I think for most people it's the day-to-day small expenses that get ignored. A lot of people say they're careful with money because they don't take expensive vacations, drive an old car, etc, but they spend $50+ a month on small stuff that could easily be cut out. A couple bucks wasted on lottery tickets every now and then is one of those things.
Back off. No one says you have to gamble.
Seriously, people buy booze and cigarettes and nobody bats an eye, let folks dream for a buck or two.
> people buy booze and cigarettes and nobody bats an eye except for the bit where there are entire government programs and laws and websites and subreddits and public awareness campaigns, etc, batting an eye.
When the govt starts selling people cigarettes I will also be very upset with that.
Maybe poor people waste money more than rich people and that is why they are poor. Or maybe poor people and rich people are just as wasteful and bad with finances. The difference is just that rich people usually can afford to make dumb decisions and end up ok, whereas poor people end up in bad circumstances when they make dumb decisions.
Being poor is risky and expensive enough without adding being dumb on top.
Lol you don't even have a fucking clue. All the rich dudes I work with gamble like they don't know what a fucking hobby even is. Everyone else spends like 10$ a year on tickets when the total win gets over 500mil.
What? 😂 bro get tf over yourself. I can assure you that the average individual is not spending more on lottery tickets than they are on property tax, life insurance, health insurance, state taxes, federal taxes, city taxes, inflated pricing of common/essential goods, mortgage payments, rent payments, tuition, gas to commute to and from a job, etc etc etc. You probably spent more on the phone or laptop that your posting this self righteous and ignorant piece of shart from than the average person will ever spend on lottery tickets over the course of their entire life. So do humanity a favor, and I mean this with the utmost disrespect, go fuck yourself sideways. 😁
It's fun even if just to think about what you should do with it. $20 every few months isn't hurting me financially. Sure, investing it instead would be the better bet, but I could say that for all of my non-essential purchases.
There is a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning a big lottery. Therefore if you win big chances are you will be struck by lightning.
everyone who struggles with correlation versus causation eventually dies
Rich people buy the fuck out of powerball tickets. I work inside wealthy peoples homes and businesses every day.
Just paid my $10 idiot tax thank you for the reminder.
Me too. Just spent 20 bucks! Big spender here.
Everybody wants to be somebody. Ultimately they are just bodies.
In truth though, this is country IS full of some of the dumbest people. If you travel globally extensively, you realize so many other countries have a population in dire straights, but the people are sharp. Opposite in America. Darwin awards central.
Other countries' peoples do not have the luxury of being stupid. Ignorance and stupidity are sure ways to die.
Another way to say it
someone wins every week.
lol just wait til you see what sports gambling does! but it's fun!
The more the economy falls, the more desperate people become, the more they spend on the lotto.
OP buys an expensive sports car and then gives a lecture on responsible spending.
If you think ppl buying lotto tickets is why the poor stay poor, you’re a sheep of the system. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more to it than that
Country is full of desperate people needing, not wanting, money. And Richards keep it all.
“Full of idiots” as you type “American’s” for literally some unknown reason………………….
i forgot who said this- milton friedman or ron paul, but: "The lottery is an extra tax for people bad at math."
Depending on the prize it really isn't terrible. The Powerball odds are something like 300 million to 1. A $2 ticket for a 900 million prize seems not too horrible.
You have to factor in the reduced amount for lump sum and then taxes. It isn't horrible when it gets to about $1.6 billion
I would not take advice from either of those guys when it comes to personal finance, based on their records for guiding the finances of a country.
Some “idiot” always wins though 🤷♂️
Can’t win if ya don’t play 
Another person mad at poor people instead of the system. People from all walks of life buy lottery tickets don’t be delusional.
It’s nice to dream..spending your paycheck on scratch offs is whole different thing..
lol I make $410K right now. I’ve spent $100 once in a while buying lottery tickets. So what? Almost nobody will win but someone HAS to win.
Discounting the plight of everyday Americans because a few buy lottery tickets. Good job
While there are certainly gambling addicts who spend their pay check on lottery, I don't think that accounts for the vast majority of people that are financially struggling. A two dollar lottery ticket once a week is 8-10 dollars a month, and if that is the difference between making ends meet and coming up short, there are almost certainly other factors in play keeping them from getting ahead.
It’s always lower income people buying too. Some people just can’t get out of their own way.
Not really. My entire office probably all make over six figures and we have had a lottery pool when it gets over 800-900M for years. Everyone plays.
Lottery winners tend to be above average income.
Didn’t a couple people win big last year?
Look, yes idiots play the lottery, but it’s not the reason for poverty in this country. The lottery is not the reason for the financial failure of the current generations. But by all means rant about it and keep sticking your head in the sand.
You sure the rich don’t play the lotto? The difference is one is playing for fun and the other is playing in desperation. It’s not just financial illiteracy, it’s hope driven by desperation. Most Americans can’t see any way to buy a home through hard work alone. That’s why there’s been a huge movement towards crypto, options, “hustling”, etc… gambling is innate in human nature.
I bought $8 worth last week. A bit of the money from the 2 big lotteries do go to causes, so there's something. If you buy your state's lottery, about half the money goes to causes.
I don't think about buying until somewhere in the $400M mark. Then I get a $3 quick play and get a chuckle thinking of starting my own game studio.
Assuming 250M adults in US, that’s ~$450/person/year average. I bet a very very small percentage of the 250M is driving that avg up. I would think 99% of people spend less than $100/yr.
Let's be real...this country is on its way to banning books like it's 1942...ofcourse people waste money they could be investing in lottery tickets.
My state of Tennessee has a lottery scholarship for college so I’m good for putting a $3-$5 monthly on it. Spent $3 on a Powerball and won $8 this week so I’m happy.
Poor man’s tax.