Do you LOTTO?

[StealthyV]

HI all!

I've recently moved home from college and am kinda strapped for cash. I have a couple hundred dollars, but I have a feeling that won't last through the summer (puter builder).

my dilemma is this: I've heard about those scratch-off tickets that you can win $100, $500, and even $1000 just by using a found penny to scratch that stuff off. (lol I'm a newbie at this)

should I spend the $1 for a ticket, or save my cash for something more realistic? (like gasoline...prices here are upwards of $1.85 for regular)


also, what scratch-off games are best? I don't like choosing my destiny, lol. I just want to get all the film off and see what I've got!

~Branson

[jmebonner]

Save your cash is my opinion. Yeah, some people win, but they are few and far between. Chances are that person who brags for days about winning the $100 ticket has easily spent twice that getting it-and he didn't brag about wasting the $10 per day when he was losing.

[Warthog]

Waste of money...if it wasn't profitable, ie if there was a chance in hell of winning, why would it be promoted so much.

[Chuckiechan]

The only bigger rip off is the "Super Lotto", where the chances of winning are expressed by the formula:

(infinity-1)minus (the number of tickets you purchase) = your chance of losing.

Which are pretty bad.

[Brainchild]

It'll cost you 10 to win 1 if your lucky.Throw the buck in the trash and smile cause that's all you've lost and walk away happy


I'm takin' out the trash

I have bought the occasional lottery ticket. A significant portion of the FL lottery goes directly to funding schools, so I don't care about losing the money. It is usually only a dolllar or two anyway.

Robert Richmond

[Ed_S]

I don't buy 'em. But I know people that do, and they spend quite a bit chasing that winner.
I couldn't count how many times I've been at a store & someone ahead of me buys 4 or 5, scratches them off, says "gimme another 3", scratches them off, "gimme another".... Get the picture?
Of course, every once in a while they hit for a $5 or $10 winner, just enough to keep them going & hoping for a big one.

I can see how it's addictive. You've blown a couple bucks, and who knows? the next one might be that winner, or at least bring you back even.

If you're going to try them, be sensible. Decide on a weekly limit. Buy them, then leave the store. Scratch them in the car or at home. You can always go back in to collect, but it's unlikely you'll get out of the car & immediately buy more if they're losers!

[brandon184]

Very rarely...

Our city has an annual hospitals lottery, where they sell tickets for $100 and give away awesome prizes... 1 in 20 chance of winning, and if you don't win - you still just helped buy new hospital equipment. (Yay, warm and tingly feeling) .. I usually buy a few tickets.

Brandon

[osprey4]

I know a guy who always buys "50-50" tickets at high school football games, because he says his chances are 50-50.

Lotteries are a tax on people who are bad at math.

[Gait_Keeper]

I happen to win often, not the jackpot but 3 numbers or something a week ago i won $1700 on a scratch off game.

every friday I play the looto and mega-millions and buy a couple of scratch off (payday ya know) 3 weeks in a row 10 netted me $100 or more this friday $10 nettted me $40