I bought 3 lottery tickets this week. foolish?

[mikesaver]

I've played the lottery about 5 times in my life. The odds of winning are so small that you might as well flush your money down the toilet. But once in awhile if the jackpot gets really high I'll throw a buck or two into a pool with friends.

The real problem is the people who are addicted to the lottery and spend more than they can afford. When I was working a part time job there was a guy who was in his mid-60s and one day we were talking about the lottery. He told me he spent an average of $100 per month on lottery tickets.

I asked if he had ever won anything and he said "I won a few hundred bucks a few times, but I'm still waiting for the big payoff!"

Think about how much money he has wasted over the years. That's $1200 a year. Over his 45 year working life that's $54,000 gone to the lottery. And that's just what he paid for the tickets...I'm not even factoring in what he could have earned if he had invested that money.

I know they say you gotta be in it to win it but to me it's all just one big con game.

[KTP]

It is somewhat of a con game, but OTOH, they would just tax me for the money I spend on lottery tickets anyway, since it goes to fund several programs in my state (which doesn't have an income tax atm). So when the lottery gets to point X, where the payout is greater than the odds (like when the payout is 11million and the odds of winning are 1 in 5 million), ya, I may throw a buck or two in.

Think of it as the very high return/risk part of my portfolio

[kilapapipa]

Heard a story about a woman in Ohio that won the lotto and got hit by a car and killed in the street outside of a resturant she was celibrating in. What a shame that would be.

[Beppington]

Heard a story about a woman in Ohio that won the lotto and got hit by a car and killed in the street outside of a resturant she was celibrating in. What a shame that would be.

Talk about dyin' happy