How Lucky Can You Get ?

If anyone saw my two $200 winning tickets last weekend; that shows you my luck.

Monday stopped at same place; bought a $10 t scratch off, and won $2,000. Cashed it in at FoodLand since Giant Eagle refuses to cash anything over $100


I’ve learned it seems to be the location you buy tickets at. Least in my case
 
Lottery tickets have worse odds than a casino, might as well go to Vegas and play the slots, your chances will improve by about ten times or more depending on how much you are looking to win. Not only that, but you will have a good time with dinners, shows and site seeing.
Humans are interesting creatures. Line up, run out to buy a ticket and hope they are the one in 300,000,000 odds to be the grand prize winner *LOL* or 30,000,000 or 3,000,000 what's the difference?
Your chances of dying because of a mistake in the hospital is way less than 1 in a 1000.
 
Gotta wait for the big 1/2 B jackpot BC 100M ain't gonna cut it in the long run!
:) :) ;) Someone explain this logic to me.

note: a longtime H.S. friend gave me five powerball tickets in a card for my birthday and I didn't get any numbers whatsoever :(

So, I didn't even hit the first 1/70 odds with 25 random picked numbers !
 
Very true. I do not do scratch off tix but I do run a Powerball or a Mega quick pick usually once a week. Odds are a little better overall for Powerball over Mega but end of day they are of course astronomical. But hey, the winner faced those same astronomical odds and won. Why not me? or you? If it isn't going to be me, may it be you!











Superlotto is the best of the horrible odds
 
If anyone saw my two $200 winning tickets last weekend; that shows you my luck.

Monday stopped at same place; bought a $10 t scratch off, and won $2,000. Cashed it in at FoodLand since Giant Eagle refuses to cash anything over $100


I’ve learned it seems to be the location you buy tickets at. Least in my case
This post reminds me of a recent article "Four Biases that Confound Investors" by John De Goey.

For the record the biases are:
  • loss aversion (the pain of a loss is far greater than the joy of a gain),
  • overconfidence,
  • the illusion of control (thinking you have more control over events than you do), and
  • representativeness (the idea that a single experience is generalizeable).
Lottery wins are random events. And random events can and occasionally do cluster. Winning the lottery does not prohibit winning it again, though it's just as unlikely as it was the first time.
 
I play because....why not?
The money I save by not playing, will not make a significant difference in the quality of my life.

So if I lose my "investment" there's no harm and no foul to me or anyone else in my life.
🤷‍♂️
 
Lottery tickets have worse odds than a casino, might as well go to Vegas and play the slots, your chances will improve by about ten times or more depending on how much you are looking to win. Not only that, but you will have a good time with dinners, shows and site seeing.
Humans are interesting creatures. Line up, run out to buy a ticket and hope they are the one in 300,000,000 odds to be the grand prize winner *LOL* or 30,000,000 or 3,000,000 what's the difference?
Your chances of dying because of a mistake in the hospital is way less than 1 in a 1000.

Lottery vs Vegas

Lottery: you never know if you can or will win until you play.

Vegas: the house ALWAYS wins
 
At a former job, I got to know one of the secretaries fairly well(still keep in touch with her occasionally) and knew that she had pretty serious money issues-living paycheck to paycheck on a $15/hour salary and the like.

She was a constant lottery player to the tune of about $30 a week. About once a year she'd hit decent sized prizes-usually $100-1000-but then would get really screwed over at tax time having to pay them. That was 3x a week Powerball, Mega-Millions, and some of the state level ones(pick 3 and pick 4 I think).

I felt like I knew her well enough to first of all tell her that when she won to have taxes taken out, but it was always "I need the money now". At one point or another I mentioned stopping playing all together but she couldn't see see the false economy of years of $1500/year to get MAYBE $500 in total winnings a year averaged over several years, and of course the "big one" was just right around the corner and the next ticket.

While I was there, she got about a $7/hour raise(I got a similar percentage around the same time, thanks to a supervisor who recognized the productive/hard working people and pushed for raises for a few). Rather than doing something like paying down some considerable CC debt with the ~$200 after taxes extra she was making a week, she instead upped her lottery purchases to around $150 a week, pretty quickly hit a $2000 or so prize and a couple of smaller $100-300 ones, then got hit with a tax bill the next year that she was in an even worse position to pay...

It was sad to see.

I'll never fault anyone for playing for entertainment, and I've bought 4 powerball tickets in the past week(one each for my wife and I the past two drawings). I won't miss the $8 I spent, though, and the fun of talking about what we would do with the money was worth every penny. I know plenty of people for whom their weekly lottery spendings are more or less pocket change in their budget. If you enjoy and can afford it, more power to you. Still, though, playing with the intent to get rich is a false economy. My former co-worker is a prime example of that as even her big prizes(by most metrics) were still a net loss over her years of playing.
 
I'll never fault anyone for playing for entertainment, and I've bought 4 powerball tickets in the past week(one each for my wife and I the past two drawings). I won't miss the $8 I spent, though, and the fun of talking about what we would do with the money was worth every penny. I know plenty of people for whom their weekly lottery spendings are more or less pocket change in their budget. If you enjoy and can afford it, more power to you. Still, though, playing with the intent to get rich is a false economy. My former co-worker is a prime example of that as even her big prizes(by most metrics) were still a net loss over her years of playing.
I recall seeing an article several years ago about the retirement plans of Canadians. One of the more common plans was "to win the lottery". Some plan.

Although I have no interest in gambling (I'll lose my money on investments thank you very much) I have participated in workplace group ticket consortiums when there were big prizes to be won. I might have blown $10 or possibly as much as $20 over my lifetime that way. First of all I would hate to have everyone else at the office win a boatload of money without being part of the group. And secondly it was kind of fun to think about what we'd do if we won $1,000,000 or maybe even $5,000,000.

What to do with $1,000,000 lottery win? Take a few deep breaths, pay off your bills and your mortgage, and realize that while that money will make your life easier from now on, you aren't rich. How about if you won $5,000,000? See the plan for $1,000,000.
 
I only buy power all tickets when it hits some ridiculous jackpot, and even then not every time. (Didn’t buy any last jackpot). If I win great, if I don’t I can make up that “lost” money by not eating out that week.
 
Lottery vs Vegas

Lottery: you never know if you can or will win until you play.

Vegas: the house ALWAYS wins
Flew to Jersey for a Training seminar in the 90's. Guy I traveled with was an experienced Gambler. He wanted to hit the Casino at the boardwalk. He went right to the 5 dollar Black Jack tables. In 20 mins he won enough cash to buy us both lunch and dinner - then we walked. Lunch was at White Castle :)
 
That seems to be the fate of most big lottery winners. They go through the money in 5 years or so.
A universal truth, for sure. The speculation is that those who are unsuccessful in life will remain at the bottom of the financial ladder regardless of how much money they receive.

As always, money flows only towards successful people and businesses.

It is known Pareto principle 80/20, which states that 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth of the community

557ef766ecad04fe50a257cd
 
I only buy power all tickets when it hits some ridiculous jackpot, and even then not every time. (Didn’t buy any last jackpot). If I win great, if I don’t I can make up that “lost” money by not eating out that week.
I understand the math and know the odds are about 292 million to one against winning.

I play when it's over $300 million.

I don't expect to win.

It's not my retirement plan, but it is my EARLY retirement plan.

oilBabe and I were discussing it last weekend.
We would look to give most of it away and have ideas about how to do so. But those are just fantasies as the odds of winning are not favorable.
 
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