Why you should buy lottery tickets with rebates

[Doog]

You should buy at least one lottery ticket for the million $$ jackpot every time you get an oil rebate check. Why? Just imagine the personal feeling of satisfaction you would have if you actually won. You could relate your story of success to how changing your own oil was the key to becoming wealthy.

Then do an oil change on your new Mercedes.....

 

[IndyIan]

I usually buy a lottery ticket when I fill up the car. I figure its free since I "hypermile" a bit. Maybe coasting down hills in neutral will make me a millionaire!

 

[abycat]

I dont know how the tickets work in the states but up here a few years back my hurting uncle that lived with his father when he was 50 something and didnt have a you know what to you know what in decided to run to the grocery store and get some smokes and a lottery ticket. He found out that he needed to break a 20 doller bill to get the extra. Which was one doller. He decided not to and the ticket gets printed with the extra numbers shown but says no for it. He went home and checked his ticket later and realized his decision to not break the 20 cost him 500,000$ I kinda thought he would do something rash after that. wasnt surprised when i didnt get a christmas present from uncle bob that year.


So when people say and bobs your uncle I tell them that I have an uncle bob that said no to 500,000$

 

[Bandito440]

I'm going to have to disagree. To me, the lottery is the "Poor Man's Tax". I spend my oil rebates on... my next oil change! In reality, I just deposit the check in my account.

 

[BigBuck]

My government teacher always said that the lottery is a tax on stupid people. I will only buy one when the jackpot is record amounts.

 

[TMoto]

I hear you have a better chance of being struck by lightning. Literally.

I haven't met anyone struck by lightning that I was aware of, but I did meet a gentleman who won the state lotto a few years back.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: BigBuck
My government teacher always said that the lottery is a tax on stupid people. I will only buy one when the jackpot is record amounts.

I guess in theory, the more people spend on lottery tickets, the lower their other taxes will be...
So I'll never win the jackpot with with my regular taxes, but I might with the lottery ticket.

 

[Loobed]

Originally Posted By: BigBuck
My government teacher always said that the lottery is a tax on stupid people. I will only buy one when the jackpot is record amounts.


And income tax is a tax on very stupid people.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Loobed
Originally Posted By: BigBuck
My government teacher always said that the lottery is a tax on stupid people. I will only buy one when the jackpot is record amounts.


And income tax is a tax on very stupid people.




LOL, here comes the political debate!

 

[Mixologist]

Originally Posted By: TMoto
I hear you have a better chance of being struck by lightning. Literally.

I haven't met anyone struck by lightning that I was aware of, but I did meet a gentleman who won the state lotto a few years back.


That's because getting hit by lighting tends to kill the person so you're not as likely to meet a lightening survivor as you are to meet a lotto winner.

 

[PandaBear]

no thanks. I've done too much statistics in school to ever gamble anything.

 

[dwcopple]

There are many types of lottery games. Some are much easier to win then others. I like Fantasy 5. The jackpot ($100K) is enough to pay off everything I have after taxes and that is all I'd need. I was one number off once so far. It is a measly $100 when you match 4 out of 5

 

[hattaresguy]

I don't buy lottery tickets because if you run the numbers they are so far out of your favor its a waste of time and money.

Gambling in general is a waste of time since the odds are not in your favor, unless you play poker and blackjack.

OTOH if the government didn't have a monopoly I would love to start and run a lotto like they used to do. Good money in that business.

 

[eljefino]

Right now I have cars I can leave unlocked and bratty kids who will probably annoy any potential kidnapper into returning them.

If I had a hundred million bucks I wouldn't have those freedoms.

 

[mechanicx]

The mega lottery has a low expected value but for $1 it's not a lot of money to wager for such a huge jackpot even if the odds are really high. I think when the mega lottery was up to $500-600 million recently, the expected value of a ticket was probably pretty close to the purchase price. The problem is there were 3 winners that shared the jackpot. Still it was a lot of money.

What I dislike about the lottery is that you are subject to federal, and in many states, state tax together that can be 40% or more. A tax on a tax and the jackpot is false advertising.