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The Lottery and Sweepstakes Mindset

by kevin timothy
28 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
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I'm not sure about you but this really pains me.

Ever notice how the masses would not hesitate to
focus on, rely on, and enthusiastically play the lottery.
However, any talk about a business start up or
proper investing and they cower or feel repulsed.

The tragic part is that if you'd take those same
funds that's used on scratch offs or the BIG
drawing, and channel the same dedication into
financing and starting an idea, you'll have a greater
chance to acquire that wealth.

Breaking that train of thought is like removing that
stubborn tomato sauce stain in your favorite white polo shirt!
And although it pains me to see so many with that
mentality I feel sorry for them. It's a vicious cycle.

Even though most business owners fail horrendously,
those odds are STILL very much better than actually
winning a Saturday night drawing.

Not to mention, wealth that just drops in your lap
is never appreciated. Just a thought but I'm done
with my rant.
#investing advice #lottery #sweepstakes contests #wealth building
  • Profile picture of the author David Braybrooke
    Agreed Kevin. But the occasional lottery ticket can add some excitement to life. You gotta be in it to win it!
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  • Profile picture of the author awledd
    I buy lotteries occasionally but when I do, I mostly buy the scratchs because I want to know the result NOW. Sometimes it is for fun. No hard feelings.
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  • Profile picture of the author dmaster555
    A poor person's mentality.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    People buy lottery tickets based on the possibility of winning vs. the probability of winning.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
      Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

      People buy lottery tickets based on the possibility of winning vs. the probability of winning.
      "Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math."
      --Ambrose Bierce
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    - I buy so rarely that I don't recall what ended up happening with scratch tickets here in Colorado (and probably elsewhere). The problem is or was that people can still buy the scratch tickets after the big prize has been won.

    - I am grateful for the parks and recreation projects our lottery has funded.

    - Not everyone is cut out to run a business.

    - It is sad when people are conditioned by their upbringing to believe
    that they can't have their own business, that rich people and business
    owners are greedy and evil...

    - Imagine if the typical lottery winner tried to start a business.

    Dan

    Side note(got curious from the lottery quote that Mike posted. Noticed that Wikipedia
    did not have a certain date of his death):

    Ambrose Bierce

    Ambrose Bierce (born 1842) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical dictionary The Devil's Dictionary. In October 1913, the septuagenarian Bierce departed Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. By December he had proceeded on through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. After a last letter to a close friend, sent from there December 26, 1913, he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most notable disappearances in American literary history. Investigations into his fate have proved fruitless and, despite an abundance of theories, his end remains shrouded in mystery.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
      Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

      Ambrose Bierce

      Ambrose Bierce (born 1842) was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist. Today, he is best known for his short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical dictionary The Devil's Dictionary. In October 1913, the septuagenarian Bierce departed Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. By December he had proceeded on through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. After a last letter to a close friend, sent from there December 26, 1913, he vanished without a trace, becoming one of the most notable disappearances in American literary history. Investigations into his fate have proved fruitless and, despite an abundance of theories, his end remains shrouded in mystery.

      WOW!! I would love to read that letter!
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

        WOW!! I would love to read that letter!
        Here you go, mate:

        The Ambrose Bierce Site
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
          Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

          Here you go, mate:

          The Ambrose Bierce Site
          Thank you!!!

          Grrr, that was anticlimactic. "Never meet your heroes", they say...
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          • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
            Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

            Thank you!!!

            Grrr, that was anticlimactic. "Never meet your heroes", they say...
            I do find the whole thing interesting. His somewhat tragic life. The speculation about how he'd rather go quick than have a prolonged death...

            But, yeah, "Never meet your heroes". We had a local talk show host who met a lot
            of famous people in his time and he said that quite a few were a disappointment
            to meet. Either not as interesting as he hoped, or outright jerks.

            Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Is a few days worth of hope not worth a dollar?
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    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

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    • Profile picture of the author Kurt
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      Is a few days worth of hope not worth a dollar?
      Since most lotteries pay back 50% of what they take in, the expectation would be 50 cents per ticket.

      To answer your question, it would depend on how much money you have and how many tickets you buy. Most lottery players I know buy more than one ticket a week.

      For those with some extra cash, a few dollars here and there may be decent entertainment for them.

      However, if someone is on a tight budget and buys 10 tickets a week, is $260 a year worth some "hope"?
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      • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
        Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

        Since most lotteries pay back 50% of what they take in, the expectation would be 50 cents per ticket.

        To answer your question, it would depend on how much money you have and how many tickets you buy. Most lottery players I know buy more than one ticket a week.

        For those with some extra cash, a few dollars here and there may be decent entertainment for them.

        However, if someone is on a tight budget and buys 10 tickets a week, is $260 a year worth some "hope"?
        I hate being in line at the convenience store when one of those guys is
        turning in his ten tickets. grrrr.

        Yep. Everything in moderation. I once thought I wanted to own a liquor store.
        Then I visited a friend at his store (the one up in Coal Creek Canyon, Kurt)
        and, could not stand seeing people scrape together the money to buy a twelve pack
        of beer - realizing that a lot of these customers did that everyday.

        Dan
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        • Profile picture of the author Kurt
          Originally Posted by bizgrower View Post

          I hate being in line at the convenience store when one of those guys is
          turning in his ten tickets. grrrr.

          Yep. Everything in moderation. I once thought I wanted to own a liquor store.
          Then I visited a friend at his store (the one up in Coal Creek Canyon, Kurt)
          and, could not stand seeing people scrape together the money to buy a twelve pack
          of beer - realizing that a lot of these customers did that everyday.

          Dan
          Hey Dan,

          For me, the worst was when I lived in Las Vegas and would see the folks with the plasma bandages sitting at the slot machines, knowing they had just sold their plasma and were using the money to play slots.


          BTW,warm enough for you?
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          • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            Hey Dan,

            For me, the worst was when I lived in Las Vegas and would see the folks with the plasma bandages sitting at the slot machines, knowing they had just sold their plasma and were using the money to play slots.


            BTW,warm enough for you?
            Forgot about the casino scene, long ago I did temp work at the casinos in Blackhawk and Central City, CO and saw much the same things there. Some folks would play the same slot machine for at least my whole 8 hour shift. Not my scene.

            I had a web designer that I thought I wanted to partner with in business. At the time, he was not really interested in working and claimed he could make $150 or so a day at those slot machines.
            A friend of mine goes to the casinos once in a while. He breaks even or stops at $30 or so. His wife
            usually clears about $400 to $1200 each time they go. Weird luck. Me, I lose interest after a quarter or two.

            One of my employees could not start her car this morning because the ignition lock was frozen and she did not have a long enough extension cord for a hair dryer. lol
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      • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
        Originally Posted by MikeTucker View Post

        "Hope is not a strategy."
        I didn't claim it was. Might have been a poor choice of words, and probably far too brief to convey my thinking accurately. It was really just a reactionary post because how people spend their money is up to them.


        Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

        Since most lotteries pay back 50% of what they take in, the expectation would be 50 cents per ticket.

        To answer your question, it would depend on how much money you have and how many tickets you buy. Most lottery players I know buy more than one ticket a week.

        For those with some extra cash, a few dollars here and there may be decent entertainment for them.

        However, if someone is on a tight budget and buys 10 tickets a week, is $260 a year worth some "hope"?
        From that perspective you have a good point. However, I did specify a dollar, so the answer to "how many tickets" is one. Up to the point of my comment, the comments from other "players" indicated they only play occasionally, and my comment was more about that kind of player.

        Most of the people I know who buy lottery tickets only buy a ticket when the jackpot gets huge, so they may spend $5 - $10 a year tops. Personally, I probably buy 2-3 tickets a year on a lark. My wife will buy 1-2 a year when the jackpot is crazy big.

        Of course, whether $260 worth of "hope" is worth it or not really depends on the person. It's not my call to judge them, but I'd bet some of them would say yes, it's worth it.

        I know what you're saying though, and you're right -- a lot of people spend more than they probably should, at least from our perspective.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kurt
          Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

          I didn't claim it was. Might have been a poor choice of words, and probably far too brief to convey my thinking accurately. It was really just a reactionary post because how people spend their money is up to them.




          From that perspective you have a good point. However, I did specify a dollar, so the answer to "how many tickets" is one. Up to the point of my comment, the comments from other "players" indicated they only play occasionally, and my comment was more about that kind of player.
          What's more relevant is the "action", which involves a time frame and rate of play. It's doubtful very many people only buy a single ticket during their lifetime.

          And that's only a response to your question. I asked another question.


          Of course, whether $260 worth of "hope" is worth it or not really depends on the person. It's not my call to judge them, but I'd bet some of them would say yes, it's worth it.
          Of course, the people that spend money on lottery tickets would say it's worth it. Just as those that buy crack would.

          I bet on the probability of winning, not the possibility of winning, because I like to win.

          Many of us do judge people by their actions, particularly if we are financing them. For example, if someone is on food stamps/public assistance and buying lottery tickets. And I do (did) judge people selling plasma in order to gamble. I don't think they are morally "bad". I simply consider the situation to be "sad".

          Like I said above, if people have some extra money and want to play a few lottery tickets, it can be worth the entertainment value. And, there are even times when the lottery has a postitive expectation when the jackpot reaches a certain point.

          However, the reality is, these jackpots are most often funded by people who really don't have enough money to play the lottery.
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          • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            Many of us do judge people by their actions, particularly if we are financing them.
            As do I, but generally not publicly. I'm not inferring you shouldn't, it's just what I've chosen for myself (with varying degrees of success).

            For example, if someone is on food stamps/public assistance and buying lottery tickets. And I do (did) judge people selling plasma in order to gamble. I don't think they are morally "bad". I simply consider the situation to be "sad".
            Yes, it's very sad. We agree. One would hope (there's that word again) that people would have better sense than to gamble away their food money or sell blood to play, but we both know not everyone does that.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
          Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

          I didn't claim it was. Might have been a poor choice of words, and probably far too brief to convey my thinking accurately. It was really just a reactionary post because how people spend their money is up to them.
          The written word is subject to the interpretation of the reader and all that,
          so just to make sure you know, I didn't mean to claim that you were
          claiming it was.

          I actually agree with you 100% that how people spend their money
          is absolutely their own business, and I have not really been taking
          this thread seriously because I thought it was a joke for the most part?
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    "Hope is not a strategy."
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    The lottery has labels that read: for entertainment purposes only, not to be used for investment purposes.

    Lottery is fun if you have the extra scratch to play. I figure if I want to pick up a ticket here or there, it's not irresponsible. I don't spend money on booze or go to movies, or have a shopping addiction, etc.

    However - when I see someone stand in line and drop a C-note ($100 bucks) on lottery, it just boggles my mind. Images of what I could do with that kind of money start playing in my head.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    Yeah, I've actually never looked up anything on his life,
    and held him in kind of the same regard as Mark Twain.

    Haha, some heroes do disappoint. RA Salvatore and Terry Goodkind
    come to mind... On the other hand, Patrick Stewart and even
    Kris Holden-Ried (who was my wife's true love, LOL) have only
    impressed me more when I met them in person!


    As for a liquor store, why not avoid certain areas of town
    for your locations, like Specs? They cater to a certain kind
    of customer, and I never see the kind of people who
    "scrape together change" for beer there?

    Come to think of it, I don't see anyone there buying
    any lottery tickets, either?

    Oh! But I can think of one great use of Lottery Tickets:
    As presents. People love receiving them when they don't
    have to pay for them, haha
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    • Profile picture of the author tagiscom
      Yep, one chance in 13 million, probably over 30 years?

      or....

      Work hard, learn and invest online, and achieve wealth in less than 7?

      I know which one l would pick!


      Shane
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    No worries, Mike, but thanks. To further the clarification chain, when I reply to a comment like that, it's often meant as much for others skimming the thread as it is for the person I'm replying to, because skimmers sometimes form opinions without having gathered all the pertinent information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sumit Menon
    People want to be rich. Most people want to be rich without doing anything. Starting an idea needs work. Investing needs work. Lottery tickets are cheap and there is an off chance that you might win.

    Also, I'd guess that once you get in, it's harder to get out.

    "I spent $260 on this shit last year, I can't give up now. Maybe today's the day."
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  • Profile picture of the author hardraysnight
    'You better you bet,' - The Who
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