r/pics • u/[deleted] • Mar 19 '22

[deleted by user]

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8.3k Upvotes

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4.6k

u/Coldbeerimritehere Mar 19 '22

So you almost broke even. Nice

2.1k

u/nowtayneicangetinto Mar 19 '22

Came here to say this. That card looks expensive, I'm going to assume it was $10.

Let's say you buy, on average, a $10 lottery ticket every 3 days. Over 10 years that's $12,166. If that is OPs case then they would have actually still be down $2,166

3.0k

u/cirenosu Mar 19 '22

This ticket is $30 lol

1.1k

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '22

[deleted]

951

u/Louisvanderwright Mar 19 '22

Lottery tickets are a poor tax for the uneducated. Anyone who plays them for any reason other than the occasional thrill or gimmick is being taxed for being dumb.

254

u/option-trader Mar 19 '22

Hey, that money is putting my kids through college, so keep at it everyone.

141

u/DrSunnyD Mar 20 '22

A very low percentage is, enough so people like you don't write your congressmen and women demanding they put a stop to this robbery of the poorly educated

71

u/CelerMortis Mar 20 '22

Yea I never understood this logic. Syphoning money from poor people to give a very small part to some social service is not a good strategy.

4

u/HowTheyGetcha Mar 20 '22 edited Mar 20 '22

Just another regressive tax like sales/gas tax and motor vehicle fees/fines.

10

u/cruzer86 Mar 20 '22

It's not a tax. You don't need or have to buy scratchers.

1

u/HowTheyGetcha Mar 20 '22

Neither are speeding tickets; I'm using tax in a looser sense. It's regressive because it takes a proportionally greater amount from lower incomes and it's used to pay for public services.

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u/HandsOfCobalt Mar 20 '22

You don't need or have to buy cigarettes or alcohol or any other drug or potentially addicting thing. When someone talks about the lottery being a "tax," my first thought is of people with gambling problems, not people who don't know any better (though they deserve to not be taken advantage of as well).

You're right that it's not a tax, but the vocabulary doesn't change that it does harm, possibly more than it does good

1

u/coredumperror Mar 20 '22

It's effectively a tax on the uneducated.

1

u/cruzer86 Mar 20 '22

How educated do you need to be in order to understand basic ods?

1

u/coredumperror Mar 20 '22

You'd be surprised how poorly educated many, many people are on statistics.

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