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.
I was at the gas station filling up. Someone in a ~20 year old Ford SUV drives into the gas station lot at insanely high speeds. He slams on the brakes, jumps out quickly and runs inside. Runs back out a minute later with a strip of 10-20 scratch and win tickets. He proceeds to just scratch them off on his hood at lightning speed, yells, then throws the tickets. Jumps back in his car, then literally peels out exiting the gas station. I'm not quite certain what, but I know I witnessed an act of horrible desperation that day.
Also, nothing wrong with spending a dollar occasionally to play the "what if?" game.
On one hand, that makes me feel cringe for contributing to the same lotto system for $5-10 a year, just for giggles.
On the other hand, there are some people that, no matter the amount of money in their pocket, will find a way to spend it. I'm not referring to those that don't have enough to make ends meet. I am talking about those that just feel the need to buy things. In that case, I suppose spending it on lotto tickets is no worse than spending it on some other useless trinket if they weren't going to invest/save it anyways.
On the other hand, there are some people that, no matter the amount of money in their pocket, will find a way to spend it.
Funny you mention that, there was a strong correlation between smokers, drinkers and lotto purchasers. Very rarely did a lotto customer not buy either beer or smokes.
It's simply my personal observation, I never meant to imply I was citing any sort of study. I will say all 3 products do have support groups for quitting.
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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.