PowerBall and other Lottery Related issues

[clean]

The PowerBall is over 1.2 Billion now.  Do you plan to play?

I have purchased 10 tickets (with the extra dollar) to split with my PhD school office mate (who is now retired to Canada). 

Otherwise I play the Florida Lottery every draw.  I had started it shortly after it was approved in the 80s. I buy many week's worth at a time every six months or so when I visit my parents. 

At work four of us play a pool. 

What about you?  DO you pay the 'poor tax'? 

[hmaria1609]

A library patron regularly plays the lottery. He buys the smaller value tickets in bulk from his favorite spot and has done well with his earnings.

[mamselle]

I see lotteries as a tax on the poor, who false hopes for quick gains lead them to participate beyond their resources.

I neither play them, nor accept lottery funded grants in the arts (my state's use of them.)

The New Yorker just ran an article on this:

   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/24/what-weve-lost-playing-the-lottery?gclid=CjwKCAjwh4ObBhAzEiwAHzZYU3jlCgkES3r91__x-wpoBYXFwJeAlFUEr9daX9FHTUrIEra9oEXboxoCieEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

They don't adequately offset school costs where they're dedicated to that, either.

They only benefit the folks who design, make, and sell the garish-looking tickets to retailers.

And I HATE getting stuck in a line at a convenience store where someone's taking 15 min. of my time picking a thousand different tickets, and making me miss my bus.

HATE it.

M.

[clean]

By not playing, YOUR odds of winning are only slightly less than mine and I have 10 tickets!!  (though I am splitting those 10 with my friend).  So you are already $30 ahead!

Long ago, when another lottery was big, we had a pool at work.  I asked the Dean if he wanted to join.  He said, "Any FINANCE professor that plays the lottery should be fired!"  I told him that there were already 13 of us in the pool, and asked if he wanted to join us, or IF he wanted to be the dean that  needed to hire 13 more people  or tell the provost that the next dean will also need to bring 13 friends? "   

Even though He TOO was a finance person, he paid the $20 to join the pool! 

And what a Pool it was!  In the end we split $5000!  (we had 4 of the 5 numbers AND a powerball) 

[onthefringe]

 I very occasionally buy a single ticket to up my chance of winning from "zero" to "measurable by human science". But I refuse to buy more than one as I think the difference between 1/201,291,338 to 2/201,291,338 is not worth two extra dollars.

Yes I am aware this is not entirely logical.

[Hegemony]

They say the odds of winning if you don't buy a ticket are effectively the same as the odds if you do buy a ticket. Therefore, I have as much of a chance of winning as most people.

It's interesting that the studies show that people prefer a smaller chance of winning a vast amount to a larger (though of course still not great) chance of winning a more moderate amount — say, "only" a couple of million dollars.

[dismalist]

Think of pain and fun, not dollars. The pain of losing $2 with certainty by buying a ticket is low; the joy of winning $1.2 billion is very great for most people, so even a tiny chance makes it worth it.

[jimbogumbo]

By not playing, YOUR odds of winning are only slightly less than mine and I have 10 tickets!!  (though I am splitting those 10 with my friend).  So you are already $30 ahead!

Long ago, when another lottery was big, we had a pool at work.  I asked the Dean if he wanted to join.  He said, "Any FINANCE professor that plays the lottery should be fired!"  I told him that there were already 13 of us in the pool, and asked if he wanted to join us, or IF he wanted to be the dean that  needed to hire 13 more people  or tell the provost that the next dean will also need to bring 13 friends? "   

Even though He TOO was a finance person, he paid the $20 to join the pool! 

And what a Pool it was!  In the end we split $5000!  (we had 4 of the 5 numbers AND a powerball)

Finance profs winning at Powerball. Proof that God has left the building:)

[Ruralguy]

Oh, who cares! Just have fun spending your money! Gosh knows I've "wasted" it on multiple streaming services, various books, redundant clothing I didn't much like, etc. and so forth. I don't have much fun going out of my way to buy powerball tix, so I don't buy them, but I probably would have fun winning a billion. And I promise I'd share it with some of you if I win!

[kaysixteen]

How much is a powerball ticket nowadays?

[jimbogumbo]

$2, + $1 for the Power play

[kaysixteen]

So three bucks to have a chance, such as it is, to become a billionaire?   Or I could buy a bag of Doritos?

[Hegemony]

More like $3 to have effectively no chance of anything beneficial at all, when you could have at least had a bag of Doritos.

[dismalist]

Many people are very, very risk averse at their current income.

Tastes differ. :-)

[secundem_artem]

I buy 1 or 2 Powerball tickets a year.  For some reason, any jackpot worth less than about half a billion does not seem worthwhile.  I think I understand the odds as well as anybody else, but the opportunity cost to participate is so low that a "what the heck. I may as well" kind of thinking occasionally pervades.

That and the desire to tell them I won't be in because I'm calling in rich.  I have the piece of the Australian coast I want to move to.  Would find a house I like and give them a ridiculous sum of money to be gone by sundown. "Here's a lot of money.  Leave the furniture, just get your ass out of there."