# Any members on here buy lottery tickets?



## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I had debated whether to put this in the Genera Discussion section or the Personal Finance Section as some people do actually use this as their retirement fund. LOL. Although not many members here.

Personally I very rarely would buy lottery tickets, probably don't buy any in the average year. But have bought a couple in the past. 

I have heard that they are a tax on the poor, or so the saying goes. And am well aware that the odds are not in our favour. :rolleyes2:

Just curious if any on here actually did buy lottery tickets....even with all of our financial wisdom.


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

I have a handful of times out of boredom. Never spent more than a few bucks, never won anything more than $20 or a free play ticket.


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## Daniel A. (Mar 20, 2011)

I spend an average of one hundred a month, I have a good pension.
If I actually won it would not change anything in my life it would just be bonus. 

The issue for me has nothing to do with financial wisdom its just what I feel like doing.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

I buy a 649 ticket when it's 20 million and only 20m. With that I can give 1m to each of my 10 family members and keep 10 to live like a king. I find having this 20m rule keeps me from saying "ahh why not" when I walk by a convenience store. Following this rule I only spend 2 bucks on a ticket every couple months, and it gives me a good hour of fantasy time whenever I buy one. It's cheap entertainment I'd say.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

I usually buy them, just one or two a week depending on the jackpot. Although I haven't for several months. It's one of my only 'vice' type outlays aside from chocolate; I don't drink, smoke, take drugs, drink coffee, or gamble (aside from the lottery).


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

We buy 6/49s...the little we spend on them doesn't affect us financially one way or the other, but we get some small chuckles thinking of fun ways to hand our 'beneficiaries' their shares of the large segment of any major amount we might (in)conceivably win.

Cheap amusement really.


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## Sherlock (Apr 18, 2010)

I sometimes buy the Lotto Max. Maybe about once every two months. Usually only when it's 50 million.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

We buy Lottarios once in a while. Best bang for the buck. OK, you don't win as much but it would still do me and the odds are better.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I have never bought a lottery ticket. I have had some given to me. Spending money on lottery tickets goes against every instinct I have.

Okay... I've bought 50/50 tickets before, but I always thought of those as donations.


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## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

I buy a ticket about once a year. It's basically a system of voluntary taxes but I do agree that they provide a little fantasy value.


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

I have been to Vegas & never bet a single dime I have never bought a lottery ticket. I only put money on the table (market) when the odds are in my favour.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I buy the occasional one when the jackpots are really high, and there are multi extra draws, and that's if I remember, a few times a year.

However, I do participant in any lottery pool that is organized by work from my collegues. Not that I think I would win, but on the off chance that my colleges do, I don't want to be the only one left to do the work. I actually used to a leave a note that if they bought, to just take out the money out of my desk.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

I don't. Which isn't to say I don't gamble, I do, but the odds are so extraordinarily terrible and the "fun" so fleeting, it isn't worth it to me.


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## thebomb (Feb 3, 2012)

I am in the office pool. Costs me $2 a week and I dont mind one bit spending the money. No chance in hell do I want to be the lone soldier working if everyone else wins (which I fully recognize is slim next to none). Also buy when the LottoMax is hovering around th 30-50 million mark. Pure entertainment.


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## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

andrewf said:


> I have never bought a lottery ticket. I have had some given to me. Spending money on lottery tickets goes against every instinct I have.
> 
> Okay... I've bought 50/50 tickets before, but I always thought of those as donations.


likewise. I could say some very unflattering things about lotteries and those that participate in them but I won't.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

thebomb said:


> No chance in hell do I want to be the lone soldier working if everyone else wins


Many organizations these days have policies against lottery pooling, usually at the dept. level.
Ours does as well.
For the precise reason that you mentioned.
Even though chances may be slim, it does happen and for the organization it is a huge risk.


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## thebomb (Feb 3, 2012)

HaroldCrump said:


> Many organizations these days have policies against lottery pooling, usually at the dept. level.
> Ours does as well.
> For the precise reason that you mentioned.
> Even though chances may be slim, it does happen and for the organization it is a huge risk.


Totally understand- especially considering I am responsible for the HR department. I have often thought about what I would do if my entire staff in our corp office left....probably cry and then offer to stay on and recruit new staff.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Nemo2 said:


> We buy 6/49s...the little we spend on them doesn't affect us financially one way or the other, but we get some small chuckles thinking of fun ways to hand our 'beneficiaries' their shares of the large segment of any major amount we might (in)conceivably win.
> 
> Cheap amusement really.


I'm with Nemo2, cheap fun.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I heard on the radio about some family that has won lotteries something like 4 times in the past 10 years.

Big wins too................several million each time.

How does that happen? The lottery corporation was trying to calculate the odds.

During my working career, I did work with 2 lottery winners. The first guy won 100,000 in 1979. He was single.

The second was a pair of work friends who won 1,000,000 and a Maserati.

It does happen...........but some people seem to have extraordinary luck.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

I had 4 kids - only lottery I've ever participated in.


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## jcgd (Oct 30, 2011)

I like to buy a lotto max ticket when it's 50 mil and there are lots of the max million prizes, or whatever they are called. 

I just look at it as a nice, cheap, fast adrenaline bump. It's easier to stop by the corner store on the way home then to go jump off a cliff into water for that rush. It can be a good pick-me-up from 3pm till 6pm... then I lose and it's over.


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## Maybe Later (Feb 19, 2011)

I will sometimes buy a ticket and then refuse to check if I won. It's Schroedinger's Lotto ticket. I'm both a millionaire and several dollars poorer at the same time.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

There are lots of cheats involved in the lottery and scratch ticket business. People in the business win so often that the chance of it happening by chance is something like 1 in a trillion trillion trillion.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

jcgd said:


> I like to buy a lotto max ticket when it's 50 mil and there are lots of the max million prizes, or whatever they are called.
> 
> I just look at it as a nice, cheap, fast adrenaline bump. It's easier to stop by the corner store on the way home then to go jump off a cliff into water for that rush. It can be a good pick-me-up from 3pm till 6pm... then I lose and it's over.


Maybe that's why it holds no appeal to me. I don't get any adrenaline response from lotteries.


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## travelgeek (Nov 29, 2009)

On occasion when the jackpot is really big. I also participate in the office pool, for the reasons already mentioned.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I never buy them but I view it as a cheap way to buy hope for a while so I am tolerant of my neighbours who do.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

I buy every single week - but only through the work group pool.

I would never buy on my own. I just would have to kill myself (seriously) if my work group won and I decided "not to play".


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## Xoron (Jun 22, 2010)

KaeJS said:


> I would never buy on my own. I just would have to kill myself (seriously) if my work group won and I decided "not to play".


This exactly. I look at it like an insurance policy against being left behind


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## blin10 (Jun 27, 2011)

i buy every time I fill up... who knows maybe one day you hit it big even if odds suck... I win like 30% of what I spend on tickets back anyway


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## spirit (May 9, 2009)

Won big today. The group at work has been putting in $30 every once in a while until the funds are gone. Any little winnings go back into the pot. This has been going on for a couple of years. Today I got $70.20- my part in a $500 win. I had more fun with that money than if I had gotten a $70 raise. Still in my wallet since it was cold and rainy and the husband did not want to go out for supper. And so it goes....


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## QUANTify-IT (Oct 1, 2012)

Xoron said:


> This exactly. I look at it like an insurance policy against being left behind


lol when I worked for a company many years ago I would refuse to ever buy tickets as part of the pool. We would all laugh as one fellow stated that one day they were going to win and the only guy that would have to come into work the next day was me, haha.

We all chuckled and I said that that was OK and I would take my chances, lol. 

Every once in a while (once or twice a year?) I will buy an OTM Leap and spend maybe 1/10 of 1% of my portfolio and forget about it. That's about as 'lottery ticket' as I get.

Oh, I almost forgot. They never did win ;-)


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## praire_guy (Sep 8, 2011)

I buy my local hospital lottery tickets. Steep at a hundred bucks, but the odds are very good, there are guaranteed winners as opposed to 6/49. 

If I don't win, instead of money down the drain, I see it as making a non tax deductable donation to my local hospital.


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## praire_guy (Sep 8, 2011)

I buy my local hospital lottery tickets. Steep at a hundred bucks, but the odds are very good, there are guaranteed winners as opposed to 6/49. 

If I don't win, instead of money down the drain, I see it as making a non tax deductable donation to my local hospital.


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## cjk2 (Sep 19, 2012)

KaeJS said:


> I buy every single week - but only through the work group pool.
> 
> I would never buy on my own. I just would have to kill myself (seriously) if my work group won and I decided "not to play".


Haha, yes. I've bought lottery tickets exactly twice: once on my 18th birthday (cause there's not that many privileges you can celebrate at age 18, just lottery and voting) and once in an office pool.

Otherwise, I don't believe in lottery tickets. Sure there's that little bit of suspense wondering for a day whether you've won, but I don't really get much of a "thrill" out of it. And the guilt I get from basically wasting my money (even if it's just a dollar or two, my mom--who hates lotteries--hammered into me how pointless it was). My coworkers right now don't seem to be into the lottery either, which is fine by me! 

Agree on the hospital lottery though. That and other charity-related raffles etc. are the only things I find worthwhile. Even though they're expensive, I feel better about buying them than a $1 lottery ticket.


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## Guigz (Oct 28, 2010)

I don't buy the drawn type of lottery ticket as I find the fun not to be lasting. However, I like to buy scratch and lose tickets that I leave on the fridge unscratched for several weeks at a time. Each time I go by the fridge, I get to think to myself "what would I do if I won?".

I get almost a full month of enjoyment out of an unscratched ticket.


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## KaeJS (Sep 28, 2010)

Guigz said:


> I get almost a full month of enjoyment out of an unscratched ticket.


Lol, Guigz, that made me laugh.

It's funny.... Sometimes I find scratch and win tickets around the house (I like to play Cash for Life) that I have actually won $3 on and have never even bothered to cash them in. Then I think to myself "What if I cashed this in and bought the winning ticket with the proceeds?" LOL!


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## blin10 (Jun 27, 2011)

my friend actually bought a 6/49 ticket on his birthday and got 5 numbers right, he only got like $3-4k ... one more number would change his life , just shows you that you never know


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## Taxsaver (Jun 7, 2009)

sags said:


> During my working career, I did work with 2 lottery winners. The first guy won 100,000 in 1979. He was single.
> 
> .


Single not for long afterwards, I guess.


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## Taxsaver (Jun 7, 2009)

Spudd said:


> We buy Lottarios once in a while. Best bang for the buck. OK, you don't win as much but it would still do me and the odds are better.


I followed your advice and I did not win! lol. I'm trying again. I buy my ticket on Sundays because you can participate as early bird.


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## Taxsaver (Jun 7, 2009)

These are the winning number for 6/49 on Wednesday, October 10: 3-7-14-28-33-44. I got insider's information.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

Got $40 worth of lotto max tickets in my wallet haven't checked yet...


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## ShowMeTheMoney (Apr 12, 2009)

I'm not proud about it and not encouraging this, but I get a yearly subscription to 649. One number, played at every draw, no standing in line, it's automatic. I don't check it, and sometimes get a cheque in the mail for 5 or 10 bucks. It brings a smile to my face when I have a hard day and I think maybe I'll win big someday, so it's worth the $208 a year I spend on this guilty pleasure. Odds are close to infinitesimally small, but mathematically infinitesimally larger than if I didn't play at all to win the jackpot. It's a tiny expense in my budget, but I still have a "gambling" category in Quicken I keep track of this spending and any winnings, I don't gamble outside of this subscription. The money I lose goes to mostly good causes, it's a tax I guess, but it's small and because I chose it, it's not as painful.


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