# hospital lotteries, $1M prizes



## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

When I was down east I registered for those high-priced lotteries. Two I remember were the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation lottery (1 in 8 chances to win) and the Cancer Society lottery (1 in 5 chances to win). Tickets were $100 each or 3 for $250. They have a grand prize of $1 or more million dollars and a minimum prize of $100. 

If you're going to play the lottery, this is IMHO the best type of lottery to enter. The odds and prizes are excellent.

And don't think this is a habit. I don't bother with 6-49 tickets and I've probably had 5-10 lottery tickets in my entire life, some of them free. Those cheaper ones have terrible odds, a stark contrast to the hospital lotteries.

What is your opinion on this type of lottery? Does anyone here buy these $100 tickets? With those odds, chances are at least some of us know people who have won with these lotteries?


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## R.O.V. (May 16, 2010)

There is a hospital/healthcare lottery every year (as of late) in our city. The prizes are awesome...the grand prize is a new fully-furnished executive home, free car, free gas and groceries for a year, etc. 

One of my (long lost) highschool class mates won the last draw they had. I have never bought these tickets before, but plan on doing so in the next few days for the next draw...it's fun to dream!

I usually buy $6/wk of 6/49 per week....just to run those 'what if' scenarios in my mind.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

Lotteries are a bad deal for the players. But if you must gamble, then you can rationalize that it is for a good cause. Lotto 649 is also for many good cause that the government will decide to support with the proceeds. Is it a cheap price for a dream. Probably.

Is it sound financial planning? Not a chance.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

It's true that it's all for a good cause, but the ROI for the charity running the lottery is very low.
Some charities make only about 10c. net income on each $ for these campaigns.
I believe the Money Sense magazine did an investigation on the efficiency of the charities and the ROI on lottery campaigns was one of the factors they looked into.
From what I recall, all the charities studied made net income but the ROI was very low.


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## fersure (Apr 19, 2009)

Why buy a lotto ticket when you can get a charitable tax deduction if you write a cheque for $100? Then, you and the charity will both be guaranteed winners.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

No. The lotteries in question do not issue charitable tax receipts. "No receipts will be issued".


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## GeniusBoy27 (Jun 11, 2010)

Well, like any lottery, the ROI is negative, otherwise, they wouldn't do it. The return on payment is about 50%, and that 1 in 5 includes a lot of $100 size prizes.

I do it, simply because I work at the hospital, so I feel like I'm supporting it, not because it makes economic sense.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

Keep in mind that those odds are bouyed up by a lot of useless prizes. Many years ago I won a free cellular phone from Rogers for 1 year. This was many years ago when most people did not have cellular phones, but I did, for work. I kept telling the poor person who kept calling asking where to send it that "this is not a prize, it is a promotion".

Last year I won a juicer, at what they called a $100 value, that inevitably went in the garbage about a month later. I wouldn't even re-gift such an item. What kind of idiot would squeeze their own juice when you can buy it, 100% squeezed, for pretty much the same money.

Anyways, the odd of winning the big prize are quite high and don't let the little prizes fool you.


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## Jon_Snow (May 20, 2009)

I'm in on two of these here in B.C.... yeah, odds are long I'm going to win a million or two, but the daydreaming value alone is worth a couple of hundred bucks to me...


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

I often buy them in B.C. A few years ago I won a trip for four to Disneyland or $3600. I chose the money, rather than have to choose which of my grandchildren to take with us to Disneyland!

For years I used to buy 5/49 tickets every week, always using the same numbers. When they started having the 6/49 draws twice a week instead of just once, I was annoyed because it meant that I would have to spend twice as much in order not to risk "my numbers" winning when I hadn't bought a ticket. So I decided to quit buying 6/49s altogether and to start buying the hospital lottery tickets instead. I usually spend $300 on them throughout the year, and that's a lot less than I was spending on 6/49 tickets and with a much greater chance of winning. Of course I don't really expect to win, but you never know. And the $3600 I did win still leaves me with a few more tickets to buy before I'm actually using my own money!


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## ShowMeTheMoney (Apr 12, 2009)

Those lotteries, however much I hate the concept and how it's done, are actually a great source of revenue for cancer research, which is very expensive. The overhead for those lotteries is very high, so research doesn't get as much as it should. It is a charity donation, but there are a lot of people prefer to gamble than to give to charity, so it's one way to tap into that. So you don't get a tax receipt, but you get a chance at 1M and feel good about it. If you want to donate, the more cost effective way for both research and you, is to do it directly though the foundation website. Whatever way it helps to support great research, so thank you for your support of PMH.


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## Potato (Apr 3, 2009)

ShowMeTheMoney said:


> If you want to donate, the more cost effective way for both research and you, is to do it directly though the foundation website.



Even better is directly to the researchers, especially if it's 10k+ since we can get government matching and make it go twice as far


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## ramy98 (Sep 20, 2009)

Yeah I like 'em, Bought a couple of tickets for the BC Childrens Hospital Lottery this year, dont really expect to win much.

Draw is on Nov. 3rd plus its a great way to support the kids


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I have a couple of friends who won a Princess Margaret early bird draw for 1 Million and a Maserati convertible. They sold the car and split all the winnings.

As for me, if it wasn't for bad luck.........I wouldn't have any luck at all


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

OK so among us we have jackpot winners (albeti friends of a friend) - those are decent odds I would say.

Question though, did those winnings change their lives? Did they stop working? What did they do with the money?


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## dilbert789 (Apr 20, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> No. The lotteries in question do not issue charitable tax receipts. "No receipts will be issued".


I believe the statement was more directed at the fact that if you do want to donate, your tax receipt will net you a guaranteed $30-$40 back(based on your tax bracket), and the entire $100 goes to the charity vs a much smaller percentage.


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## furgy (Apr 20, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> When I was down east I registered for those high-priced lotteries. Two I remember were the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation lottery (1 in 8 chances to win) and the Cancer Society lottery (1 in 5 chances to win). Tickets were $100 each or 3 for $250. They have a grand prize of $1 or more million dollars and a minimum prize of $100.
> 
> If you're going to play the lottery, this is IMHO the best type of lottery to enter. The odds and prizes are excellent.
> 
> ...


I don't buy the expensive tickets , and I don't believe the notion of "odds" , only "chance".
"chances" are 50/50 , if you have a ticket , you can win.
"chances of not winning if you don't buy a ticket , are 100%.
Even if there were only 2 tickets sold , and you had one , "chances" are still only 50/50 of winning , you might say the "odds" are better in the latter , but are they really , if "chance" remains the same.?
I figure the chances on the tickets I buy , 50/50 win or lose , but so far it's been almost 100% lose.

A friend of mine won the BC Children's Hospital Lottery Dream Home about ten or twelve years ago , he went and looked at it , but decided he didn't like the area it was in , and really couldn't afford the taxes anyway.

It too was $100 if I remember correctly.

He took the cash instead.


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## Square Root (Jan 30, 2010)

I think they are great and help support a worthy cause. Do we buy them-not in a million years. Better to just donate. Lotteries are a tax on the uninformed or worse.


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## Oldroe (Sep 18, 2009)

I never run my finances tight enough, that having idle dreams of the big win are not worth it.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> OK so among us we have jackpot winners (albeti friends of a friend) - those are decent odds I would say.
> 
> Question though, did those winnings change their lives? Did they stop working? What did they do with the money?


They both invested their money fairly wisely, but one thing they told me was that immediately following the announcement of their winnings, they were deluged with requests from people and charities for loans or donations.

They had people asking them to loan them money because the 1 year no payments at Leon's furniture was up and they had charities sending them donation slips with "advice" on how much they could afford to give.

I think that is one of the drawbacks to winning money.


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> OK so among us we have jackpot winners (albeti friends of a friend) - those are decent odds I would say.
> 
> Question though, did those winnings change their lives? Did they stop working? What did they do with the money?


This Harvard psychologist claims that after one year, a lottery winner is just as happy as someone who lost their arms and legs a year earlier.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html


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