Kentucky United States
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February 14, 2006
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Quote: Originally posted by THRIFTY on Feb 9, 2014
THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT THE LOTTERY.
"Someone is going to win. Why not you?"
That is the mantra that the lottery companies feed us. They prey on the hopes and the dreams of poor and ignorant people. I will tell you the truth about the lottery so you don't end up in the "ignorant" category.
For every dollar the lottery company collects, they only pay out about 50 cents to winning tickets. Look at any "Pick 3" style drawing. Typically, a 1-dollar "Straight" win will pay out $500 to the winner. Wow! That sounds great! Oh, but wait - a Pick 3 number is only a 1 out of 1,000 chance to win! The lottery company SHOULD be paying out $1,000 for that win, but they only pay $500.
This is how ALL of their games pay. Even the big games like PowerBall or other "Lotto" style games. 50 cents of every dollar spent goes towards prizes. That's it. (By the way, that has nothing to do with taxes that people will also owe if they are lucky enough to win a prize bigger than $599.)
Here's the important part: At a 50% payback rate, no other standard form of gambling on the planet comes even close to being as bad a bet as playing the lottery. The lottery is a TAX on the poor and on the ignorant.
Is it worth playing? Of course not.
If you absolutely must play, buy just ONE ticket once in a great while. Get a ticket for one of those jackpot games that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Wait until the jackpot is over 300 million dollars, then buy a quick pick ticket. I don't suggest you pick your own numbers, because if you do, you'll be more compelled to play those numbers more often.
Will you win the jackpot? Honest to God, the answer is no. Here's the truth about your chances of ever hitting a jackpot. This next statement is based on mathematical truths. If you want to see the math, e-mail me: You could buy 50 tickets per week for the next 70 years of your life, and you still would have, by any practical measure, ZERO chance of ever hitting any sort of lottery jackpot. It's not a "fun" truth, but I promise you it's the truth nonetheless.
Buy just 1 ticket once in a while. For the cost of one ticket, it might be worth the price just to give you that nice dream of "hitting it big". Anything more than that spent is a complete waste of money. You might as well light a match to your money." By PDQ
"That is the mantra that the lottery companies feed us. They prey on the hopes and the dreams of poor and ignorant people. I will tell you the truth about the lottery so you don't end up in the "ignorant" category."
A few months ago I saw a system that correctly picked the five MM numbers and the bonus number. The ensuing discussion was about the logistics, whether or not it was possible to lower the cost of play, and how much to wagered to have a reasonable chance of winning the MM jackpot. The results of that discussion is moot because MM changed their matrix.
There is a huge difference between wagering $10,000 on several games and the average 5 bucks on one game and it doesn't make the average player ignorant. If there is a problem with ignorance, it's in what some average players expects to win. You can make several posts explaining the probabilities against winning a jackpot and you'll find out the lottery companies don't need to "prey on the hopes and the dreams of ignorant people" because the majority of jackpot winners are average players.
"I don't suggest you pick your own numbers, because if you do, you'll be more compelled to play those numbers more often."
Some will say multi-draw is better using the same QP line for many drawings. Could that compel the playing of that line of numbers more often too or possibly compel a much more ignorant players to believe it's the store clerks fault because the ticket expired before some of their numbers were drawn?
The Hall Of The Mountain Kings Tennessee United States
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April 28, 2009
15,378 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by Stack47 on Feb 11, 2014
Great, I'm getting stalked by a wanna-be internet bully who is too fat to get out of his chair and spends all day on his PC or whatever device you use to harass people on message boards. Do you plan on waddling around the site harassing me and taking all my comments out of context, Fatty?
Awwww, poor widdo Stanky.
Him wike to cwiticize noise-gate's posts and say him want them banned but him don't wike cwiticism of him's own posts.
And him aww ways wanna start twouble and stawk and cwiticize widge wunna but him don't want widge wunna to say nuffin back to him.
Him vewy sowwy him started twouble wif widge wunna now and want widge wunna to go bye-bye.
United States
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June 2, 2012
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Quote: Originally posted by THRIFTY on Feb 9, 2014
The lottery has a house edge on all lottery games regardless of the odds of winning.
"Getting over your problem is no simple task either. For a starter, just learn a bit about these lotteries. Only 50% of every dollar collected goes back to winning tickets. At a 50% payback rate, no other standard form of gambling on the planet comes even close to being as bad a bet as the lottery. It truly is a TAX on the poor and on the ignorant. I would add it's also a tax on addicts! I used to be tempted by the lottery, until I finally woke up and realized just how bad a bet it really is. Unfortunately, slap a 200-300+ million dollar jackpot on a sign, and millions of people lose all sense of reason." By PDQ
Zeta Reticuli Star System United States
Member #30,469
January 17, 2006
11,791 Posts Online
THRIFTY,
The Illniois Midday Pick 3 today was 666....Fireball 6
Those who run the lotteries love it when players look for consistency in something that's designed not to have any. So many systems, so many theories, so few jackpot winners.
There is one and only one 'proven' system, and that is to book the action. No matter the game, let the players pick their own losers.