Thread: Powerball

Originally Posted by Ernie1980

I thought about buying a ticket...but then decided that I like my life the way it is so I am not going to even bother wasting my money!
All that money would be nice but I think it would bring a lot a baggage with it...

I agree! As my good friend once told me, "There is nothing wrong with being poor. It's just damned inconvenient!"

I didn't win either but if I had I would have bought one of those fancy Japanese hones!

Many years ago Buddy Hackket was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he told something like the following:

"A Jew goes to the synagogue and prays to GOD asking to win the Lottery. He says; I don't want it all for myself, I want to help others. There is a Christan family down the street that's suffering and I want to help them to so please let me win the Lottery."

He didn't win it and went back the next week and pleaded with GOD and once again he didn't win.

The third time he went back he asked "GOD why won't you let me win the Lottery? I've promised to help others like those Christians I told you about. GOD Why Won't YOU let me win the Lottery??

A voice appeared and said:

"First you must buy a ticket"

It's worth the $2 to dream (probably the third ticket I ever bought as well) but I also found it interesting to contemplate the ways that such a windfall would radically alter the winner's life negatively:

Who would your friends be post-win? Not likely you could continue to have the same friends and I would think it probable that others in your new financial stratum who either earned their fortunes or were born into money would not accept you. Perhaps your new social circle would be other lottery winners that were still wealthy?

Safety concerns if your identity was known (risk of kidnapping you or your family for ransom, etc.)

Your probable distrust of others and their motives - some level of paranoia?

ChrisL

I do not play the lottery as a rule. I have to agree with Dave Ramesy that it is a tax on people that can do the math. However, I did go in on a pool and by some tickets. It was fun and I am not broke so the ten bucks did not make me miss a meal or car payment. If it would have interfered with the purchase of my new strop I would not have bought them!

Originally Posted by ChrisL

It's worth the $2 to dream (probably the third ticket I ever bought as well) but I also found it interesting to contemplate the ways that such a windfall would radically alter the winner's life negatively:

Who would your friends be post-win? Not likely you could continue to have the same friends and I would think it probable that others in your new financial stratum who either earned their fortunes or were born into money would not accept you. Perhaps your new social circle would be other lottery winners that were still wealthy?

Safety concerns if your identity was known (risk of kidnapping you or your family for ransom, etc.)

Your probable distrust of others and their motives - some level of paranoia?

ChrisL

That island I was going to buy would have solved a lot of those problems. Anyone concerned about the negative aspects of winning future PowerBall drawings are welcome to send $2 to me each time they contemplate buying a ticket.

I was going to spend the rest of my life inspecting grains of sand on Ron's beach. Oh well.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Yeah baggage would be awful. I just would have bought my family's farm, and maybe an island...

I would have thought you'd have bought the province of Thuringa in Germany Ron ........

I almost never play the lottery. Only when it really gets up there. I bought a ticket for last night's powerball. The cool thing is the fantasies about what we'll do with the money 'when' we win. I give most of it away, but that ain't a bad thing at my age.

I heard on the radio that this time the jackpot is more than the cost of buying every combination. Didn't check it as it's too much work to look up the cost of ticket and how many numbers you have to pick, but it's trivial math, so it's quite likely true.

Of course, trying to turn a profit this way has the potential problem of multiple winners completely erasing your profit, plus I doubt the lottery has made it easy to buy multiple combinations and buying each one individually is not feasible.

At the end of the day gambling is means for losing money, unless you're the house or can rig the odds, but then there are much more profitable gambles to pick.