The Lottery Sucks!

Quote: 100xOdds

and the link to that article is here:
https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/lottery-corollary/

:)

Thanks! That would’ve probably helped. Lol

I've always called the lottery games a 40% Idiot Tax. For a dollar get stupid, but these $20-$30 scratch-offs, and the Giga-Buck lotteries are THE worst. In the old days Penn. had a $1 7# lotto, and a $100 million prize. I bought 5 tickets while visit/maintaining Dad's house. I caught 4/7 on one tikky ($10). I still have it as a souvenir. CT isn't quite as bad as 40% but 35% isn't too good on Keno or State Lotto. The Native American Casino's used to offer 70% Keno and Vegas seemed to be 75%.

Quote: Suited89

I've always called the lottery games a 40% Idiot Tax. For a dollar get stupid...

I wrote an article years ago, defending lotto as not stupid. I think all people who bash lotto players as idiots for the low EV are dead wrong.

Since people in this thread admitted to playing the lottery, is Suited89's comment considered an insult?

Quote: billryan

When the NY State lottery was fairly new and the drawings were televised, my Uncle would always give us a choice between a fifty cent lottery ticket or a dollar.

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I was wondering why wouldn't you take the dollar, buy a 50-cent lotto ticket, and have 50 cents cash profit, but I imagine it's because you were under age and couldn't buy a lottery ticket. Still, if you could get someone to buy it for you, then you could have had your cake and eaten it too.

I agree with not bashing the players for playing such a low EV game and have previously defended players on similar grounds. What other game gives the potential to theoretically win as much as hundreds of millions of dollars for a $2 play, after all?

The main thing that I want is just for players to recognize how poor the EV is on the games and to take the State Lotteries themselves to task for promoting games with such poor returns. I'm also somewhat irritated by the states in which these sorts of games are legal, but other (better) forms of gambling are illegal. 

Additionally, I spend some time in my studies focusing on the poor returns of Instant ("Scratch-Off") Tickets, which even includes denomination as high as $30 or $50, per ticket, with returns often as low as 70%, or a bit lower. (Sometimes in the 50% range for low denomination tickets) Unlike paying $2 for a week-long dream, these games are over in the minute or two it takes to scratch and represent an EV loss that does compare poorly to that of Table Games, in raw dollars and cents, in a lesser amount of time.

Some players will even purchase several tickets from the dispenser machines, scratch the barcodes, and set about scanning them for winners without even playing the actual games.

I'm good with lotto returns. The overwhelming majority of the "return" on the lotto is the jackpot which almost all players don't get, so moving from 50% return to 80% return is really like moving from 0% to 30%. It's of little consequence. Lotto players are hoping to win the jackpot; if they win or don't win a smaller prize, then big deal.

The biggest scandal is that the games don't fulfill the promise of more money for education. What happens is that as the lottery money comes in, other taxes get lowered, and so after a few years states are spending the same on education as before the lottery, or even less. John Oliver did a segment on that years ago.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

I'm good with lotto returns. The overwhelming majority of the "return" on the lotto is the jackpot which almost all players don't get, so moving from 50% return to 80% return is really like moving from 0% to 30%. It's of little consequence. Lotto players are hoping to win the jackpot; if they win or don't win a smaller prize, then big deal.

The biggest scandal is that the games don't fulfill the promise of more money for education. What happens is that as the lottery money comes in, other taxes get lowered, and so after a few years states are spending the same on education as before the lottery, or even less. John Oliver did a segment on that years ago.

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That's absolutely right and is another thing that I addressed in some of my studies. Even if taxes are not lowered, then the money that is supposedly, "Earmarked," for Education or Senior Services simply results in non-lottery tax revenues having the ability to go to something else. It's not as if the lottery necessarily creates EXTRA funding for those things. To wit, there are a few states without state lotteries and all have public schools...some rated better than those of states with state lotteries.

Indeed, the last time I checked, Nevada was 50th in per-capita funding for K-12. First in gambling taxes, last in education.

Quote: MichaelBluejay

Indeed, the last time I checked, Nevada was 50th in per-capita funding for K-12. First in gambling taxes, last in education.

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This joke from NBC's "The Good Place".

That’s outstanding.