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I've worked at a couple of places that better than average paid folks pooled some money to buy Powerball tickets. Its low grade gambling and a little bit of te
by protomyth 6y ago
I've worked at a couple of places that better than average paid folks pooled some money to buy Powerball tickets. Its low grade gambling and a little bit of team building. I do remember the big one in the late 90's we won our money back which actually was much more difficult than just losing.
I was asked to buy $120 worth of tickets in 94ish and not one damn winning number showed up on any of the tickets. It was requested I never buy for the group again.
- zaroth 6y ago> It was requested I never buy for the group again. Hah! Obviously they should have sent you to buy the tickets, scoured them all for missing numbers, and then sent someone else to buy those. I would guess that buying $120 of tickets and not matching even a single number is extremely improbable! You were the golden goose, just inverted.
- protomyth 6y agoIf I remember right, the odds were better to win the lottery than do what I did. I did pull out a probability book at the time. Born under a bad moon I guess.
- cainxinth 6y agoI think the people buying scratch offs every week are gambling. The people who buy a Powerball or Mega Millions a few times a year, when it gets huge, are just doing it just for entertainment’s sake and have no serious expectation of winning. It’s still problematic, but the real argument for keeping the lottery is that without it, organized crime would start running more of their own numbers games again.
- phobosanomaly 6y agoAgreed. It definitely makes sense from a harm reduction standpoint, keeping people from turning to more predatory options. At the same time, it's pretty sickening to see the normalization of dangling a pipedream in front of people trapped in lives of 'quiet desperation.' It's a 60% best solution, where the next best solution is 20% best.