5 ms·

I guess I am confused by the idea of 'faith' in a lottery outcome. What does it matter if the outcome is rigged? You have basically no chance in winning anyways

I guess I am confused by the idea of 'faith' in a lottery outcome. What does it matter if the outcome is rigged? You have basically no chance in winning anyways. It always felt like a tax on people who can't do math.

fortran77 5y ago
> It always felt like a tax on people who can't do math. We hear this over and over on Hacker News whenever there's a story about the lottery. But I can do math, and I buy a lottery ticket a couple of times a year when the jackpot exceeds $500 Million. I get my $2 worth of entertainment out of it: picking my numbers and imagining what to do with my money, and waiting for the drawing. The Billion Dollar one a couple years ago was especially fun! Give it a try.
tromp 5y ago
People don't play lotteries for an expected gain, but for entertaining dreams of winning. And while your chance of winning the big prize may be negligible, many lotteries do offer tiers of smaller prizes with more reasonable probabilities. In Holland there's a zipcode lottery in which many people play as a a form of insurance against neighbour envy, as prizes are shared among all entrants from the winning street:-)
cduzz 5y ago
For instance -- Keno -- It's pay-per-view on a very boring TV show. Numbers bouncing around. Very boring. You pay a dollar or two for 45 seconds of entertainment where you're much more invested in the outcome than, say, if John Snow will in fact learn something this time. The fact that you're unlikely to actually turn a profit on the exercise isn't actually the point. You're also unlikely to turn a profit on the time and money invested in watching Picard discuss ethics.
wackro 5y ago
>a tax on people who can't do math. The national lottery in the UK sends about 25% of the money to charities, so for some it's a form of charitable giving. Also what the other commenter said about dreaming.
- nybble41 5y ago
  > for some it's a form of charitable giving It would be four times as effective to just donate all of the lottery entry money directly to charity—and it wouldn't even measurably affect your chances of winning.
  - sidewndr46 5y ago
    Also for me, the charitable giving could be a tax deduction. I can deduct gambling losses only if I had gambling winnings, which as I pointed out earlier is not going to happen.

fortran77 5y ago

> It always felt like a tax on people who can't do math. We hear this over and over on Hacker News whenever there's a story about the lottery. But I can do math, and I buy a lottery ticket a couple of times a year when the jackpot exceeds $500 Million. I get my $2 worth of entertainment out of it: picking my numbers and imagining what to do with my money, and waiting for the drawing. The Billion Dollar one a couple years ago was especially fun! Give it a try.

tromp 5y ago

People don't play lotteries for an expected gain, but for entertaining dreams of winning. And while your chance of winning the big prize may be negligible, many lotteries do offer tiers of smaller prizes with more reasonable probabilities. In Holland there's a zipcode lottery in which many people play as a a form of insurance against neighbour envy, as prizes are shared among all entrants from the winning street:-)

cduzz 5y ago

For instance -- Keno -- It's pay-per-view on a very boring TV show. Numbers bouncing around. Very boring. You pay a dollar or two for 45 seconds of entertainment where you're much more invested in the outcome than, say, if John Snow will in fact learn something this time. The fact that you're unlikely to actually turn a profit on the exercise isn't actually the point. You're also unlikely to turn a profit on the time and money invested in watching Picard discuss ethics.

wackro 5y ago

>a tax on people who can't do math. The national lottery in the UK sends about 25% of the money to charities, so for some it's a form of charitable giving. Also what the other commenter said about dreaming.

nybble41 5y ago
> for some it's a form of charitable giving It would be four times as effective to just donate all of the lottery entry money directly to charity—and it wouldn't even measurably affect your chances of winning.
- sidewndr46 5y ago
  Also for me, the charitable giving could be a tax deduction. I can deduct gambling losses only if I had gambling winnings, which as I pointed out earlier is not going to happen.