5 ms·

Technically he's only spending $25-55/week! I wonder if cases like this could be helped if he was introduced to those "savings-with-lottery-features" apps. I'l

Technically he's only spending $25-55/week! I wonder if cases like this could be helped if he was introduced to those "savings-with-lottery-features" apps. I'll say longgame.co as an example(I've never used it and am not vouching for it, I know there are others out there as well) It's really a shame. If he put that $50/week into a savings acct, that would be $2500 at the end of the year, which could pay for a nice week-long vacation for the family if they wanted to spend it on fun stuff and not reducing debt and other non-fun stuff.

njarboe 4y ago
Governments should run gambling at even odds. Then your gambling is a bit like saving. You put in money each week and every once in a while you get a big payoff, but you are net even. Most current state lotteries have worse odds than the mafia numbers games they replaced.
- cykros 4y ago
  If you're going to require even odds, then governments should very much stay out of gambling all together; I don't want tax dollars going to the overhead costs of running what ultimately will amount to an otherwise net-neutral endeavor. Now, perhaps if you have the stores that sell lottery tickets footing that bill as a way of driving up traffic to their stores, I could see a case for this system existing. Still strange for the government I imagine, but I have seen bars use this sort of "no profit" gambling game just as a way to keep regulars coming. Pay $1 to roll 5 dice, if you get a yahtzee, you win whatever's in the pot (which is comprised of other folks' pay-ins), and perhaps things like 3 of a kind to get a second roll, full house to get a second roll free, etc. At the end of the day, the bar makes nothing, but it serves to habituate people going to THAT bar to grab their after work beer. Totally illegal where I've seen it, but likewise, not really hazardous enough for anyone to bat an eye about it either (the lotto machine or the booze itself was clearly the bigger vice).

njarboe 4y ago

Governments should run gambling at even odds. Then your gambling is a bit like saving. You put in money each week and every once in a while you get a big payoff, but you are net even. Most current state lotteries have worse odds than the mafia numbers games they replaced.

cykros 4y ago
If you're going to require even odds, then governments should very much stay out of gambling all together; I don't want tax dollars going to the overhead costs of running what ultimately will amount to an otherwise net-neutral endeavor. Now, perhaps if you have the stores that sell lottery tickets footing that bill as a way of driving up traffic to their stores, I could see a case for this system existing. Still strange for the government I imagine, but I have seen bars use this sort of "no profit" gambling game just as a way to keep regulars coming. Pay $1 to roll 5 dice, if you get a yahtzee, you win whatever's in the pot (which is comprised of other folks' pay-ins), and perhaps things like 3 of a kind to get a second roll, full house to get a second roll free, etc. At the end of the day, the bar makes nothing, but it serves to habituate people going to THAT bar to grab their after work beer. Totally illegal where I've seen it, but likewise, not really hazardous enough for anyone to bat an eye about it either (the lotto machine or the booze itself was clearly the bigger vice).