You Should Be Playing The Stinking Lottery

Look, I will be the first to tell you. Yes, indeed, playing the lottery is most of the time a complete and utter waste of money. And anyone who has followed me knows all too well that I don't like to waste money.

But, there is still that chance, however slight, that you could walk away with millions upon millions of dollars if you play the lottery.

I always look at it in the simplest of terms. The dollar or two I spend here and there playing the lottery is a drop in the bucket mostly, and there are many things I spend money on that are a total waste of money even if it does not seem like it.

Like being out running around taking care of errands, for example, and buying a 20 ounce bottle of Coke because I happen to get thirsty. How much is that 20 ounce bottle of Coke, folks? It's about $1.59.

But I am getting a bottle of Coke, you say. I am getting a VALUE for that bottle of Coke. That Coke, unlike that lottery ticket that will most likely lose, provides no value unless I win. But so long as I get to drink the Coke, I win.

Nope. Hear me out, here.

You overpaid for that 20 ounce bottle of Coke because you could have bought a 12 pack of cans, for example, for about $4. You would have gotten 144 ounces of Coke doing it that way. Your ultimate cost for 20 ounces of Coke, buying the 12 pack, would have only been 56 cents. You paid $1.03 more for that bottle of Coke than you needed to.

You WASTED over $1. And what's more, you probably would never have felt that way about it. To you, you got your Coke, and you paid a fair price, all is good.

At the end of the day the simplest fact is that someone has to win the lottery. Most likely, yes. It is true. It will NOT likely be you. But it most certainly will not be you if you don't have a ticket in your hand.

The odds may be totally against you to win anything significant by playing the lottery. But technically the odds are very much in your favor that you will pay more for a bottle of Coke than a 12 pack of cans.

I'd spend that extra $1 on a chance at winning millions any day over having a quick, refreshing, overpriced bottle of Coke.

I think you should too.

Anonymity In All Lotteries Should Be Permitted

Would anonymity in state and multi-state lotteries prevent tragic deaths of winners? Maybe, maybe not. I think it is clear enough that of any murders that have happened after someone was fortunate enough—or unfortunate enough depending on your perspective—to win the lottery, many of those cases were the result of family members, friends, or exes taking them out. That said, I do think that it is dangerous to be forced to come forward publicly after a major prize is claimed, and I think that all states who do not allow anonymity should reconsider.

Tragic deaths like the death of Georgia lottery winner Craigory Burch should never happen under any circumstance, of course. But in at least this particular case, the blame can be largely placed on the fact that Georgia is one of those states who do not allow winners to remain anonymous. Granted, just like guns don't kill people, people kill people, the State of Georgia nor the lottery did not kill Craigory Burch. The three armed masked men who broke into his house demanding money did. One could even question whether the men who killed him knew of Burch's winnings through the media or that they simply knew it by word of mouth? Either could be the case. So anonymity is just one piece of potential protection—it's not going to prevent all possibility of future tragedy.

It is a question I often ask myself every time I buy a ticket. If I win, do I want to have my name and likeness plastered all over the place? The answer is always no. Yet honestly, the fact that even the state where I currently live also requires winners to publicly come forward, it does not prevent me from buying a ticket anyway.

Georgia is introducing a bill that would allow anonymity following Burch's tragic end, but it is not without a catch. Winners who wish to remain anonymous after winning the lottery must pay for the privilege to the tune of what I call a whopping 25% of their winnings.

I call that a very stupid compromise by the way. People who buy lottery tickets of course have to accept that if they win, they will have to also be willing to accept everything that goes along with winning. Paying taxes, change of lifestyle, the fact that they cannot remain completely anonymous—when you are working in a factory and suddenly quit your job, move into an expensive house, and buy a fancier car it's more than a little obvious something has happened to cause that. But we still live in a free country, and I think despite the argument some may make that choosing to play the lottery is also a choice to forego privacy if the law says you cannot remain anonymous, the lottery to my mind is simply a different circumstance. States are quite honestly dangling carrots before the masses for one purpose and one purpose only. To raise money to fund the government. That's what it is. One could even call it a voluntary tax. To my mind forcing a winner to come forward publicly is akin to putting sheep before a pack of hungry wolves on purpose. It is unnecessary, 

As for the suggestion some have made that Craigory Burch potentially also sealed his own fate when he chose to remain where he lived prior to winning, I think that is as stupid as the idea that one should have to pay a portion of their winnings for anonymity. Maybe Craigory Burch would have used the money in some way that would have helped the community in which he lived. Maybe, maybe not. We'll never know. 

The three armed masked men are absolutely the root cause of Burch's death. The murder may have happened regardless whether or not Georgia allowed Burch to remain anonymous. But I think when it comes to this sort of thing, to me it just makes a lot of sense that anonymity should be a choice and that winners should not be forced to make that choice for a price.

The Fun of Paying It Forward

So here we are again with a massive Powerball jackpot just sitting there waiting for someone to claim the winning prize of $450 million on February 11, 2015.

If somebody wins.

Of course I play the lottery. If you have happened to have followed me long enough you are well aware that I am willing to fork over my $2 for a chance at multi-millions. If I took the money I spent on lottery tickets year over year and compared that to what I might spend in casinos year after year, the small amount of money I pay for a chance at multiple millions in a Powerball lottery jackpot pales in comparison.

So I am willing to pay, and willing to play. 'Nuff said.

By my math, which is rough I will admit, of the $450 million Powerball lottery jackpot, I will get to keep roughly $270 million after taxes. I am always firm in saying that I would choose to take the annuity option if I won. So after taxes that gives me somewhere around $9 million a year for the next 30 years.

I would likely first give the household budget a $1 million a year "salary," and would give my wife a $250,000 a year "salary." In addition I would give away $1 million to family members. At least in the first year. The rest of the money, $6.75 million would be invested in various ways.

But the most fun would be contributing to what I call working charity. In other words, tipping waitresses at restaurants we would eat out at the full bill. Handing a $20 bill to the guy or gal bagging my groceries. Handing the delivery guy of my pizza or other delivery food a tip worth the entire bill.

The thing is that all of this money goes into the real economy. It benefits society, it benefits jobs, it benefits the economy, and it is my way of paying it forward. Thanking people for their hard work and putting money in  their pockets that they may not have otherwise had.

This would be gobs of fun.

I look at it this way. When you are raking in $9 million a year, money really is not an object. Moreover, when you are investing $6.75 million a year, the dividends alone can provide for more than you are used to taking in.

I want to be able to spread the wealth. If I get lucky enough to win the lottery, I want that money to funnel into as many pockets as possible.

And I would have loads of fun doing it.

You Can Win The Powerball Jackpot

Sometimes the fun of life is simply taking a moment to dream about what is possible. Like winning the Powerball jackpot which tonight could make some lucky individual $317 million richer. Granted, the odds are terrible. I will readily admit that, and anyone with half a bit of sense is quite aware of this fact as well. In fact I once sat down and compared the odds of either winning the Powerball jackpot or being struck by lightning. It turns out I am more likely to be struck 43 times in my lifetime by a bolt of lightning than win the Powerball jackpot once.

But the truth is, you can win the Powerball jackpot only if you have a ticket in your hand when the drawing occurs.

But it's such a waste of money, you say. I get that. And the Powerball, unlike most other lottery games, is twice the cost at $2 per play. Still, when I think of all of the money I waste (and I really don't waste that much money. I am quite frugal actually), a mere $2 for a chance at $317 million, or even a mediocre return is still a great opportunity to have, and I think it's $2 wasted that is worth the chance.

Somebody must win. It's the name of the game.

And people do in fact win. It was reported by the makers of the popular docuseries which chronicles the lives of those who have won the lottery that roughly 1,600 new millionaires are created every single year simply by winning the lottery. That's about 4 new millionaires each and every day of the year.

You probably won't win. The odds are simply stacked too much against the player. But again, somebody must win, and that person absolutely cannot be you unless you have a ticket in your hand when the drawing occurs.

I will certainly be buying a ticket for tonight's drawing. All I have to lose is the jackpot, right? Or, of course my $2. But just to have a chance? Just to have a long shot? Yep. I'll take my chances. If I were to win the Powerball jackpot, I would choose the annuity. The cash option is only worth about half the total prize amount, and then when you take out for taxes, it's about half of that. If I take the annuity I still get paid somewhere around (after taxes) $6,340,000 a year for 30 years.

I think that be just enough to cover the groceries to be sure.

Also by Springboard about the lottery: Winning the Lottery: The Dream of the Big Win

MegaMillions At $172 Million

The lottery is one of those things that people either love, or hate, or perhaps even love to hate. The fact is that the odds are terribly stacked against the average player. Still, I have to look at a couple of things whenever I consider whether or not it is worth forking over a buck or two and playing. One big one for me is the fact that somebody has to win. And in many ways, despite the terrible odds against me, it causes me to consider that playing is indeed worth my money, and worth my time.

Of course, like anything having to do with gambling, or even socking money into a speculative stock market investment, the risk can only be taken if it happens to be money you can afford to lose. If it's down to putting gas in the tank, or food on the table versus buying a lottery ticket, of course you choose the former over the latter.

Another fact I consider are statistics that were compiled by TLC's docuseries How The Lottery Changed My Life. It happens to be a fascinating thing to watch by the way, especially when you see certain people who wound up winning a fortune, only to wind up broke due to a variety of factors, but mostly due to poor money management.

That goes in hand with something I have always believed, and that is that the rich get richer because they know how to be rich, and the poor get poorer because they don't know how to get rich. That is sometimes thought to be a bit of a controversial statement. But think of all of the rich who lost it all on a bad business deal, only to make millions on a good one? Or how about all of the musicians and sports players who made fortunes, only to wind up broke in the end? If you don't know what you are doing when it comes to money, any amount of money will not make a bit of difference in the end.

What did TLC find? The fact is that the lottery, for all its naysayers, creates roughly 1,600 new millionaires every single year. Breaking the math down a bit further that is roughly 4 new millionaires created every single day of the year.

Granted, billions of tickets are sold each year, and so while that does make 1,600 millionaires seem like a pittance compared, that's still a lot of people coming into new money just because they forked over a dollar or two to play the lottery.

The MegaMillions next drawing is worth $172 million. Even the Powerball is worth $110 million in tonight's drawing. You can bet I'll be playing. And of course, I don't expect to win. But since somebody must win, if there is any chance that that someone could be me, I have to have a ticket in my hand to be a possible winner. As the old saying goes, you cannot win if you do not play. And after all, what's a buck?

Winning the Lottery: The Dream of the Big Win

Why bother to play when the odds are so stacked against you?

Looking at the odds of actually winning the lottery, many people simply say, "Why bother?" But unlike gambling in say, a casino, the amount of money one actually would spend just playing the lottery for a lifetime, for a chance at a huge and life changing payout, is really just pennies on the dollar.

Who wants to win?

The real question may be, who doesn't?

There are very few people I've run into in life who wouldn't want a chance at winning it big in the lottery. All things considered, the fact that nearly every state has at least one lottery, and all lotteries rake in billions of dollars each and every year, you can quickly assume that quite a lot of people play. Where else could one spend just one dollar and have the potential to forever alter one's life? And honestly, who could pass an opportunity like that up? It's of course the dream of the big win that draws us into playing as we envision days spent on mile-long yachts, enjoying what most would call the 'good life,' fat Cuban cigars jutting from our mouths, blowing smoke dollar signs instead of the more familiar 'O's.' If we could just win the lottery, we'd be able to go anywhere we wanted to, do just about anything, and buy whatever our heart's desired without so much as a second glance at a price tag.

Granted, when we think of what is the American dream, winning the lottery surely doesn't top the list. Probably because of the odds. And certainly there are many more sure-fire ways to hit it big—starting a successful business for example, or making a stock pick the likes of IBM or Microsoft, or Google for that matter. But certainly at least thinking about a big lottery payout is on the list.

And certainly the choices of which ones to play abound. Like I said, nearly every state has at least one lottery game, and most states have multiple ways to play. And of course many states participate in the multi-state lotteries like the Powerball and Mega-Millions, which by the way also offer the biggest payouts. The Powerball infact recently upped the ante when it changed to the $2 ticket, and the pot grows much more quickly now when someone doesn't win. If Powerball has a long run without a payout, the jackpot amount could certainly shatter any records set by any lottery before, so it will be something interesting to watch.

It's such a simple idea

That is, despite the odds of course. I'll readily admit that the odds are horribly stacked against you. The likelihood that any one of us reading this right now will ever be among the winner's circle when it comes to a big lottery payout is slim to none. But it is a very simple concept. Shell out a mere buck for a chance, however slim that chance, at raking in enough money to forever change one's life. I said before, you'd likely have a better chance at starting a successful business, or picking a great stock that takes off like gangbusters—still, doing these things takes quite a lot more money to do it. Even if you did get lucky, for example, and bought into Google right after its initial public offering, and held on to it through its stellar rise in value, unless you plunked down a sizeable chunk of money, and were willing to wait it out for a long period of time, you probably would have made a nice return. But even that may not have launched you smack-dab into the league of millionaires.

When you play the lottery you have to forget about how bad the odds are. It's as simple as that. You should have the same rule when you play the lottery as when you walk into a casino. Not a single casino has ever been built on winners, and the most likely scenario is that when you walk out of the casino, your wallet will be lighter than it was when you walked into it. When you play the lottery, you are probably going to wind up at least forfeiting your dollar.

So, what do you really have to lose?

I said before that there have been very few people I've run into who wouldn't want a chance at winning it big in the lottery. And while it is true that many people do play, a lot of people do not. How many times have I heard someone tell me, "You're wasting your time and your money. You'll never win." Of course, the people that tell me this are right. I probably won't. Still, even considering the improbability of the odds is $1, or even $2 to play the new Powerball, really all that high a price to pay for just the chance? Powerball starts off at $40 million. And lotteries have reached amounts as high as $300 million. That's no small change to say the least.

So, what do you really have to lose? I say practically nothing. Consider for a moment that even if you never won a single red cent playing any of the lotteries—not even a single dollar—over the course of a lifetime of playing, the actual amount you'd lose would be insignificant at best.

Let's say that a lifetime of playing the lottery is 50 years. I mean, let's say you play the lottery week after week, religiously, for the sum of 50 years and you never win so much as a dime. Hey, admittedly that's probably more possible than winning the big one. For those of you who don't ever play the lottery, lotteries typically have two drawings per week. For Powerball those drawings are held every Wednesday and Saturday. For Mega-Millions it's every Tuesday and Friday. My own state's lottery holds its drawings on the same schedule as the Powerball. So basically, the cost of playing religiously week after week would only be $2 or $4 depending on which one you are playing. When you do the math that's 2,600 weeks in 50 years, or anywhere from $5,200-$10,400 in a lifetime of playing the off-chance that you might actually win the big one.

Gosh, these really are some terrible odds

It's sort of funny when you really break down the odds. Flipping to the other side of my Powerball ticket, one of the older ones before the $2 change in price, it told me that my odds of winning the big lottery payout was 1 in 195,249,054. Doing a little research, I learned that I have a much better chance of being struck by lightining TWICE in my lifetime. My odds of having that happen to me is 1 in 9million. Putting it into further context, this means I'd more likely be struck by lightning 43 times than win the lottery jackpot once in my lifetime.

Let's hope the former doesn't happen. Winning the lottery sure sounds like a lot more fun than being struck by lightning even once, and truth is, I have absolutely no interest whatsoever on experiencing the equivalent effects of global warming all by myself anytime soon. Of course, if I were to be struck 43 times in my lifetime, which chances are better than winning the lottery, I certainly would become a bit of a scientific phenomenon, and that could likely payoff pretty good as well—assuming I could survive that many strikes...

Still!

What I say is this. Being ever realistic you probably will never get the big lottery payout. But isn't it still worth the $2 or $4 a week to at least have the chance? Again, and I hate to sound like a dead horse, without question it's probably a total waste of money. But I can think of a gazillion other things most people waste their money on, in far greater number, than what they'd waste on the off-chance of winning the lottery. Somebody has to be that 1 in 195 million. That's the way it works. And it can only be you if you have a ticket in your hand. For that reason I'll gladly waste my money.

If nothing else, I can of course stay indoors during an electrical storm.