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08:35, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Waste of Money Realizations.

Posted by OceanLake
OceanLake
supporter, 1112 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 18:24
  • msg #1

Waste of Money Realizations

I looked at a Sunday newspaper insert envelope for Publisher's Clearing House with number and return envelope. I might win $5,000 for life with a minimum guarantee of $1,000,000 for the price of a stamp. Then I looked at the odds: 1 in 6,200,000,000. (To be fair, I guess there are other prizes.) I decided this wold be a waste of money, particularly considering that the $260,000 per year is pretax.
agoak
member, 1 post
Sun 17 May 2020
at 18:54
  • msg #2

Waste of Money Realizations

You can also enter online
donsr
member, 1929 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 18:59
  • msg #3

Waste of Money Realizations

my late Mother  entered  and bought stuff  long ago... As a retired letter carrier..its god business!

 i play the Lottery..i have a set amount i play so i don't over  spend...my late father used to say " it only take one to win"

 we can say..'someone has to win"..i believe  that , in  the lottery and certain raffles in my home town?...it hard to  tell, how 'on the level' PCH is ?
Cygnia
member, 296 posts
Amoral Paladin
Sun 17 May 2020
at 19:01
  • msg #4

Waste of Money Realizations

The McMillions documentary on HBO mentioned that the PCH was tainted by fraud back in the 90's.
OceanLake
supporter, 1113 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 21:14
  • msg #5

Waste of Money Realizations

I did start to enter online once. After wading through many pages of offers, I stopped. If I'm going to waste time, I figured I might as well enjoy it.  According to newer Internet posting, PCH is non-cheating (since then?).
Hunter
member, 1581 posts
Captain Oblivious!
Lurker
Sun 17 May 2020
at 21:16
  • msg #6

Waste of Money Realizations

I believe that you can enter once a day, so the odds are really.....I imagine that being hit by lightning is more likely.
Imladir
member, 33 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 21:21
  • msg #7

Waste of Money Realizations

On the other hand, you can also say that every winner played.
Zag24
supporter, 629 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 21:52
  • msg #8

Waste of Money Realizations

My wife and I play the lottery whenever it gets unusually high.  Believe me, I know the math, I know that the expected value is still negative.  But on those rare occasions that we do play, we often daydream together about what we would do with the money.  The enjoyment we get from these daydreams is easily worth the cost of the tickets.  This is the way to look at the lottery:  For much less than the price of a movie, can you get that much enjoyment out of it?  If you do, you're a winner whether or not your numbers are drawn.
Winter51
member, 152 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 22:59
  • msg #9

Re: Waste of Money Realizations

Zag24:
My wife and I play the lottery whenever it gets unusually high.This is the way to look at the lottery:  For much less than the price of a movie, can you get that much enjoyment out of it?  If you do, you're a winner whether or not your numbers are drawn.

We have a bet on how many numbers gotten right. Winner gets to skip doing the dishes for a month. About as much excitement as we can handle around the house these days.
agoak
member, 2 posts
Sun 17 May 2020
at 23:17
  • msg #10

Re: Waste of Money Realizations

To be fair there was a scandal a couple of years back where some insider shenanigans were involved in cheating the actual lottery. A handful of people were arrested, but it didn't involve anyone in administration... just some people on the software side.
ShadoPrism
member, 1312 posts
OCGD-Obsessive-Compulsive
Gamer-Disorder
Mon 18 May 2020
at 00:44
  • msg #11

Re: Waste of Money Realizations

I won a single champaine glass and a box of low end romance novels from PCH back in the 90's and a cubic zerconia diamond a different time back in the 90's. Still got the stone and the glass, but gave away the books as I was not into romance.
Lottery wise, on scratch offs, I won a couple of $50 dollar ones and at one point was $500 over what I spent on cards, but I quit playing them when my over amount hit $10.
On the Full Lottery, I won $12 one time, but nothing sense.

I stopped playing any of them about 5 years ago and actually have more money now I think because of that.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:32, Mon 18 May 2020.
agoak
member, 3 posts
Mon 18 May 2020
at 13:14
  • msg #12

Re: Waste of Money Realizations

When I play I believe in what I call the one ticket philosophy. It has three premisis:

1) I play as much for the dream of winning as the chance of winning. A single dollar (2 for one lottery) adds a certain feel of realism to my fantasies.
2) You do have to play to win
3) To win will take a miracle (and a ticket). A miracle does not require a second ticket.
praguepride
member, 1617 posts
"Hugs for the Hugs God!"
- Warhammer Fluffy-K
Mon 18 May 2020
at 16:16
  • msg #13

Re: Waste of Money Realizations

I get into an argument with my wife all the time about this.

"But we might win."

"But we won't."

"But we could if we play."

"But we won't."

Odds are a funny thing. Chances are you could play the numbers every week for your entire life and not win a thing and yet it is also likely that someone out there will win two jackpots because large numbers are funny that way.

It helps to have an inside track though. Those scratchers for example have a set pay out, i.e. each box has guaranteed winners. I believe there is a disproportionate amount of convienance store clerks that win those because they can know when the winner has been found so if it's down to the last few and no winner yet then it is almost guaranteed to get the winner that way. Like counting cards but with scratchers.
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