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DainBramaged

(39,191 posts)
Mon May 20, 2013, 12:34 PM May 2013

To the folks decrying the lottery and those who buy tickets

give it a break, we don't want to live in your dreamless society anyway. Next thing ya know you'll be telling the kids Santa Clause s a fake.........and I'm sure you do, why should they have a lock on fantasy...


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To the folks decrying the lottery and those who buy tickets (Original Post) DainBramaged May 2013 OP
eh, don't listen to the Debbie Downers eShirl May 2013 #1
I'm not a gambler, but I do know gambling is not just about winning. ZombieHorde May 2013 #2
and the funny thing is graham4anything May 2013 #3
Ain't it though? The duality burns. freshwest May 2013 #8
It's the state selling the lottery Fumesucker May 2013 #11
"The lottery is a tax on people who can't do math." CrispyQ May 2013 #4
" . . . but someone who sucks at math always wins." HughBeaumont May 2013 #5
Since I'm bad at math, I need to buy one every month! freshwest May 2013 #7
It's crazy, eh? Texasgal May 2013 #6
It's a dollar; some of that revenue goes to help educate kids. closeupready May 2013 #9
The odds of being hit by lightning are greater Cirque du So-What May 2013 #10
Nobody's perfect... Uzair May 2013 #12
It's my money DainBramaged May 2013 #14
Maybe, premium May 2013 #16
i buy a couple lotto tickets and a couple scratchers a month fizzgig May 2013 #13
My lottery dollars buy a great deal more entertainment than the same amount spent on booze.... Scuba May 2013 #15
There are people that always have to interject with snide remarks about something. Pragdem May 2013 #17
Because you grow out of Santa Clause... lame54 May 2013 #18
Quite honestly we do have big prices given away nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #20
it's all the talk at my work... lame54 May 2013 #22
Funny, not at mine nadinbrzezinski May 2013 #23
They are just the left's brand of the ohheckyeah May 2013 #19
My finance prof put it this way... WCGreen May 2013 #21
so maybe you should write an OP about it. Phillip McCleod May 2013 #24
 

graham4anything

(11,464 posts)
3. and the funny thing is
Mon May 20, 2013, 12:40 PM
May 2013

those that are saying that are the people that don't want a Nanny state
(yet they are telling us not to purchase the tickets for our own good)



it is the same reason the same don't say that the economy is getting better and that housing prices are going up.

Good news is bad news ton the Sad Sams/Debbie downers

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
11. It's the state selling the lottery
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:34 PM
May 2013

And overwhelmingly it's the poor and middle class buying the tickets.

It takes a special sort of blindness to avoid seeing it's a tax on the poor and middle class.

Saying that buying tickets is objectively not a smart thing to do is not the same thing as saying you are banned from doing it.

Too much gambling is objectively very bad for people just like too much sugar is objectively bad.

You approve of government edicts to cut sugar consumption but think the goverment should at the same time be in the business of running a gambling operation.



CrispyQ

(36,224 posts)
4. "The lottery is a tax on people who can't do math."
Mon May 20, 2013, 12:59 PM
May 2013

I read that somewhere & it cracked me up. I buy tickets now & then, but not regularly. I don't make a point to buy tickets when the pot is high, just when the mood hits me & there is no one in line at the service counter.

Twice I have matched 5 out of 6 numbers.

Texasgal

(17,029 posts)
6. It's crazy, eh?
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:10 PM
May 2013

I mean shit! I bought ONE ticket for fun, I knew I wouldn't win! It was fun to dream though!

I come to DU and apparently I am stupid and have no regard for humanity.

 

closeupready

(29,503 posts)
9. It's a dollar; some of that revenue goes to help educate kids.
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:21 PM
May 2013

I really don't care whether it's foolish or not - it's fun.

Cirque du So-What

(25,811 posts)
10. The odds of being hit by lightning are greater
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:26 PM
May 2013

than dissuading anyone in that holier-than-thou crowd from sniffing haughtily whenever the lottery is mentioned.

fizzgig

(24,146 posts)
13. i buy a couple lotto tickets and a couple scratchers a month
Mon May 20, 2013, 01:51 PM
May 2013

the money goes to open spaces/outdoors here, so not a big deal to me.

my husband does call it a tax on people who can't do math, but i can dream of the day i get to rub it in his face

 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
15. My lottery dollars buy a great deal more entertainment than the same amount spent on booze....
Mon May 20, 2013, 02:22 PM
May 2013

... or pinball machines, or a whole lot of other things.

Of course I only spend about $10 a year on lottery. Those with gambling problems should seek help.

 

Pragdem

(233 posts)
17. There are people that always have to interject with snide remarks about something.
Mon May 20, 2013, 02:37 PM
May 2013

There's no popular thing to do in this country that goes without criticism. We don't need a government-sponsored Hate Week; the cynics take care of that for us during every national event.

lame54

(35,130 posts)
18. Because you grow out of Santa Clause...
Mon May 20, 2013, 02:45 PM
May 2013

“The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention. It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory. There was a whole tribe of men who made their living simply by selling systems, forecasts, and lucky amulets. Winston had nothing to do with the Lottery, which was managed by the Ministry of Plenty, but he was aware (indeed everyone in the party was aware) that the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being nonexistent persons.”

George Orwell - 1984

 

nadinbrzezinski

(154,021 posts)
20. Quite honestly we do have big prices given away
Mon May 20, 2013, 03:06 PM
May 2013

So the comparison is a tad off.

There are things Orwell has it pegged by the way, and most people do not pay that much attention to the lottery

WCGreen

(45,558 posts)
21. My finance prof put it this way...
Mon May 20, 2013, 03:08 PM
May 2013

If you don't go over board and spend you food money for the lotto. but buying a ticket for the weekly drawing isn't all that bad. consider all the entertainment you create inside yourself parsing out the payoff to friends, lovers and relatives. And think about all that time you get to ponder on what you will do if you win....

 

Phillip McCleod

(1,837 posts)
24. so maybe you should write an OP about it.
Mon May 20, 2013, 04:31 PM
May 2013

that's bound to shut all the debbie downers up quick.

does the term 'flame bait' mean anything?

FFS

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