Do you buy lottery tickets?

[tomtom]

We have the MegaMillions game in the state I live in. It is a large game that covers 6 or 7 states. Right now the jackpot stands at $270 million. I think it is probably worth $5 a week for the chance at that. Odds are not good, but there always that one chance......

[kav122]

I lived in TN before. They didn't have the lottery when I lived there. Now I live in MN, which has the lottery. My husband bought me a powerball on my birthday, but I'm with Julie--I don't even know how to buy a ticket. Oh well.

However...my husband was a bartender when I was dating him and they had "pull tabs" which looked like a lot of fun. I tried it a couple of times and one time I one $100, and one time I won nothing. Since I had only put in $5 and the people I was with were dropping megabucks, I felt bad. I gave my boyfriend (the bartender, remember) a $20 tip and told the table that the other $80 was going either towards our tab or for shots. Shots won, so it was a good night for all Pay it forward, I say

[purplefdu]

DH is allowed to buy one a week ($1 ticket) to break the laundry money into smaller bills. We've won as much as $50 off it, and anything over $20 goes into the savings account. They stopped selling his favorite (it has puppy dogs on it) for a month over the holidays and he was beside himself picking a new one.

[Solinvicta]

I never play the Lotto, but I do feel tempted when I see some of the Powerball prizes. And the win-for-life one that they have now appeals to my craving for passive income ;-), but is pretty horrible, odds-wise.

[StudentMom]

Nope, never. I think I would enjoy hard earned money way more than if it was given to me. LOL

[USCGamecocks]

I buy lottery tickets. Normally about two per month.

[vacationofwealth]

I only buy lottery tickets for the Litte Lotto here in Illinois. A 5 out of 39 game. I only play it when the jackpot is over 500k. The odds are 575k to 1. I am only going to go for a long shot when you are getting true parity for your dollar. Throwing your money down the toliet on a 50% payback type of game is only "smart" when you are getting real math value.

[mbhunter]

My health teacher in high school played Pick 3 regularly. He had a system that was based on the number of repeated digits in the number. For instance, if the winning number hadn't had a repeated digit in a while, he'd pick one that did when he played. I tried to explain that the numbers one day weren't related to the numbers the previous days, but he was convinced that his way would help.

Well, he won that night. I stand corrected.

[vacationofwealth]

That was probably a coincidence. You are correct past numbers have no relation to todays numbers. The Pick three has a poor payout and there is no system that can regularly make you money with anything that is not parimutuel and has a 50% payback percentage.

[yourbeginnings]

Oh the Mega Millions, I must confess I probably play more than I should. I spend about $40 a month on it. It is just so hard not to play when you hear about the lady here in Georgia that just won the $270 Million ($160 Million cash option), played $1 ticket and used the birth dates of her children.

However I do rationalize that I really don't spend money on going to movies, bars, etc, so this is my little entertainment. So $480 a year really is not that bad....is it????