The Forestry Forum

Largest pot in US history last week.  Do you play them?

Expires 3-13-06

When the pots get enormous, I like to buy a few tickets.  Then lay awake at night thinking of how many acres of commercial forest I could purchase and how many foresters it would take to manage it and the legacy I could leave the family.

Then I wake up in the morning knowing I have to replace the bucks I spent on tickets with some extra work.

HELLO IAM NEW TO THIS SITE WHEN I GET THE URGE FOR LOTTERY I PUT A COUPLE OF DOLLARS AWAY IN ASAFE SPOT AND I AM ALREADY AWINNER BY SAVING THE DOLLAR AND WAITING FOR MY DREAM TO COME TRUE A FIREWOOD PROCESSOR :)

I mostly play scratch off tickets, whatever doesn't go back into winnings and the cost it takes to operate the system, it is a good way to raise money for schools, with a chance of lining your pocket a little  :)

I'm with J J ......the best lottery is your own. 8)

    I think about winning the lottery sometimes. Then I think about the odds of winning. I've never won anything with the lottery. Someone told me that you had to buy a ticket to win.  Is that right?
  I can't help but think how hard it was for me to get that dollar for my family. I see people that throw it all away every week for a chance to win big. Then I see people that hit it big and continue to play.
   That pretty much settles it for me. .........  I've decided that I won't be buying a ticket. There is not a smiley available to express how I really feel about it.

I have never bought a lottery ticket.  I have all the money I need now, so why would I want to take a chance on winning more money.  ;)

I figure if I'm lucky enough to win I should be lucky enough to find the ticket layin on the ground.

Even so I do buy when the pot is enormous  8)

I'd like to win one of those 100 million dollar ones and be the only winner.   Folks tell me I wouldn't be happy, but I'd sure like to give it a try.    I'll buy a ticket now and again.  It's fun, even if I know the odds are ridiculously against me.  Have I ever won one?  No.   Somebody has to support them though.  So, let it be known that I am neither sanctimonious nor a gambling addict, but I still like to entertain myself with stupid stuff now and again.   .....and who knows?   One of these days I may be sitting out there on the river in my flat-bottomed row boat fishing for  Sheephead and get on my two-way radio and call my Yacht to send me another glass of tea.  ;D

It would be a serious lifestyle change, I just hate to see people who don't need it win, but those who do need it probably shouldn't be risking their money that way in the first place, but I guess there are worse things to spend money on,  like drugs and alcohol  ::)

IMHO
The lottery is a net loss to the state that operates it.  Generally the management of the system is out of state and thus a goodly portion of the money departs and is not available for local development and use. But there must be some state(s) where it's a net gain then.  In general high income people don't buy tickets, low income people do hoping to get rich quick.  But the low income people were going to spend all of their money locally anyway on such luxuries as clothes for the kids and maybe some bacon (and grits?) to go with the beans, or maybe pay their bills.

When Oregon put in a lottery it was to provide "economic development" and now it is being used for other things.  The state didn't keep their promise  of the use of the monies.  And they've had to set up a "help line" for people who just can't quit buying tickets and provide counselers just like they do drug addicts.

The more money we give to government, the more power they have over our lives and the more they want.  And anywhere there is large amounts of money there is fraud, waste, abuse and scoundrles cheating the system and lining their pockets,  period.  I don't like those kind of games.  That's not even odds. 

And what are we teaching our children and grand children?  It's okay to gamble with the state?  For the state there is no gamble!  They always win.   The fix is in.  I pay state taxes and don't feel like donating more.

And you can win without buying a ticket!  The wife found a $2 winner in a parking lot and we were given two tickets as a premium at a resturant and one of those was a $3 winner.
Sorry, sore subject with me.
Steve

I love the lottery and also buy a few for my nephew twice a week for the powerball , its exciting .  I bake my own bread for 20 cents a huge loaf and got my nephew baking bread too and each week we take the money we saved from not buying 2.80$ loaf of bread in the store and we get a a bunch of powerballs ! Nothing ventured ,nothing gained !

I don't buy lotto tickets because the way I see it, it is just gambling anyway.  If someone gives me them as a gift I'll play, but I just don't see spending so much money  and having 1 in a kazillionbiliionmillion odds of hitting the big pot. 

I buy scratch off tickets for Christmas presents for the hard to buy for people. ::)

Our state's lottery benefits the elderly.  As a result, they have a better drug program then the Fed's program. 

This year they put a new type of lottery.  Its a raffle.  They sell 1/2 million tickets for $20 each.  They pull 3 $1 million tickets, 5 $100,000 tickets, and 1000 $1,000 tickets.  Pretty good odds, so I play that one.  The rest have to be big pots. 

Where else can you buy a dream for as little as $1?  You can sit and dream all the way up until the numbers are pulled.  If you don't read the papers right away, you can get a few more days out of it.  Cheap entertainment, I'd say. 

I imagine it takes an optimist to play the lottery.   :D

Nope, I don't buy lottery tickets, though there has been a temptation at times. I suspect I enjoy the feeling of getting the good life on my own hard work and ideas - winning the lottery would steal that from me.

However, if any of you happen to win and want to share the money with me, well, I won't complain too much I guess...  :D

 I've been asked, "what would you do with all that $". me, "buy a couple pieces of new equipment and go back to making payments".

I once heard the lottery described as "a tax on people who don't understand statistics."  :D

In this country the lotto is called a" stupidity tax".....totally voluntary "stupidity tax" :(

I like the stupidity tax... :D Oklahoma passed the lottery initiative, primarily due to good advertising about all the money leaving the state for Texas and Kansas. The procedes from the lottery are split like 55% for pots,  15% for admin (out of state), and 30% back to Oklahoma, by law, for education. And of course, the legislative body is already trying to tamper with the split to education. Can you guys believe that????  :o I know...they are doing it for our own good!!!!  :D

Never bought a ticket, wished I would win though :D   
If I believed I could win the lotto buy buying a ticket, then I have to start worrying about other long odds things like getting hit by lightning or a meteor or some other long odd freak thing :o :D

Max

One thing that I have said before that gets me the dirty looks when someone ask me this question is this:

"I am more likely to die driving to store to buy the ticket than winning - and I don't want to die."

I guess when it comes to lottery tickets, I am one of those "half empty" sort of guys.  :D

It's about a sure a bet as you can make. That you'll lose in the end of course.
We have a junk dealer locally, I persoanlly know this character,  who printed up raffle tickets a few ytears ago to raffle of a old, beat-up, custom van (maybe worth $1500), and was selling them for $100 dollars each. He was only going to sell 50. He kept telling everyone "It's a better chance than the lottery!" We all kept telling him things like "One thing IS a sure bet. You are going to the Crossbar Motel!"
Within a week he was arrested. They were quite hard on him with fines and whatnot. He actually had sold 10 tickets. I wan't one of the takers.
The state doesn't like anyone competing with their monopoly on gambling.

Quote from: crtreedude on February 28, 2006, 07:28:47 AM
"I am more likely to die driving to store to buy the ticket than winning - and I don't want to die."

100% on the same page with ya CR ;D
PS better bundle up and break out the shovel, according to your picture the snow is getting kinda deep down there:D :D :D

Volcanic ash my friend, volcanic ash! The scarf is for filtering out the ash while breathing!

And the ear muffs because it was a brisk sixty-two degrees here this morning and I had to put socks on - the horror, the horror.

 :D :D :D :)
Looks like it is getting deeper :
The next Pompei ???
Max

I am sinking, I am sinking....! (You know, when my avatar reverts to normal, these are going to be post no one will get...)

(https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=dlattach;id=909;type=avatar)

Yeah, they will.  :D

For posterity... :)

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/fred2.gif)

What would I do without friends!  ::)

I might buy a ticket once or twice per year, thats it though. My dad on the other hand, he spends too much on the lottery.

I buy them once in a while just for grins or as Christmas stocking stuffers. It is fun to dream but I shake my head when I see people lined up at the 7-11 loading up on tickets cigarettes and junk food and the kids obviously have not seen a bath or clean clothes for a while.

My Dad buys them every week, he figgers he wins enough small prizes that he's playin' fer free.  :)

I remember Mom askin' him what he'd do if he won the big one. He didn't even pause ta think none.....

He said "Simple, keep right on farmin' till it's all gone."  :D

I'd buy them but I'm really forgetful about that type of thing.  The last one I bough, I forgot about and found it about 6 months later.   :-[ 

I figure it doesn't improve your odds very much to check you #'s.

Now I just pretend I bought one and dream away.

I never buy 'em.  My wife, on the other hand, can't bring herself to say no when her nurses get together a pool on powerball.  She says she can't chance them winning- and leaving her alone there to replace them!