Lottery is a poor man's tax

[Lorence.xD]

Lottery is the most notorious of all the gambling institution. The promise of a good life is what makes this a lucrative attraction for the people below or hanging in the poverty line. Although the odds of winning is higher than becoming an astronaut, many still take the chance to get the coveted numbers. Unless you are a statistician/mathematician or you have the money to buy all the combinations, winning is close to impossible.

Do you think that the pros of playing lottery outweigh the cons or vice versa?

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

How far are you willing to gamble to win the coveted jackpot (If you are playing lottery)?

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[goaldigger]

The probability to win on Lottery almost didn't exist, and a very few lucky individual will win the jackpot once in a while. Our local Lottery is not just a Lottery they have many Charity works despite of the corrupt officials. I don't think this is just a way to collect taxes since this is a voluntarily game, and those who wants to play are welcome to bet as long as its legal. I do play lottery sometimes, but I'm not expecting to win big and honestly My Dad always bet and he's consistent for the past decade until now, we're still a commuter. 

[Gotumoot]

I don't see it as a tax since they are free to avoid it but most of the poor are really clinging into it.
They are paying for it every once in a while to try their luck on hitting that jackpot that is almost impossible to get.
And I understand them even though I hate the idea for them it is a small sacrifice to have a chance of becoming a multi millionaire.

[Johnyz]

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

Another way to collect money from a poor people, there's a lot of bettors on Lottery everyday in my country and this become a one of the major betting place.

I don't know if someone really win the money or our government is just using fake people so they can collect the award money which I think is possible to happen considering our corrupt government. I don't bet on lottery, its just like wasting of money and hoping for my entire life to win the jackpot, this is too impossible yet many people depend on this one seriously.

[Lorence.xD]

I don't see it as a tax since they are free to avoid it but most of the poor are really clinging into it.
They are paying for it every once in a while to try their luck on hitting that jackpot that is almost impossible to get.
And I understand them even though I hate the idea for them it is a small sacrifice to have a chance of becoming a multi millionaire.

That is what I meant by saying that lottery is the tax for poor people. Honestly, if they only rely on chances then they wouldn't get far. Most statistics on lottery players has shown that most of the players come from low income household. Even if they are free to avoid, then how come people aare still betting on it, there is only one to blame and that is the advertisements that promises things specifically targeted towards these people. Even if you win the lottery, most winners suffers Sudden Wealth Syndrome.

[Genemind]

I haven't bet on any lottery games before even tho the prize is life-changing. The odds of being hit by lightning are higher than winning a lottery jackpot. Most people who bet on it are those who are struggling in life, clinging to that tiny odd to change their life in a snap. We cannot blame people and it's a gamble that they are willing to take.

I don't know if someone really wins the money or our government is just using fake people so they can collect the award money which I think is possible to happen considering our corrupt government.

There are controversies about it, there are rumors about it. Every election period someone wins the jackpot and even my father-in-law who works for a governor told us that there are instances that the lottery in our country is rigged and fake people are chosen to collect the jackpot for election money. There is no way for us to verify this but this makes sense since most mega jackpot are won during election perior or even prior to that.

[Wexnident]

Even being a statistician wouldn't make you win lotteries. They can only calculate the amount actually required to achieve a certain success rate, but in the end, a 100% success rate is close to impossible, unless you buy out every ticket, but if not? Then you can only infinitely approach the rate of you actually winning.

Lotteries offer huge prizes due to the number of people that can actually join it, without burning a hole into their pockets. For a small price, there's also a small chance of them winning big, so it is technically a great business idea. Pros and cons? I doubt there's actually one when you're playing a game that relies on luck. It's like no matter how much you discuss the pros and cons there, there's really no changing the result of it, no matter what.

[Lorence.xD]

There are controversies about it, there are rumors about it. Every election period someone wins the jackpot and even my father-in-law who works for a governor told us that there are instances that the lottery in our country is rigged and fake people are chosen to collect the jackpot for election money. There is no way for us to verify this but this makes sense since most mega jackpot are won during election perior or even prior to that.

That is really scummy for the people behind the curtains taking the jackpot after earning a profit from the sales of lottery tickets. There are controversy everytime money and officials in the government is involved, I do not get this people plundering the money of the people, is a lot of money worth to tarnish their reputation. The craziest thing you said is the lottery is rigged because they need to pull off this some kind of heist in front of their citizens watching the lottery draw. It could be a conspiracy but it also be true because there is no definitive proof.

[Yogee]

Don't call it tax. Call it some form of "donation" since people are doing it voluntarily. They know the odds for winning is low but they still do it because one ticket is cheap.

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I don't know if someone really win the money or our government is just using fake people so they can collect the award money which I think is possible to happen considering our corrupt government.

Some people are winning but you don't see their name announced on national television or social media for security purposes. You would often know someone won if the winner is close to your area.

Rigging the numbers would be difficult since the draw is done live but i wouldn't dismiss the possibility.

[Mauser]

Do you think that the pros of playing lottery outweigh the cons or vice versa?

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

How far are you willing to gamble to win the coveted jackpot (If you are playing lottery)?

I understand why economicst would say that a Lottery is a poor man tax because for every 1$ you put in, the value of your winninng is only around 75cents because of taxes. But this assumes a linear preference function which is wrong in my opinion. Do we really value $1 Million the same as 1 million times $1? It's very unrealistic that we can save so much to reach $1 Million, which makes lottery so attractive for most people. Sure most of us will never win big, it's only a lucky few you experience that. But for the once that do it, it's life changing.

[Lorence.xD]

Even being a statistician wouldn't make you win lotteries. They can only calculate the amount actually required to achieve a certain success rate, but in the end, a 100% success rate is close to impossible, unless you buy out every ticket, but if not? Then you can only infinitely approach the rate of you actually winning.

I am not saying it will make you win per se, what I was saying there is that you have an edge if you know the statistics to predict the result. Buying all possible combination can win you profits especially some lottery have conditions that can net you some break even like 3 of your number matched the winning number.

Lotteries offer huge prizes due to the number of people that can actually join it, without burning a hole into their pockets. For a small price, there's also a small chance of them winning big, so it is technically a great business idea. Pros and cons? I doubt there's actually one when you're playing a game that relies on luck. It's like no matter how much you discuss the pros and cons there, there's really no changing the result of it, no matter what.

That is a dangerous attitude towards finances, saying that it does not cost a lot when buying lottery tickets is nothing compared to the travel time you wasted to buy the lottery ticket and if you add up the accumulated money you spent on it and other people, you will be surprised that it is not a big deal.

[ice098]

Even being a statistician wouldn't make you win lotteries. They can only calculate the amount actually required to achieve a certain success rate, but in the end, a 100% success rate is close to impossible, unless you buy out every ticket, but if not? Then you can only infinitely approach the rate of you actually winning.

Lotteries offer huge prizes due to the number of people that can actually join it, without burning a hole into their pockets. For a small price, there's also a small chance of them winning big, so it is technically a great business idea. Pros and cons? I doubt there's actually one when you're playing a game that relies on luck. It's like no matter how much you discuss the pros and cons there, there's really no changing the result of it, no matter what.

I had remembered one of my colleagues says that the winning combination number of a lottery can be predicted by solving its probability.
I had just think how could be that happen where for me the combination of winning number were rambled and it was really hard to figured out by just solving the probability. To cut the story short, i am not convinced by this method. So basically i didn't make any bets in lottery, i feel that i am just wasted my money but the mere fact that if you become the winner a million prizes are waiting but then it didn't convinced me, i'd still want to worked hard for the money than hoping to win in a lottery.

[NotATether]

Well, to be fair, anyone thinking that lottery money will sustain a good life for themselves is just dreaming. Out of all the people who won a lottery, none of them could keep living a luxury life for long because they have no income source as large as the lottery money they won. So what usually happens is that the money finishes; they can’t pay for their luxury expenses and these people end up becoming bankrupt.  

Say you won $1 million, for example. A luxury sports car costs about $100K or $200K, resorts and estates go for several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lottery money will be finished just from buying these two items if not more stuff.

As I like to say, $100K you make a month is better than $1 million you win once.

[Kupid002]

Not all lottery own by the government , but hell yeah they are recieving large portion of taxes in lottery.

They are betting in lottery hoping to make their self millionaire if they win, there is nothing wrong with that. the only bad thing is that the others did this and think that as an investment where they can win a lot if they continue betting, they are  dreaming to win  without noticing how much money  they already use to  gambled .

[rhomelmabini]

The thing is, it's always for poor people that's the perception, considering if they won it's a guaranteed unexpected wealthy lifestyle. It's called poor man's tax since most of the people that buying those tickets comes from low earner individuals. Besides, if there were high rollers or rich that plays the lottery will it be still called a poor man's tax?

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

I couldn't say that it is really a scum way to tax the people since it's still from the government and they spend it as well to health, charities and so on and I'm seeing it's for the good cause in the long run.

[Cnut237]

Unless you are a statistician/mathematician or you have the money the money to buy all the combinations, winning is close to impossible.

Being a mathematician doesn't help increase the odds of winning - because it's a lottery. All that you can do is to maximise your share of any jackpot by picking numbers that other people don't pick.

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

Yes, I think so. Unless all proceeds from lottery ticket sales (minus small admin costs) are fed back into supporting the poor, then it's definitely exploitative. It's selling a dream, and a way out, but taking care not to emphasise just how phenomenally unlikely you are to win.

[Ucy]

Are you suggesting that Lottery is gambling? If that is what you're suggesting then you could aswell be saying that countries that ban gambling but allow lottery or lottery-like betting games/competitions still allow gambling?

  Lottery bets should simply be seen as a way a people or community can randomly redistribute their small occasional contributions, pooled-fund, pooled-valuables, more responsibilities etc to their lucky members.
I think the current model I'm familiar with could be improved or made in a way that more members/winners get the distributed funds/things.


Well, I have bet on lottery before, probably one or  few times when I was kid/teen. We bet with little amount we could afford to lose, I don't consider that gambling. Many years ago, I was quite lucky in a  lottery-kind of competition that does not involve people betting directly with money... but I didn't scale through the final round. The lucky ones went through. I would not have complained or felt bad then if I didn't spend too much for ticket. I couldn't afford the ticket fee, but I could not afford to stop because I was already in the middle of the competition. This was something you would think was free lottery but they "charge" you huge amount in the middle of the competition. That is a clear gambling in betting/lottery space... It appears like free lottery/betting but with huge hidden ticket fee i couldn't afford.

[Poker Player]

The funny thing is that where most lottery is sold is in the poorest neighborhoods.

I also put it in another thread. This is a lottery simulator:

https://www.cuandomevaatocar.com/en/

If you hit "start" you can see the ruin that is playing the lottery. It is clearly EV negative.

The only good thing about it is that if you hit the jackpot, it can change your life. But this is so unlikely that it's almost impossible.

Although I very occasionally play. Always when I am offered to play halfway between friends. Mostly because of the FOMO.

[LogitechMouse]

Lottery is the most notorious of all the gambling institution.

Most notorious gambling game in terms of getting their money .
Since it only needs a small amount of money to make a bet, even an Average Joe can bet in lottery and even a poor person can bet on it too.

Is government owned lottery a scummy way to tax the poor people?

How far are you willing to gamble to win the coveted jackpot (If you are playing lottery)?

I can't really say that the government-owned lottery is their way to scam people since our lottery here are helping other poor people. I don't know in other government-owned lotteries in different countries though. Although it is already in my mind that government = corrupt, I can't say 100% that they are scamming people thru lottery.

I'm not playing TBH and I never tried it in my whole life. Once a week is enough maybe for me. I'm not focusing too much on things that will not give me benefit if I give some time, money and effort into it like gambling.

[mu_enrico]

The pros and cons depend on how addicted the player. If they only spent like $10 per month, it's really not a big deal for the hope of getting rich. People need hope!
The cons start when they spent more and have foolish expectations.

With or without governments, lottery operators will still do their business as usual. Why not run and make it a source of government revenue?

I would only buy one ticket per round. If I'm lucky, then I'm lucky no matter how many tickets I have.