Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Jackpot

I LOVE playing the lottery. I know, I know - tax on the poor, the evils of gambling, the curse of sudden wealth syndrome, yada, yada, yada. Still. I love to play. It feels like play. I'm a lucky person in general and it's fun - so why not. It's exciting to pick numbers and dream about what I would do if we won. I don't HAVE to play. I don't buy a ticket every week, but I probably buy one a month. I certainly don't use the lottery as my retirement planning tool or spend money I don't have. I do, however, enjoy it as a big, wild, "what if". If I had to justify it, I could point out that I spend significantly less on the lottery than the average American spends at Starbucks. A chai latte gives me a tummy ache but a lottery ticket gives me a license to dream. This flimsy piece of paper may not be an exotic guilty pleasure, but it's mine and I'm savoring it. For a few more hours anyway. Until I make myself go to the Powerball website. Between now and then, I'll just hang out here with Schrodinger's cat and dream a little dream.

What about you? Lottery - love it or hate it?
Peace.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My sister the math teacher likes to call it a tax for people who can't do math. :-) My husband says that if I scoff at him for buying a Powerball ticket, he won't share the spoils. I tell him that as long as he gives 10% of the winnings to charitable causes, he's welcome to play. I'll laugh at you for playing, but if you win, of course, I'll expect you to share. :-)

Stephanie said...

I love the lottery- for $2 a week, I can dream big dreams. Even if I never win, it's still a cheaper vice than smoking!

Tootsie said...

The lotto is our road trip entertainment. We buy one on the way out of town, and then can easily kill an hour or two calculating how much the cash option would be, how much we'd have after taxes, how much we'd give away and to whom, and what we'd do with our share.

April said...

i'm not into lotto, but i don't see it as the great satan either. i'm just not lucky and i've taken enough math to know my ridiculous odds. and i'm too realistic and soooo frugal. it's really not healthy.