>>1186833
I'd make a statement about nobody here being stupid enough for that but I keep on seeing posts about morons getting addicted to gambling.

>>1186837
People in my office spend $4.00 every week buying tickets and they all compile the tickets so they'd share if they win. They've been doing this since I started here so over $200 a year each and the most they've won are free tickets for the next draw

>>1186837
At least at casinos there's a thrill to be had

>>1186833
>>1186837
>>1186847
It's almost like the expectation to win isn't the main reason people play.

$4 a week doesn't mean anything to most people, and as far as most offices go, it ingratiates you with everyone. I don't play, but if saving $200 a year makes you feel that much smarter than everyone, you're probably insufferable. I go to the casino every now and then and lose $500. I have a great time doing it. Most people aren't banking on hitting the lottery, but have fun playing. Same principle.

the implied odds you get make it worth playing the lottery

>>1186847
>200 a year

Two virgils cream soda every day

Two boylan red birch every day

Eat out expensivally once a week

>>1186833

oh look! he made the thread again!

>>1186944
Nevermind, they average 1.25 per bottle so its more like 2 a week

>>1186833
Gambling is illegal in my state, that's why I love penny stocks. I can gamble at work.

>tfw won 2k on sat on slots

fuck yeah just turned 21 too so much more winnings to come feelsgoodman

>>1186889
so why aren't you putting your life's savings on lottery tickets ?

>>1186944
>Drinking soda

>>1186883
Lets see, $208 yielding 7.5% after inflation is $3,512 in retirement money. Do that for 40 years and you'll have almost 100K extra for retirement.

>>1186883
This.

I would view it as a cheap teambuilding opportunity, kind of like joining coworkers for lunch. It gives you something to chat about (what you'd do if you won, etc.), it builds a group/team mentality with a stated goal, and hell, if you guys do happen to get some dumb luck, well then, there's the potential for you all to get rich and be able to quit your job. How would you feel if you're the lone man out, saving $200/year, and in year 5 your office wins $50M or something, and suddenly you're the sap left holding the reigns because everyone else quits?

Incredibly unlikely, but technically a possibility.

>>1186952
or maybe a nice dinner once every other month.

It's not an insignificant amount of money, but it certainly isn't that big a deal.

>>1187091
So why aren't you putting every spare penny you own in a brokerage or retirement account, with the intent of retiring as early as possible?

Why would you go out to eat? Why do you pay for furniture? You can find that on the street on trash day. Do you own casual clothes? Why would you need anything other than work attire, and just enough apparel for the week, at that? What about a car? You could take public transport, or work from home, with the right job.

Stupid logic, yo. If our entire lives revolved around doing everything necessary to retire, we'd be no different than those cheapskate fucks TLC likes to spotlight every once in a while.

I'll buy a ticket whenever the powerball is above 600-700 million, but only 1 ticket

I always laugh a little when I see people spending hundreds of dollars on tickets thinking they are increasing their odds at all

>>1187097
>put $200 into a crypto ico
>high odds of making money
>worst case you hold too long or it flatlines
>can still salvage money

>put $200 into an emerging stock
>high odds of a small return
>worst case is capital loss
>can use capital loss tax write off to recover some money

Now gambling - specifically lottery tickets
>put $200 into lottery tickets
>extremely low chance of winning (more likely to get struck by lightning)
>worst case scenario is the most common scenario
>can't recover money (all lotto tickets are sunk costs)

And if you did your stupid office splitting thing
>we win 50 million
>couls be taxed at around a 40% rate, possibly over 50 including state taxes
> 25 - 30 mil split between 5 - 10 people it's 3 - 6 mil.

You might say "anon, that's totally wortg it." However, you could just put that money into a vanguard index fund and get 3k guaranteed, instead of throwing your money away, up to you anon

>>1187117

>I always laugh a little when I see people spending hundreds of dollars on tickets thinking they are increasing their odds at all

They are though...

>>1187141
>>we win 50 million
>>couls be taxed at around a 40% rate, possibly
I'm in Canada, lottery winnings aren't taxed here

>>1187145
ok mr. literal

>>1187107
I never said that, I'm just saying money used to buy lottery and other stupid shit is why poorfags are poor.

>>1186883
>It's almost like the expectation to win isn't the main reason people play.

but it is dumbfuck,
every time I ask someone they say "someone has to win lmao"

of course normies don't realize the one in 500 million chance is, for everyday purposes, zero

>>1186833
I agree with you.
But this...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023514/Joan-R-Ginther-won-lottery-4-times-Stanford-University-statistics-PhD.html
Makes me wonder

>>1187091
$16 a month for 40 years yields around $48,000 assuming a constant rate of 7.5%. I'd rather be comfortable spending the extra $4 a month and bullshitting with my friends.

>>1187141
Nobody is honestly expecting to win. The office pool is just for bullshitting and "what if" talk. It's $5 to share some commonality with your co-workers. By your logic, going to happy hour would have a worse ROI.

>>1187166
If you don't do that, why are you still a NEET?

>>1187239
I, nor anyone I know, has ever bought a ticket even entertaining the idea that they'd win. It's just a lark. It's almost like you're making assumptions about people based off of nothing but preconceived notions. But we both know you're not doing that, anon.

>>1187247
>It's almost like you're making assumptions about people based off of nothing but preconceived notions.
no, this is what people have actually said to me
"someone has to win, and that someone could be me"

>>1187241
He probably works for the lottery.

Have lottery numbers ever overlapped? Like 2 different people picking the exact combination of numbers.

>>1186957
>slots
Check out video poker.

I caved in to all of the lottery tickey buying hype when the jackpot was 1.3+ billions. I just bought one ticket.

Right after that purchase, I felt like a total loser. It was a bad feel. Just bad.

>>1187383
Because seriously that's the only way you're ever going to win.
You need to use up every possible number combination so the jews who know the numbers can no longer get their money back, but even then 4$ x 500 million combinations already nets the jews with far more than 1 puny million or lets say 90 million and even then then they'll find a way to get their 1 million back too.

For fucks sake /biz/ ypu could start your own lottery scheme.

>>1187252
Yes, but what the autists on this board seem to have trouble grasping is that the person making that statement really isn't expecting to win. They're taking the $5 that they'd spend on other stupid shit with a literal return of zero and spending it on something with a non-zero return.

Very few people treat the lottery as an investment vehicle because they're acutely aware of how stupid it is.

>>1187391
>lottery
>non-zero return

spooked

Everybody knows the chances are slim that you will win the lottery but the dreaming is the fun part. Afterall, there are many lotto winners whose lives actually got worse after they won.

>>1187388
Thanks for the 1.3 billion, goy. Maybe if we're feeling nice we will let a random shmuck like yoi have 1k, no, 1.2k. If you give us the other 90mil you supposedly won. Bow down, cut your foreskin and pretend we signed a contract that tells you, you work for us and we'll tell you the numbers.
We will tell you the numbers and you act as our publicity stunt so the other millions of goyim don't suspect us.

>>1187397
>winners whose lives actually got worse after they won
Hehehe jeez I wonder why. I can imagine now that the winner of the lottery has to sign a contract which locks his money in the jew's bank and he can only buy products from the jew. And he has to never real the truth otherwise his death awaits him and he won't have any shillings to pay for the boat ride.

>>1187389
There are groups that have attempted to do this where the ROI makes sense (and some have succeeded):

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/25/us/group-invests-5-million-to-hedge-bets-in-lottery.html?pagewanted=all

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/07/how-mit-students-scammed-the-massachusetts-lottery-for-8-million/

http://www.businessinsider.com/buying-every-powerball-ticket-2016-1

So how deep do you think the lottery's rabbit hole goes down, /biz/?

Could we start our own lottery business or the lottery mafia network will be all up our ass faster than Chris Hansen telling you to have a seat over there?

>>1187397
>Afterall, there are many lotto winners whose lives actually got worse after they won.

I would posit that this is primarily due to the requirement by the lottery organizers that whoever won must formally step forward and publicize themselves. If no one knew who won the lottery, I'd guess there would be a much higher percentage of people who handled winning successfully, but obviously that would defeat the purpose of having the lottery in the first place, as the lottery is basically a scam for the state to prey on poor people to get additional funding.

>>1187407
>start our own lottery business

Sure, but then you'd get major regulatory agencies climbing in your asshole to audit your books, as a requirement for selling tickets in their country. Then, you'd basically have to give the government a cut of the proceeds in the form of "licensing fees" or contracts.

When you're talking about the "lottery mafia network", you're really talking about the government, because they're the ones that govern the legality of the lottery system, and by proxy, have the largest "seat at the table" when it comes to determining whether you can actually be successful at it or not.

My Job uses our tips to buy lotto tickets, it'd only be maybe a couple dollars a week if we split it so I'm ok with it. My uncle took home a hundred grand or so on a similar arrangement.

>>1187514
Although now that I think about it, if we ever actually won big it'd fuck over the company pretty big if they lost all their employees in a single day because they all got rich and fucked off.

It's fun to think about.

>>1187404
>2016
>casual racism

>>1187383
Yes this is when jackpots get split

>>1186833
how do you ironically play the lottery?

>>1187726
I'll buy a power ball ticket ironically if the jackpot is over 100million but I won't unironically buy tickets weekly

>>1187418
I'm glad that poorfags who vote Republican are giving their hard earned cash back to the govt for a "chance" of being rich

The irony...

>>1187751
> implying all the richfags are liberal

>>1187572
>jews
>race

For the past few months, I've spent anywhere from $10-50 on lottery tickets weekly, hoping to win the jackpot. I'm not a poorfag, I make an average income so this ticket money does not hurt me in any way. I just dream of not having to work a regular job ever again, by winning several million from the lottery and living off of it. Life is too short for this dumb 9-5 grind, I want to break free from it.

Is this just an unrealistic dream? Am I just being delusional?

>>1187768
>Is this just an unrealistic dream? Am I just being delusional?

mathematically, yes


however, some poorfags ITT argue that they but a ticket not for the chance of winning, but rather for entertainment. a pretty weak argument since you can get entertainment for free...

My dad plays the lottery and has been since I can remember. He's probably spent over $1000

>>1187379
Way to not even read the article senpai.

>>1188445
Mine lost $11000 already. He actually knows the exact amount because he keeps a detailed record trying to "predict" the winning number

>>1188467
>$11000
That's crazy
In retirement money that'd be into the hundreds of thousands

>>1188595
How do I into retirement?
Should I invest in index ETFs?
What kind of returns can I expect over a 40 year period?
What do if the economy tanks? Should I wait until it recovers?

>>1187404
They're lives get worse cause somehow someone wins 30mil and goes bankrupt 3 years later which still doesnt make any sense. Even if you spent every penny till you had nothing left. Couldnt you sell the shit you bought and get some of that money back? How the fuck do you go bankrupt after winning the lottery?

>>1189099
>What do if the economy tanks? Should I wait until it recovers
Buy

i won £500 on a £1 scratchcard. The night out it paid for got me laid with an 8/10 who I'd liked for years.
A friend of a friend won £50,000 on a scratchcard.
I spend a quid a week. Why the hell not.

>>1189121
These aren't broke college students winning the lottery. Often times they are middle-aged or have cemented poor money habits over their lives.

If Bill Gates was Joe Schmoe until he was 45 and someone dumped 73 billion bucks on him, he'd probably go crazy and end up bankrupt, too. That's the beauty of the lottery; it's set up to where, more likely than not, the winner will be poor and with bad financial sense (because it's already bad financial sense to play) and feed nearly 100% of the winnings back into the government.

So ghetto person X wins.
40% gone immediately
Let's say I'm that person. I live in Memphis, TN, which has a total sales tax of 9.75%

So I win 100 million. I have 60 million after lotto tax. I blow that on 2 million in cars (Alfa Romeo Disco Volante, Land Rover Flying Hunstman 6x6, and a Rolls Royce extended wheelbase phantom drophead coupe + a lambo to show how little I worked for the money). I also buy the biggest house for sale in my area. That's $3,500,000.

I also completely redo my wardrobe from my usual old high school christmas gifts and walmart clothing to about $1,000,000 in designer fashions. Also $2,000,000 in jewelry to show out at da club. Pluse I give away $2,500,00 in total to relatives.

So I just spent $10,000,000.
$900,000, will be eaten up in sales tax. Plus the business will pay tax on a bit, plus they'll use some of that money to pay employees, who will pay income tax on it. And those employees will buy food, and pay sales tax on that, and the company they buy food from will pay taxes on that profit.

So as I go through my 60 million, most of it is going to be eaten up in the system through taxes.

>>1186833
that tree most be lonely

>mfw people buy 1 ticket

don't you know that buying 2 tickets literally DOUBLES your odds of winning?

>>1190074
The tree will always have caillous

>>1190079
The biggest increase in your odds of winning are between 0 and 1 ticket and 1 and every possible combination. The former is the most affordable solution, and even then it's virtually a guaranteed loss.

I live 5 miles out of Munford, TN, where one of the 1.3 billion dollar winners was. They just bought one if I'm not mistaken.