Anyone of you rational folks play the lottery?

[joeactor]

With all the news about the Mega-Lotto-thingy, I was just wondering if any of you play the lottery?

I know it's not rational to play, but I still do at times.

How say you all?

[Sweetdeath]

My grandma does . And  buys those $2 scratch cards evert day.
She is on a fixed budget, and I groan, because she'll win $50 every now and again, but it is still such a waste....

I wouldnt bother playing  that crap myself.

[Too Few Lions]

nah, it still gets called the stupid tax in my house. I tried it twice, didn't win anything, so gave up. The gods weren't with me (unsurprisingly).

[The Magic Pudding]

A lotto entry cost $1.20 
Years ago I may have got one maybe every second week. 
I rarely bother these days.
I'm not sure of the proportion returned to punters, 50% perhaps?
If you can get a little lift from a little spend that's OK.
If you look at it as some kind of investment and expect a return, that's foolish and sad.
I think the little lift, the imagining of "what if" can be had for $1.20, if you're spending $50 you can't afford you have a problem.

[McQ]

I've played it about two or three times in the past ten years. When I do, I always let the lotto machine pick the numbers, too. I think my wife is buying a couple of tickets tomorrow. If I have a few bucks to spare, I don't see any reason not to try that and forego the 1/2 gallon of ice cream I would have used the money for anyway.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I think I've bought maybe two lotto tickets in my life? Maybe a dozen scratch tickets?
It's not rational, but they can be a bit of fun. As long as you look at it as entertainment and not a way of bringing in income, I think you're alright.

[Tank]

I hope that in my lifetime 1,2,3,4,5,6 comes up. In the UK around 10,000 people use that number every week. 

[Amicale]

I think I've bought maybe two lotto tickets in my life? Maybe a dozen scratch tickets?
It's not rational, but they can be a bit of fun. As long as you look at it as entertainment and not a way of bringing in income, I think you're alright.

I like the scratch tickets, especially Bingo or Crossword. If I ever occasionally get one, I get it knowing that's $3 I'm tossing away on a bit of entertainment.

As for online-lotto like Lotto 649, Super 7, etc etc (where the machine spits out a ticket for you), nope, I don't play that. I refuse. I sold lottery at SDM when I worked there and I had to sell and check SO many damned tickets... and time and time again, I saw people buying tickets who couldn't afford it, and people NEVER winning. It broke the optimistic, hopeful bit of my risk-taking braincell. 

[history_geek]

My dad and I think my grandpa Lotto every week. Personally, I'm quite satisfied with those scratch tickets, although I sometimes wonder what sort of good deeds i would have to preform that I would get enough Karma to actually get money out of them...

There was that one time that I won 100.000 FinMarks, from one of those where you need to get three of the same number. But then my mom pointed out that the last number was missing a 0... -_- My feelings at the time: http://satwcomic.com/unlucky (me being Finland )

[Velma]

We usually play two or three times a month.  Winning would be nice, but we know the odds are virtually nil.  It's a form of entertainment for us, bought with little more than some spare change.

[Stevil]

I hope that in my lifetime 1,2,3,4,5,6 comes up. In the UK around 10,000 people use that number every week. 

That doesn't make sense, they have the same chance of winning as any other 6 numbers but if they do win their winnings get divided by 10,000.
Pick something that no-one else is picking FFS!

[Siz]

Yep, religiously every week.

I have a direct debit set up with the National Lottery of £2 per week. I play one on Wednesday and one on Saturday - same numbers. In the three years I've been doing that I've had 2 x £60 wins and around 5 or 6 £10 wins.

So, a £104 a year 'Tax on the stupid'. I can live with that . Especially considering I'm gonna win it this year

I rationalise it by considering that the 'profits' of my stupidity are being used to fund some good causes in the UK. And, yes the chances of winning the big'n are pretty poor, but there are many smaller prizes on offer with better odds.

I wonder what a life-changing sum would be for you guys. I think it'd have to be over £2m to make a big difference to my life - £5m to see my family right.

Priorities:
Bigger house in nicer area
Private school for the kids when they reach 11yrs.
New racing dinghy and change to a better sailing club
More time to cycle, sail, scuba and spend time with kids.
Qualify for ice-diving.
Buy-out my moron landlord of my offices
Stop doing the crappy stuff at work (like working)
Move my grandmother
Import some decent, hard liquorice.

[Jimmy]

At work we pooled for the mega, to better our odds, even if the odds are HORRIBLE!!

[Asmodean]

Can't be bothered. Although I wouldn't mind a few tens of million, I don't want it badly enough to get any sort of excitement from playing.

[Tank]

I hope that in my lifetime 1,2,3,4,5,6 comes up. In the UK around 10,000 people use that number every week. 

That doesn't make sense, they have the same chance of winning as any other 6 numbers but if they do win their winnings get divided by 10,000.
Pick something that no-one else is picking FFS!

It's called a 'Stupid Tax' for a reason