Why I dislike lotteries

[Vive]

Well, I think we've all seen advertisements of lotteries at some point in our lives and there is no lack of people that like to participate in them. My parents happily participate in the lotteries as do many friends and acquaintances.

Some people participate in the lottery, because of the small chance they might win that jackpot, even though the chance of that happening in a dutch lottery (as an example) is 1 / 4.4 million (a chance of around 0.00000023, or 0.000023%). A lot of people participate with the hope that they at least win something. Generally speaking, though, you lose much more than you win by participating in a lottery. Only a very small percentage of people actually apply strategies to better increase their chances of winning something in the lottery by applying strategies that draw knowledge from statistics and probability.

Now, the very small number of people that actually apply those strategies might have a decent chance of actually winning something and not making a loss of average. I'm not expert on those strategies so I cannot tell you exactly how profitable they are or how well they work, though, most of the time the lottery is just a gamble where the odds are always stacked in favor of the house.

Lotteries use all sorts of devious tricks to get people to play. Some lotteries give out prizes for entire streets based on post codes. If people don't participate this generally makes them nervous that their neighbors actually win something, and they themselves will not. This why my parents keep participating. Some lottery companies might give out small rewards for people that keep buying lottery tickets, some may give out junk prizes that are worth less than what people put in. Some offer a subscription based model, where you can get certain benefits and discounts at museums and other places.

It's often those smaller things combined that tip people over the edge and honestly if you want to participate in the lottery and you want to gamble, that's fine, just know that the odds are strongly stacked against you and you will likely lose more than you gain. If you love gambling and risk, you might also want to consider stocks or investing and do some research on that, because at least in the stock market the odds are at least not necessarily stacked against you (as long as you don't start using leveraged products without proper experience, in which case the odds are stacked against you).

What do you think of the lottery? Do you like gambling and if so, why? What makes it worth it (or not worth it) to you?

[Animal]

I only like gambling when I have some control of the outcome.

I'll draw a distinction. I don't find lottery particularly appealing, since it seems random and nonsensical. I don't personally see any reason why one strategy would be better than another. If someone else has a strategy that works, cool. But me personally, looking at lotteries, I don't see the appeal because it is just pure chance.

On the other hand, as a kid I used to like playing poker with a group for a few hours. By the end of the hours I always had the most chips. People never expected me to have that kind of outcome because I don't seem like a strategic type. But they underestimate my skill set, mostly because I cannot explain my skill set in words. I would tell them before the game that whenever I play with a group for a good period of time, I win. But people would say, that's impossible, it's all gambling, you can't control the cards etc. The thing is, I figured out quickly when to fold and when to hang in there. I don't even have elaborate pokerface tricks that I do with my face, but apparently they couldn't read my face either (which is funny because my emotions tend to be very obvious to people, but I guess I just wasn't "emoting" -- lol). So people were often surprised by my hand, and also I would make educated guesses for when to drop out. Thus I was able to take a game where the cards are pure chance, and turn the outcome in my favor.

I see the stock market the same way. If I can learn how to predict a few key things, I can turn it in my favor with minimal effort. Maybe I wouldn't maximize my winnings, or reap the most possible benefit that anyone has ever reaped, unless I made it my career. But with just some carefully chosen investment of time and education, I can at least gain more than I lose. I'm not confident I can do that at this very moment, but I'm taking the early steps. And I'll be the type of gambler to take big chances, rather than tiptoe with 'secure' stocks. This will sometimes work in my favor and sometimes will not, but the plan is to hone in on the best choices I can make for it to work in my favor the majority of the time. Obviously, this is how the game works. But it seems to me that the outcome is somewhat in my control, though not completely, because I can decide when to pull the levers, and improve those decisions over time.

[SnatchYourWeave]

I like gambling on the conceptual level but neutral to gambling on the practical level. Conceptually, gambling is just risk assessment. You can be good at risk assessment or bad at it. It vastly depends on the situation, so your skills with risk assessment can vary based upon the circumstances. I think it's good mental and maybe emotional exercise to engage in gambling because life is all about risk. You wouldn't get anywhere or gain anything if you didn't take risks. On the practical level with gambling like Vegas style, I think that's fine so long as the gambler understands and realizes the house always wins in the long-term. It's NOT enough for people to know a reality, but to tangibly connect the reality with consequence. In the short-term, a gambler could win and come out on top if they know when to call it quits. For those who have issues with boundaries, gambling wouldn't be a good hobby to take up. Personally, I've never taken to gambling, because it's not fun and it's further not fun because I know when to call it quits. I've won blackjack 4x in a row and called it quits because I was sleepy. Before that, I won 3/4 bets at roulette. I walked out with being on top, but I never walked in to make a profit to begin with. I only went because a friend's brother got married in Vegas.

[Vive]

While I definitely agree that we need to take risks in order to get anywhere, I think a lot of gambling involves mostly unnecessary risks. I admire people that dare to take big risks, but when I say that I am talking about calculated risks: people who have done their proverbial homework. Of course, for some people gambling can be fun, so perhaps that makes it worth it for them on a subjective level, but yeah, the house always wins, especially long term, but often also in a much shorter time-span. I'm no gambler, but I do personally enjoy investing, which still can be risky, but at least the odds are necessarily stacked against you and by employing decent strategies you can even bend the odds in your favour on the long term.

[SpiritoftheGael]

I like gambling on the conceptual level but neutral to gambling on the practical level. Conceptually, gambling is just risk assessment. You can be good at risk assessment or bad at it. It vastly depends on the situation, so your skills with risk assessment can vary based upon the circumstances. I think it's good mental and maybe emotional exercise to engage in gambling because life is all about risk. You wouldn't get anywhere or gain anything if you didn't take risks. On the practical level with gambling like Vegas style, I think that's fine so long as the gambler understands and realizes the house always wins in the long-term. It's NOT enough for people to know a reality, but to tangibly connect the reality with consequence. In the short-term, a gambler could win and come out on top if they know when to call it quits. For those who have issues with boundaries, gambling wouldn't be a good hobby to take up. Personally, I've never taken to gambling, because it's not fun and it's further not fun because I know when to call it quits. I've won blackjack 4x in a row and called it quits because I was sleepy. Before that, I won 3/4 bets at roulette. I walked out with being on top, but I never walked in to make a profit to begin with. I only went because a friend's brother got married in Vegas.

If you do it right in Vegas, the real reason to gamble is for the free drinks. Just drop in a few dollars or do penny slots. Maybe you get lucky and get a few dollars back to continue on with. Of course the only reason Vegas can give away so many free drinks is because the amount of dumb people blowing thousands. Nothing like taking advantage of the perks of dumb people.

[Quindary]

If I'm playing the lottery, I'm desperate. Normally I don't do this, because I'm aware that there are better ways to spend my money, or reasons to save. But I've been in times before where I had that impulse.

The whole "Hey, you never know" idea, though... no, you generally know. Hot odds you aren't going to win, or if you do, you won't win much. Money back at best. If I wanted to truly learn anything worth doing in the gambling world, I'd learn how to play a game I'd have some control in, like poker.