Everything in Life is Luck
Lady Luck has some secrets up her skirt, especially when it comes to the lottery. Here’s some interesting things that you may have never known about the lottery.
Jesus Played the Lottery
Well, maybe Jesus himself didn’t play the lottery, but apparently God told Moses to use some kind of lottery to divide the land along the River Jordan. If you’re not familiar with this little tidbit, look up the Book of Numbers (whoever wrote the Bible had a sense of humor, it seems). Lotteries also have been mentioned in other books: Joshua, Leviticus, and Proverbs. Who knew people were testing their luck even back in Biblical days?
Is Spending Money to Win Money Smart?
Get out a pencil, some paper, a calculator and maybe even an abacus, it’s homework time! How much do you spend a week on the lottery? Multiply that by 52. That’s how much you roughly spend a year on trying to win money. If you’re shocked by that number, prepare to be stunned by these next set of figures.
If you are 25 years old and you put a meager $20 a month in a mutual fund, by the time you are 65 years old you will have (read for this?) $93,626.41. I know, I know… The point of playing the lottery is to have that kind of money now and not when you’re old. Well, considering that you are more 5,000 times more likely to get struck by lightning, 146 times more likely to die in a fireworks accident, and 8,000 times more likely to be murdered than winning the lottery. With those kinds of odds, that mutual fund sounds a little more lucrative, huh?
To Quick Pick, or Not to Quick Pick… That is the Question
A recent survey shows that 80% of lottery players choose “quick pick” when selecting their winning numbers. These brave individuals are leaving their fortune in the hands (motherboards?) of a computer system. The remaining 20% of lottery players take luck into their own hands and select their own numbers. When lotteries were asked who has the better chance of winning, they answered without hesitation, 50/50.
What does this mean? Well, think of it this way. Out of the 80% of Quick Pick players, 40% of them win. Out of the 20% who select their own numbers, 10% win.
Do I need to tell you which side you want to be on? Maybe you might want to say bye-bye to your lucky numbers and let the lotto machine start picking the numbers for you.
The Lottery Kills
…the economy. It was reported that in the United States alone, $50.4 billion was spent on state lottery tickets and video kiosks. Of that $50 billion, the state took $17.9 billion in 2010. Of the remaining funds, 38% went to profits, administrative costs, and advertising. The rest of that (roughly $20 billion) goes back into the economy by prizes and commissions to the stores who sell the winning tickets. Sadly, many stores couldn’t stay open if it weren’t for lottery sales.
Get Snipped and You Can Win the Lotto!
If you live in India, if you participate in the sterilization lottery, you could be entered to win a gamut of prizes. The authorities created this lotto to promote low birth rates and they will give participants 600 rupees ($11.00 US). From there, the names are entered in a lottery and they could win televisions, motorcycles, food processors, and a Tata Nano.
$11 and a chance to win a food processor? Where do I sign up?!
You Can Cheat at Scratch Offs
Don’t let people tell you that there is no way to cheat when you’re playing the scratch off tickets. A math professor with a PhD. won on a multi-million dollar scratch card. The astonishing part? She won off them four times. Apparently, she was able to crack the lottery’s algorithms and she was able to figure out the sequence. It works the same way as card counters can predict when certain cards will come up. While there isn’t a sure fire way of winning, these tricks certainly better the odds. Joan Ginther proves that!