So I live in Virginia and have been looking at the website for the lotto scratchers: http://www.valottery.com/scratchers/scratcher_detail.asp?GameID=1062&loc=6&subloc=1 This one intrigues me. Why you ask? 12/20 top prizes have been claimed. That leaves 8 tickets that win a million dollars to be won. 3 $50,000 tickets remain. 16 $10,000 tickets remain. And almost 1500 $1,000 tickets remain. This game has been going on since 2008. The odds of winning the million dollars is 1 in 416,160. Just think of how many tickets have been purchased since 2008 that weren't winners. That 1 in 416,160 ratio has to be alot better then it currently is. Ok say you had $1,000 on you. You purchased 50 tickets. Wouldn't you be almost guranteed to ATLEAST win your $1,000 back? If I had $1,000 to throw away, I'd give it a shot. At worst you'd win $800. On a side note, if you win the million, it's paid in installments over 25 years. After taxes, you'd be left with I don't know, maybe $800,000? So $800,000 divided by 300 months (25 years) is $2666.66 a month. You'd think if you won a million dollars in the lotto you'd be able to go out and buy a house, but even if I won the million I'd still have to work. I make around $2300 a month right now.
Taxes aren't voluntary. There's a reason why most of the poor are poor. Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest.
Fool's gold, Toycen. That's what lotto is. I can't say I've never played, but I steer clear. If you want to get rich, save your money and build your credit, then start buying rental real estate. After you get enough equity in 10 or 12 houses, move up to multi-family properties.
Your analysis is spot on. If you take your next paycheck and spend it all on lottery tickets, you will be a millionaire. Guaranteed.
You're not going to win **** if the winning tickets aren't in your area. You can buy all the tickets in your city and you'll win nothing. Scratch and win are scam.
When I was in college a group of my friends and I pooled our money together to buy an entire roll of lottery tickets straight from the package in the backroom of the convenience store. It cost something like 300-350 USD or similar. So after scratching all of them, the grand total of our winnings came out to around 175 USD. I haven't bought a scratch off lottery ticket since.
The only time I played the lottery was when a pharmacy salesperson dropped by our pharmacy and gave us a few. I picked one and won a few dollars. I've never paid to play it and doubt I will anytime soon. As for your questions, your odds of winning would still be zero because all the aliens are hoarding the winning tickets.
The Lottery still sells tickets even after all the top prizes have been claimed. Tell me what your odds are at winning then.