Thursday, May 16, 2013

Lotto Mania in "The State of Fruits and Nuts"

California fuels $550 million Powerball jackpot | General Headlines | Comcast:

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The numbers sum up the frenzy that has taken over the Golden State since it became the newest in the nation to join the madness over Powerball, which saw its jackpot soar Thursday to $550 million.
California has sold $83 million worth of Powerball tickets since it started selling them in April and overall has accounted for 11 percent of the game's sales in the country, fueling such fast-growing mega-jackpots like the latest one that has the potential to be a record-breaker.
The state expects to generate well above the originally estimated $50 million for public education, California lottery director Robert O'Neill told The Associated Press.
 There are only two things one can say about this:
  1. This is what happens when too many people consider the State Lottery as "My Pension Play";
  2. Note the odds of winning are approximately the same if you don't play.
... and that's all I have need to say about it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We tried the lottery and powerball in Texas about 20 years ago. Now they are thinking about discontinuing it due to lack of interest.
Antipoda

Jerry The Geek said...

Good choice, Antipoda. Lotteries are "Bread and Circus" and demeaning to the people who get sucked into it.

Great for the 0.00001 percent of people who actually win (actual odds: one in 170,000,000), but it reinforces the feeling of being helpless in the rest of us who participate.

So .. we should just kick back and let "The Government" run our lives, right?