Topic: Lottery is a poor man's tax (Read 643 times)

Probability does not apply when you are desperate to find a shortcut to a life that is advertised to you by these lottery outlets. When it comes to charity though, I am skeptic about it because people in power have the tendency to be corrupt and plunder this lottery earnings that was supposed to help the people in need. I find these lottery using the earnings for charity to help the poor that is funding these charity by buying lottery tickets to be a bullshit perpetual system with only the administration benefitting from it no matter.
I think that there is a term for that kind of mindset, if I am not mistaken it is Gambler's fallacy wherein the belief that continuous bet on something even if you are losing will lead you to win someday, no statistics but just the belief that eventually you will hit the jackpot. I do not blame them for their decision though, this mindset was not innate. If people were taught at the early age financial literacy then that kind of mindset of luck reliance will not manifest in their adult life.
Shouldn't you stop that tradition of buying lottery and put the money on things that is more essential or could return an interest, the money you spent on lottery could add up to buying an investment that will help in the long run. You might regret all that money you have spent on lottery in the long run, I am just reminding you and you are free not to do my advice. Good for you that you trust your government which means that they are doing their job and they are not screwing the people in your country.
Yes they are not technically abusing the people but they benefit from the perpetual cycle of poor people funding their lottery charity for the poor people. They do use psychological techniques when they advertise lottery which is in a way an abuse. I think people relying on luck makes them poor even though they have jobs, yes their jobs will not make them rich but if they do not manage their finances and find other ways to generate cashflow then nothing will happen.

if you bet in moderation? then yes. at least for me. I know several people who keep betting on lottery even though they are already in debt and barely baing able to pay the monthly bills

as long as it doesn't negatively affect me financially I will continue and will stop when it does.

sure it goes to a good cause but the problem is there are corrupt government officials who are taking maybe half or more than half of that money and only so little that actually goes to that good cause.

I forgot about that, and you are right. The ticket prices appeals strongly towards people as much as advertising. The individual price of the ticket is a psychological tactic employed by business to make people think that they are not spending that much when they are purchasing something which in turn makes the chances of this people to buy more go higher.
I agree that occasional bets are alright, but this occasional bets could be bad when you are buying bulks of tickets. Habitual lottery betting is as bad as buying a lot of combinations in one go because they only differ from time scale, buying 12 tickets occasionally is the same as habitual 1 ticket. Lottery for the most part is always a lose for those who bet.
I have my share of people who have played the lottery and regretted doing it too. Thanks especially to my parents for teaching the dangers of playing lottery. I feel bad for this people and the money that they have spent because I always imagine what could have been of their money if they did not spend it on lottery to take chance to get the jackpot, if only they knew of compound interest or investment, they could have been more happier and more content than the people winning the jackpot.
You are right in some parts, yes people assumed it but that is because they are introduced to it through advertisements. The comparison of chances to become an astronaut and winning the lotto has statistics to back it up. And no, not everyone can be an astronaut because there are only few countries that have a space program, unless you are born in those countries, the chances goes to zero. Not mentioning the training and the requirements to become one.

It comes down to a inability to judge optimism and reality properly. Poor people are either too despondent about their situation so they're in a depressed state or they feel overly optimistic about their chances to win despite know that the ticket may state the odds of winning are 1 in 43 million or something to that effect. Instead of focusing on themselves to improve their condition the long arduous way they're looking for a shortcut. for middle class and rich people it's probably more of an excitement issue than a need to achieve some goal.

It's better to play lottery games for entertainment because we will not think much about losing the money. We know the consequences of losing money from the lottery games, and even if we can't win the jackpot, we will be okay, and we can try to buy the ticket on the other days. But most people buy so many tickets, especially if the lottery price is cheap, so people can buy a lot of tickets, just hope that one of the tickets will come to be the winner. Many people like to play a lottery game because they aim to win the prizes, not just poor people, but the middle and high-class economy will also like it.

10$ might look insignificant on a small but imagine if they do it zealously for a year, that is 120$ in annual spending in lottery which does not guarantee a win. If they used it for other things like essentials in a household if you are from a low income household or you could have invested it in bitcoin if you have access in purchasing it. There are plenty of options out there to spend that amount that has worth. It may look insignificant in annual scale but the accumulation over time will make you regret your decision to spend it on lottery tickets.
That is the sad reality about lottery, it entices people the idea of easy escape in poverty even when the odds are stacked against them in colossal scale. I have to commend the first people to introduce lottery to the masses because masses hate tax but they love gambling. Yes there will be occasional winners but either they spend it on stupid things that effectively waste the money or they become so miserable because they do not know what to do with the money they have. There is a book about the latter that documents winners of lottery and their behavior after winning. I forgot the title but I think it can easily be searchable.
I am the same as you, because most of the news headline in my country is all about corruption in the government. I effectively lost faith in the lottery system in my country even if they say that the proceeds will go to charity.

I suggest not getting your hopes up of winning the lottery, because the chances of winning are very small. And there is still the possibility of
being cheated, therefore I joined the lottery for entertainment only. I also agree with the opinion that most people who enter the lottery are in
the lower middle class economy. Because they think the Lottery can provide instant wealth, so many poor people try their luck.

If the operators cannot show legit winners of their lottery then we can say that it is indeed a poor man's tax and people are having a delusion that they are going to win a lottery but so far here in our country, there are testimonials from real people who won the tournament, yes people are winning here that is why the ticket sales are always record-breaking whenever there is a huge jackpot because people want to win a lottery for a life-changing event of their lives.

It depends on someone how often he bets on a lottery. Some spend almost half of their daily earnings which is not good, and some who bets once a day hoping it would change their life.


No, I don't think so. Like here in our country the government owned lottery helps the unfortunate people to have some discount on their hospital bills.


Only once a day, that's all I'm willing to bet. As you've said there are millions of combination to win in a lottery game so if you are given a chance to win there I'd consider it as a blessing from above.

Thinking a lottery is a scammy way to tax poor people is not a valid point. In the first place, no one forces them to joined lotteries. We can't blame these poor people if they are taking chances. After all, this was the only gambling they can play with only a few bucks to join. And the winnings are insane so it's just a win-win situation to them.

Countries really need these lotteries as it was a big help for funding government projects such as infrastructures and other essentials. But we can't deny the fact that there's corruption so we just need to trust that the department involved in monitoring the government's fund is doing their job.

Unless the people behind the government spending and the government is corrupt. The money will only go straight from someones pocket. We all know that most third world country (which my country is) is either corrupt or tolerates corruption.
That is funny in a way but this is the scary thing about lottery, it specifically targets the low income households which does not contribute much in tax but with their number bigger than high-income households, they exploit this instead of truly helping.

As far as the proceeds of the lottery-owned government go into good projects then it's good (although corruption is just around the corner).

In the first place, that's the purpose why there is a lottery-owned government, at least here in our country.


I'm just a few blocks away from the nearest lottery here so there's a time I want to try my luck.

Not expecting to win in this luck-based game but who knows I can hit the bell even it's more possible to reach the moon than hitting the lottery. So far, my highest win is 4 digits combinations (in a 6/45-59 draw depends on what day I will place my bet) and I hit that combination several times already.

Take this an example where people do spend up millions of dollars on buying up lottery tickets and see on what are the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V2B28OqfqM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5XLmCb3y3o

This doesnt really matter if you do purchase almost of the combinations or what.Winning chance is always been slim.

Being a statistician or mathematician doesn't help you in any way. It only makes things brighter for you that it's almost impossible to win because of insane numbers of combinations. To understand this, you don't need to be any of these but one simple formula is enough to calculate the number of combinations according to numbers that take part in the lottery and how many balls will come.
It's not taxation in any way too. Who gives you pressure to buy a lottery ticket? Noone, so, there is no one to blame here except you if you spend a lot of money on it and it affects your financials. The lottery is really a lucky accident that can change your whole life but you have to be very lucky. You can be among 99.9999% that spend money on lottery without benefits or the one who wins.

-Cons outweighs its pros but to know that if you do hit that jackpot then that thing what matter most.

-Its not that to be a tax but here on my country, weve been using lottery in form of charity and part or portion of it is being
used to help out people who are in need.

-Play for fun and don't expect for you to win because this will just mold up addiction due to desperation.

Lotteries have existed for a very long time and your insinuation that this is a form of tax is not mistaken since in the past there were countries that used lotteries as a form of tax on their citizens, I do not play regularly but taking into account the bad economic shape some people find themselves it is possible the lottery is their only chance of improving their situation, I believe they know it is very unlikely they will win but taking into account the low participation cost and the huge payout I think they consider this to be a fair trade.

Yes I do. There is virtually no risk aside from a few dollars it costs to purchase a ticket. The price is usually not very significant.


They are not forcing you to participate so I do not see it as unethical. It is hypocritical if they ban other forms of gambling in their country.


I don't participate in the government sponsored lottery but in online casinos I might spend a negligible amount on tickets. Sometimes I might get free tickets from achieving certain wagering requirements.

I don't think it's a scammy thing to tax the people. First they are legitimate operating and we could see publicly the winning number also we know that there are some bettors that actually wins.

The lottery helps a lot of people in our country. So even if it's impossible to win in this game, I will still play this lottery to help many people in need and still hoping to win a life-changing amount of money. One of my family members tried to apply for medical assistance, and this lottery donates a good amount.

He called it as a tax because people are playing despite knowing that hitting such lottery is nearly impossible and even then we are making such bets.

I don't think though that this "tax" is a bad thing because if 1 million players are playing the lottery and even 10 guys change their life forever then it still changes life and you won't be rich by saving the money for the lottery ticket and might spend that in other small things which you don't even realize so it is better to take a near impossible but chance to change your life.

I personally hate lotteries and never take part in such draws but I understand why people like it because you get a life changing opportunity and you don't have to spend much for that.