Anyone Play Any of Your State's Lotteries?

[Been There]

One of the men in our Wednesday night poker club called me about an hour ago and told me that he stopped at the convenience store out front and bought 5-$5.00 lottery scratch-offs. He said he has a $5000 winner and can he bring it over for me to double check him to make sure that he got it right. He lives alone. I said sure.

Yep, he has a $5000 winner on a $5.00 scratch-off, lucky dog. I told him he has to buy the food and drinks next Wednesday. We usually call out for pizzas and strombolis, along with beer and we each chip in. Next Wednesday, it will be his treat. We had that arrangement a long time ago. Anyone that hits the lottery for a $1000 or more buys the food and drinks for the next poker meeting. For some reason, food always tastes better when it's free.

Most I ever won was $2500 on the Pick 5.

 

[Brookswood]

No. I do not play state lotteries. I consider the state lottery a tax on people who did not study their math while in school.

 

[Been There]

No. I do not play state lotteries. I consider the state lottery a tax on people who did not study their math while in school.

You got that right. The odds of you winning the big lotteries are so huge that I couldn't figure the odds for the $2billion winner. I play $10 a week and that's it. It's more for fun that anything else. There is no hope of winning it and somedays, I even forget to check the numbers.
My cleaning lady won a nice jackpot one Christmas when she bought a $30 scratch-off. She wouldn't tell me how much she won, which I understood her reasoning.

 

[oldaunt]

My brother does, faithfully. I have more lucrative uses for my money.

 

[Jace]

There is no way...I would waste my money!

 

[Don M.]

I buy a $1 state lottery ticket once or twice a week, and a Powerball/Mega Million ticket when the amount is over 250 million. Since most of the State proceeds go to the education department, I just look at buying tickets as a voluntary tax to help keep the property taxes fairly low. The odds of winning are ridiculous.

 

[Murrmurr]

I haven't bought a ticket in quite a long while. I don't buy scratchers, only lottery tickets, 2 at a time; one with my picks and one with auto-picks. I won a little over $30K once, back in the late 90s.

I spent a few weeks in Thailand, then came home for a few weeks, then visited a couple places in South America, and then stayed with my cousin in Venezuela for a few months. He had a poultry farm there. He had an old POS truck and I bought him a much newer one.

 

[jujube]

I've played the same 6 numbers since the first Florida lotto in the 1980's. One ticket for each drawing (twice a week).

Not much luck have I had. I'd stop playing but with my luck, the number would come up that time.

 

[Naturally]

No lottery or gambling in Alabama
Any time I want a ticket, I have to drive to Florida
It's always an option since I live only 25miles from the state line
When the lotteries were in the billions recently, I got tickets
Otherwise and most often, No ... and never won anything

 

[chic]

I play more often than not when I feel especially lucky.

 

[Nathan]

Once in a blue moon, if I'm getting fuel at a convenience store.
I only buy one, as there is only one winner and the rest are losers.

 

[Bella]

No, I don't have to play the lottery, I can just flush my money down the toilet right here at home. It's the same thing.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

I’m not in any state but I don’t ever gamble with money; not even lottery tickets.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

My ex was a gambling addict, so I'm pretty biased about state lotteries. For myself, I wouldn't mind winning a few billion, but losing $1? OMG!!!, no way- a whole dollar LOST?

 

[HazyDavey]

I used to play the state lottery for $1.00 all the time using the same six numbers. I quit playing after I retired, I guess that tells you something..

 

[jimintoronto]

Here in Ontario the profits from the lottery go towards supporting people like me who depend on a very expensive drug to control my ulcerative colitus. I get an infusion of Remicade every 56 days. If I was paying for that biological myself, it would cost me about $14.000 a year. Because of the Provincial Trilium Fund I don't pay anything. The Trillium Fund also pays for medical care for those who have a unique disease or need a unique type of medical operation. So, if you stop and think about it, every time some one in Ontario buys a lottery ticket, a few cents of that money is helping to cover the cost of my medical treatment.

By the way, in Canada, if you win on the lottery, at the race track, or at a casino, you get to keep ALL OF IT. No tax on gambling winnings in Canada. A further point... Canadians who travel to the USA, who win down there pay taxes at the time of winning, BUT once back home in Canada, they can hire a Canadian based company to get the taxes they paid in the USA refunded, for a ten percent fee. JimB.

 

[Pappy]

We get scratch off tickets once a week. My lucky wife won $5000 on a ten dollar ticket and has won $1000 twice over the years. Me, not very lucky in tha department. $400 once and $100 a few times.

 

[Brookswood]

My grandmother used to operate what amounted to a “numbers racket’ during the Great Depression. She ran it out of the store she owned and ran with my mother, uncles and aunts. She also was a bootlegger, making wine at home and selling it to trusted customers as well as using it to bribe government officials who might look too hard at the numbers racket.

Today, I wonder, why my granny would be called a crooked law breaker when my own state runs its own numbers racket. Go figure.

 

[Lilac]

Hubby buys one mega millions & one power ball for each drawing. Sometimes we win enough to get the next set of tickets "free". If you don't play, you won't have a chance to win.

 

[Brookswood]

Hubby buys one mega millions & one power ball for each drawing. Sometimes we win enough to get the next set of tickets "free". If you don't play, you won't have a chance to win.

That's the spirit.