I don’t care about someone buying a 20.00 scratch off.  What I do care about is when that person holds up the line, because they can’t figure out which one they want.

I don't understand. Nobody here is saying they have won, only that it's a few dollars to have a little fun for some people.

It's gambling plain and simple.  It gives you a bit of a rush.  Probably releases endorphins and what not.  Some people have a problem with it while others don't. I figure I spend maybe $100 a year on all forms of gambling.  I don't think of that as a problem. I spend a good deal more on beer. That could be a borderline problem though.

It's a cheap thrill. Better than giving $20 to hollywood liberals for a shitty movie.

Back a few years ago I bought scratch off tickets just for amusement.  I did it for three years and kept account of what I spent and what I lost.  Every time I went to the grocery store I bought one or two $1 tickets.  My wife did the same.

We spent $167 in tickets and we made $125.  It would have been less but one ticket was a $60 payoff.

The $42 that I lost was the cost of the amusement of fantasizing about getting a $10K payoff for only a $1 investment.

If you aren't doing it for entertainment then you are doing it wrong.

OMG LOL

When I was in my late teens early 20's I worked at several gas stations. You can pretty much fit all the lotto players into 3 catagory's.

1st. The low income people who come in and buy a 40 of Steel Reserve and 5 bucks of dollar tickets. They come in and out all day, and quite a few were regular customers who came in all day buying a beer and dollar tickets until we closed. They would be back in at 7 AM starting the routine all over again. They never win more than a free ticket, but on the occasional 50 buck win, will step up and buy 5 buck tickets.

2nd. The daily powerball/mega millions players. These are also mostly lower income people, who spend a majority of their money buying handfull's of tickets and stuffing them into the "official" lotto ticket sleeves. They may win every now and again, but it's never much money and it's almost always spent on more tickets. No matter how you try to explain that they are loosing money, they will always counter that they "won" big and it all equals out at the end. They have favorite numbers, and fill out 5 or more slips to play at a time. They may win big one day, but again it's all blown on stupid stuff and gone in a year.

3rd. The occasional player. This is the guy who works a full time job, who see's the powerball topped 500 mil and decided to buy 10 bucks worth of tickets. They may get a 20-50 buck ticket if they have some fun money but they won't risk the rent to buy tickets.

I met a guy once who fit the 2nd category. He was actually pretty lucky and had some bigger wins (14,000) but he drove a beat up 1980 Astro van, smelled like he bathed in farts and spend the winnings buying more tickets. Another one had won 3 million. He had absolutly none of it left, and was also driving a POS car. He gave "loans" to all his buddy's and bought frivolous things. 3 or 4 years later he had nothing to show for it, and was back to buying tickets hoping that he would hit it big.

I don’t know but my concrete guy
Just won 10k on a scratch off.
Guess he’s just lucky lol

I won $500 on a $10 scratch ticket on Monday and $1000 on $20 tickets in 2017 and 2016.
I also won 50K on a $5 scratch ticket too.
So I always just smile and move on with threads such as these.
And no I don't go broke once or twice a week doing this.

50k on a $5 scratch ticket?

I dun believe you.

There is a way to win huge on scratch-offs. North Carolina is looking HARD at a small group of people who have won so often it defies the odds by a factor of millions.

Lots of people in NC play who can't collect the big state/IRS-reported winners (tax debtors, child support defaulters, illegals...). When those shady folks win big, it looks like there are people "known" in the area who will step in and pay (in cash) enough on the dollar for the unclaimed ticket to cover the taxes and still make a profit.

This is some genius level criminality...no one prosecuted...yet. Not sure how I feel about having the local low-life community know you may have $100K+ in cash on or about your person

Big Winners!

"Got em"

I don’t know if this has been mentioned yet or not but your MIL is full of shit.

All the best scams are predicated on the fact that, by and large, human beings are incurable wishful thinkers.

The woman of the house gets a $20 ticket from me every birthday and Christmas.  No exceptions! Never wins anything though.

It's taxation of the stupid.  Which usually means they also don't make enough income to pay much in taxes.  So, we use state lotteries to get them to voluntarily pay some tax.

Since it is a completely voluntary tax, I don't care.

Maybe the federal government should hold a billion dollar lotto.  Sell dollar tickets and add a few numbers to the series to increase the odds to 1:999,999,999,999.  Then use all the proceeds to retire federal debt.

What we should really be discussing is how this became a moon truther thread on the first page

Tell us OP, did we go to the moon?

Believe it or not I did.
I remodeled my house(new furniture,paint,flooring) and put 13k down on a new truck which I carried a balance financed for two years and then purchased an Amsec BF 6636 gun safe.
I also put the remainder of 8k in my savings account.
Ironically enough the name of that $5 Texas lottery scratch ticket was "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas".
LOL.
By the way I shut the game down as I was the last jackpot winner of the 7 or either 8 tickets that held that amount of the 6.1 million tickets that made up that game.
To say the least I was one happy mofo that Saturday May morning!!!
It does happen.

He believed a WWE wrestler flipped a 14,000 lb ambulance by hand  as well

Absolutely dumb comparison

People waste money on a daily basis...if someone wants to buy lottery tickets...who cares?  I know GD cares because everyone is independently wealthy is are so darn wise beyond their years.

I buy lottery tickets at times.  Someone is winning as you see Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots can get crazy at times.  I know that is frowned upon with the GD experts, but I still do it anyway.  I suppose because I'm not that smart compared to the GD gawds.

Nicee
Didn't you save a photo of the ticket?

Purchased a 30 pack of $20 tickets this year for my wife's birthday, at Publix. It was a complete pack, still in the cellophane. She spent 2 hours on her birthday scratching them and ended up with $875.

Its what she wanted this year, and she had a great time playing them for a few hours.

No.
But my picture was used by the lottery commission and placed on the website.

I usually buy them for Xmas gifts when I go home.
But I do buy them occasionally. $2 did buy a bushmaster though.
I glad as hell Al doesn’t have them. Just something else  to have to wait on people for.

My GF loves to play. She'll buy a roll at a time. Hell, we rode around Friday night, bought 3 rolls and I let her scratch away.

I just won 20 bucks on a $3 ticket

My brothers good friend won $300k on a $20 scratch off lsst year.

Old man yells at sky!!!!!

I buy a Powerball ticket about once every year or two because... well, someone has to win it. Statistically I’m more likely to get sexually assaulted by Kate Beckinsale immediately after getting in a motorcycle wreck because I was struck by lightning, but someone always defies the odds and wins the Powerball. Could be me...then I could just rent Kate and forego the lightning and motorcycle wreck part. Really it’s just for fun and costs < $3/yr.

People who habitually buy scratch-off tickets are sort of like crackheads though. No amount will ever provide the fix they’re after, but they’ll spend their money on it until it’s gone. To their credit, I’ve at least never met anyone who sucked dick for scratch-off tickets. The only ones that really bother me are the people who order 10 tickets, then stand at the register to scratch them off, then cash any winners and repeat while I stand in line. Those people are the worst.

Who cares what other people spend their money on. Spending money on lottery tickets is no worse than spending money on any other hobby
that provides no monetary gain.