Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Cheap Dreams

A friend of mine wanted a lottery ticket last night. We were eating out in the neighborhood and the only walkable place we knew to get a lottery ticket was a convenience store on Second the other side of Congress. People buy these tickets and dream about what they would do with the winnings. (Pay off the mortgage; pay off the credit card debt; put the kids through college; buy a fancy car and house and boat.) I don't buy the tickets. I dream of finding a winning ticket on the ground. The odds are lower, but it isn't much more of a fantasy. The state spends lots of money on advertising and signage and administration. (And winnings, of course.) I guess it makes money that saves us being taxed another way.
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4 comments:

  1. WayneSeptember 9, 2008 at 8:13 AM

    The idiot tax.

    'I've done the calculations and the odds of winning the lottery are the same whether you buy a ticket or not' - Fran Lebowitz

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  2. Forrest PreeceSeptember 9, 2008 at 9:34 AM

    You can put it that way. But the lottery does get the numbers racket into the above-ground economy where it can contribute to the general good, rather than fattening the pockets of the criminal element.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2008 at 5:15 PM

    I've just moved to Austin and have found it frusterating that the state has a lotto, and bingo houses, but the nearest casino is 5 hours away, I'd love to play some poker.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Forrest PreeceSeptember 11, 2008 at 7:57 AM

    Personally, I wish we did have casinos here. We'd be getting the benefit of revenues other states are raking in.

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