When I win my 1.6 billion, only people who have repped me get to come party on my private island full of sexy ladies.

(October 20, 2018 at 10:08 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: I've never played the lottery.  In general, I don't gamble.  I've thought about it when the payout gets this high, but it's still pretty stupid no matter how you rationalize it.

I could take the cash I'd use to buy a lottery ticket and set fire to it in the hope that a djinn would materialize out of the smoke and grant me three wishes.  The odds are about the same.

As a general rule, I don't gamble (if you'll concede that poker is a game of skill).

Boru

(October 20, 2018 at 6:16 pm)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 5:21 pm)Joods Wrote: I always just let the computer give me random numbers on my tickets. I always get the megaplier as well as the power play options for both games.

We don't play but maybe a few times a year. No skin off our noses if we don't hit the big jackpot. People who do play weekly though should consider saving their non winning tickets because according to their state, they might be eligible for a tax deduction, if you have enough other deductions to file a long form.

You can only deduct loses equal to the amount you won.

I'm referring to tickets that weren't winners. In PA, for example, you can use non-winning tickets as a tax deduction.

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(October 20, 2018 at 10:08 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: I've never played the lottery.  In general, I don't gamble.  I've thought about it when the payout gets this high, but it's still pretty stupid no matter how you rationalize it.

Here in PA, much of the purchase of lottery tickets and lottery scratch offs goes to our aging population and programs geared towards them such as reduced co-pays on medications, meals on wheels programs, senior rides to doctors and senior centers can get funds for their various activities. 

Where some of the money goes

(October 20, 2018 at 8:06 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 10:08 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: I've never played the lottery.  In general, I don't gamble.  I've thought about it when the payout gets this high, but it's still pretty stupid no matter how you rationalize it.

I could take the cash I'd use to buy a lottery ticket and set fire to it in the hope that a djinn would materialize out of the smoke and grant me three wishes.  The odds are about the same.

As a general rule, I don't gamble (if you'll concede that poker is a game of skill).

Boru

With me and poker it would be just as well if I lit the money on fire. So I tend not to play poker unless I'm really drunk. There might be a connection between those two things.

Oddly enough the same holds true of strip poker.

(October 20, 2018 at 8:25 pm)Joods Wrote: I'm referring to tickets that weren't winners.

So was I.

Well then the accountant that did our taxes last year was wrong.

(October 20, 2018 at 9:12 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote:

(October 20, 2018 at 8:06 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I could take the cash I'd use to buy a lottery ticket and set fire to it in the hope that a djinn would materialize out of the smoke and grant me three wishes.  The odds are about the same.

As a general rule, I don't gamble (if you'll concede that poker is a game of skill).

Boru

With me and poker it would be just as well if I lit the money on fire.  So I tend not to play poker unless I'm really drunk.  There might be a connection between those two things.

Oddly enough the same holds true of strip poker.

*ponders sending Jorg a box of her favourite wine and a deck of cards*

Boru

(October 21, 2018 at 11:47 am)Joods Wrote: Well then the accountant that did our taxes last year was wrong.

Could depend on the state.

Have I got this right? If you win the jackpot and want what you have won, you have to be paid in instalments, or they rip you off and give you $900,000,000. How rude.

(October 21, 2018 at 1:03 pm)IWNKYAAIMI Wrote: Have I got this right? If you win the jackpot and want what you have won, you have to be paid in instalments, or they rip you off and give you 900,000,000. How rude.

The taxes are taken out right then instead of over thirty years. End result is the same unless tax rates change over the three decades.