The Pennsylvania Lottery

I don't understand it. Plonking down your hard-earned money to get a little slip of paper with random numbers on it in the hopes of winning more money than you originally plonked down. Ponzi scheme? In a way, but more like another government entity that serves to separate gullible or vulnerable citizens from their money. As I heard someone once say, playing the lottery is like "paying the Stupid Tax." True, it's the only "tax" (that I'm aware of) for which people willingly and enthusiastically pay. Kind of stupid, I agree.

Yet what government does with that money is to redistribute a portion of it; for example, the Pennsylvania Lottery claims that profits benefit senior citizens. But if that's the case, then why are most lottery players elderly? They're just spending the money that is suppose to benefit them in the first place. I suppose the government doesn't give them enough in their Social Security checks so they gamble what little they get every month with the hope of making it big. Perhaps they want to win the jackpot so they can give something to their relatives, a sort of farewell gift for an elderly person who has lost touch with his or her family. It's sad any which way you think about it. Even winners, particularly multi-million-dollar winners, have had their lives changed. Some for the better, but others for the worse.

It's really dirty money if you think about it. How many poor people play the lottery? I'm fairly certain that a large percentage of people who play the lottery are desperate people, perhaps on their last few dollars with little, if any, money to feed themselves or their families. They're just hoping a couple of bucks invested in the lottery will make babies, like the two bills placed in the safe of "Bailey Building and Loan Association" in It's a Wonderful Life. But the odds are against them. They will lose, and they know they will lose. Some people will go so far as to sell their car or house or whatever, just to buy a block of tickets when a mega-jackpot looms. And when they lose, they're down deeper in debt. So does the winner realize that the money they luckily won comes from the misfortunes of others? How does someone feel after winning a major jackpot? Yes, I'm sure they feel pretty darn good, but when they buy an expensive sports car, for example, and drive around, are they thinking about how that money they just won was "taken" from someone struggling or impoverished? Nah, probably not. Of course, no one is holding a gun to your head when you purchase a lottery ticket. You're taking chance into your own hands and, if you bet over your head, the consequences that befall you are of your own doing (or undoing).

Perhaps playing the lottery is not so evil. As Ben Franklin once said, "All things in moderation." If you play a dollar or two on the occasional lottery ticket, with a cool and calm head, not risking your entire fortune, then it comes as no harm when you lose. Like playing the office lottery pool, you're all in it to win it, in the vain hope of retiring from your dead-end job. If you lose, it's not a big deal, because you still have a job and a source of income. Also, it makes for good conversation around the water cooler. After all, it's just a dollar...or two. Do you control it or does it control you?

I must cut this blog entry short as I have to check my Match 6 numbers for tonight. Perhaps I've won this time. *fingers crossed*

~Andrew K.