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Microstock Photography Forum - General => Off Topic => Topic started by: WarrenPrice on August 07, 2013, 19:29

Title: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: WarrenPrice on August 07, 2013, 19:29
I bought a ticket for tonight's drawing.  If I win, I will start hiring models.

Look out Sean Locke.
 ;D 8)
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: flashon on August 07, 2013, 20:07
I bought one too. If I win I will setup a 3-year training program at some exotic place to train people become professional iPhone photographers (aka iphoneographers).
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: elvinstar on August 07, 2013, 20:38
If I win, I'll buy a license for an EL from everyone on the forum!  8)
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on August 07, 2013, 20:51
I've got five tickets.  There's ten bucks gone.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: tab62 on August 07, 2013, 21:35
Nope- just use the tickets in one of your stock shots thus a write down lol...
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: klsbear on August 07, 2013, 22:06
My manager at my day job gave me $20 to get tickets for the two of us.  Gotta love a boss like that!
And I see it's after 11:00 so I'd better go check those winning numbers!
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: cuppacoffee on August 07, 2013, 22:43
Pooled our money at work, bought 18 tickets, won $8. I guess I have to go back to my day job tomorrow. Sigh.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: stockmarketer on August 07, 2013, 23:13
Not to rain on everyone's parade, but...

You're several thousand times more likely to snuff it in a car accident on the way home from buying your lottery ticket than you are likely to win the lottery.  If you believe a long-shot is possible, then you have to believe you will almost certainly die on your car trip.  Better off just staying home.  Or changing your view of what is or isn't going to happen.

If someone asks me to pool money with them I say I'll do it, only if they choose my numbers... 1,2,3,4,5,6... they will object, "Those numbers would NEVER come up!  It's impossible!"  Then I point out that those numbers are just as likely (impossible) to come up as the six numbers they are planning to choose, or the ones they get on an easy pick.  Or I'll say, "Only if you play the six numbers that won last week."  Then I'm told "There's NO WAY the same numbers will come up again."  Again, the odds are just as good that those six numbers will come up again as the six numbers you're going to pick.  Mind-bogglingly unlikely?  Yes.  It's statistically impossible that 123456 will come up, or that last week's winning numbers will be picked again, or that you will win with any combination of numbers you choose.

More simply put... lotteries are taxes on people who don't understand math.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: tab62 on August 07, 2013, 23:15
If you don't purchase a ticket you will not win (100%) for sure but someone is going to win just not me  :(


Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: stockmarketer on August 07, 2013, 23:19
If you don't purchase a ticket you will not win (100%) for sure but someone is going to win just not me  :(


I'm going to sign a presidential decree taking your lottery winnings away.

See, my odds at becoming US President are 1 in 10 million... your odds at winning the Powerball are about 1 in 175 million.  So if you win the lottery, I'll almost certainly be president... so watch out!!!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/15-things-more-likely-to-happen-than-winning-mega-millions.html (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/15-things-more-likely-to-happen-than-winning-mega-millions.html)
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: cuppacoffee on August 07, 2013, 23:49
Gotta love people who do lots of math to learn what we all already know - that playing the lottery is essentially a bad investment. So what? I've spent less on more foolish things.

"I used to be a heavy gambler. But now I just make mental bets. That's how I lost my mind." -Steve Allen
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: Anita Potter on August 08, 2013, 01:18
Unless you live in Minnesota (1) or New Jersey (2)...you're out of luck coz that's where the winners are from.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: stockmarketer on August 08, 2013, 05:42
So what? I've spent less on more foolish things.


I doubt it.  What could be more foolish?  If you buy an overpriced Starbucks coffee, at least you got some enjoyment out of it (real, tangible enjoyment... not delusional enjoyment.)

See, the real problem I have with lottos or lottery tickets is that the people who spend the most on them tend to be the people who can afford them the least.  They're regressive taxes.  The capitalist in me is all for letting people do whatever they want with their money, but the liberal in me sees states praying on their most underprivileged and uneducated citizens.  Foolish, yes.  Harmless, no.

This explains it better than I can:  http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4?op=1 (http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4?op=1)



Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: cuppacoffee on August 08, 2013, 06:22
Blanket statement. Stereotyping. Not every poor person gambles although the statistics prove that many poor and uneducated do. However, even someone making minimum wage has the right to have fun if that is their definition of fun. Social engineering is not the answer, there is no utopia (I'm from the 70's when it was tried and abandoned). My state issues a lottery credit on our state taxes each year even if you don't participate so I make money even while losing it. If you want to debate the effects of legalized gambling that horse is out of the gate. Once it is legal there's no going back. Buying one ticket every so often so you can laugh about it at work when you lose has a social pay-off - smiles and feeling like one of the gang. Much better return than say buying a bottle of water when there is a drinking fountain just down the hall from your office. Much, much less frustrating than producing a stock image that never sells.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: WarrenPrice on August 08, 2013, 07:02
So what? I've spent less on more foolish things.


I doubt it.  What could be more foolish?  If you buy an overpriced Starbucks coffee, at least you got some enjoyment out of it (real, tangible enjoyment... not delusional enjoyment.)

See, the real problem I have with lottos or lottery tickets is that the people who spend the most on them tend to be the people who can afford them the least.  They're regressive taxes.  The capitalist in me is all for letting people do whatever they want with their money, but the liberal in me sees states praying on their most underprivileged and uneducated citizens.  Foolish, yes.  Harmless, no.

This explains it better than I can:  [url]http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4?op=1[/url] ([url]http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4?op=1[/url])


Why do you care so much about what others do? 

Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: Mantis on August 08, 2013, 07:29
I bought a ticket for tonight's drawing.  If I win, I will start hiring models.

Look out Sean Locke.
 ;D 8)

Wow, you're going to hire Sean Locke as your model? I hear he is spensive!!:)
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: WarrenPrice on August 08, 2013, 07:31
I bought a ticket for tonight's drawing.  If I win, I will start hiring models.

Look out Sean Locke.
 ;D 8)

Wow, you're going to hire Sean Locke as your model? I hear he is spensive!!:)

LOL... he's safe.  I lost.   :(
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: ruxpriencdiam on August 08, 2013, 09:43
2 in Jersey and 1 in Minnesota.
Title: Re: $425 Million Power Ball
Post by: cthoman on August 08, 2013, 11:05
I'm going to sign a presidential decree taking your lottery winnings away.

See, my odds at becoming US President are 1 in 10 million... your odds at winning the Powerball are about 1 in 175 million.  So if you win the lottery, I'll almost certainly be president... so watch out!!!

[url]http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/15-things-more-likely-to-happen-than-winning-mega-millions.html[/url] ([url]http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/15-things-more-likely-to-happen-than-winning-mega-millions.html[/url])


Good luck with that presidency thing. That sounds like a lot more work/money than wasting a couple bucks on a foolish dream of winning the lottery.  ;D