Walter
11-21-2005, 12:43 PM
I will admit to playing when it is convienent for me to pick up tickets and I think the best I have ever done is around $1200 on 649 but like they say you can't win unless you play, although this is not true for a segment of our population, and I found the following interesting although it won't change my participation one way of the other.
Lotteries: a tax on the stupid and the greedy?
CBC News Analysis | October 31, 2005
Tom McFeat Tom McFeat is the Producer of the Business zone of CBC News Online. Tom joined CBC in 1979, and has worked as a TV reporter, writer/editor and producer at The National and at several regional CBC stations. Before joining CBC News Online, he produced The Money Show for CBC Newsworld. He is the co-author of two books dealing with online investing and money management.
As I write this, the country is spent – recovering from a serious bout of lottery fever. It peaked on Wednesday (Oct 26th) with word of a single winning Lotto 6/49 ticket among the almost 50 million that had been sold. One huge winning ticket worth $54.3 million. And many millions of losers.
A good time, perhaps, to deal with a couple of the more persistent questions that surface every time lottery prizes head into the stratosphere.
Are lottery players stupid?
You know where this question comes from. The non-players (and they were definitely in the minority ) scoffed at the overwhelming odds against winning. “You’re wasting your money,” they cried. “You won’t win.” And of course, they were right (except for the people who actually won).
Certainly, just looking at the odds should be enough to see that. One in almost 14 million. Much the same odds as tossing a coin and getting 24 heads in a row. One actuary was even quoted by a wire service as saying if you bought a ticket with three or four other adults, it would be more likely that all of you would be dead within the year than be winners of the top prize.
But here’s the thing. Despite a better grasp of the laws of chance than most, the actuary admitted that he too had bought a ticket.
So what’s at work here? Is the actuary stupid? Are lotteries a “tax on the stupid,” as some say? Not at all. For one thing, paying taxes isn’t voluntary. Playing the lottery is. And I think most Canadians knew how unlikely it was that their exact numbers would come up, however weak their grasp of statistics might be. Every news story pointed out those long, long odds.
Playing this lottery – this time – seemed to involve something more than your average risk-benefit calculation. It was arguably about more than merely trying to win a longshot.
For many Canadians, that $2 was a harmless venture into a national dream. This was, after all, a dream shared by millions. For a few days, the Lotto managed to supplant the weather as the favourite conversation opener from sea to sea to sea. “Bought a ticket yet?” Everyone knew what that meant.
Buying a ticket, either by yourself or with your workmates, became the thing to do. English and French, white and black, aboriginal and Asian, the rich, the poor and the middle-class. All of us lined up together. All the tickets had the same chance of winning. We played together. And we lost together. The ties that bind a nation.
“Lotto 6/49 Players – United in Loss.” Imagine the commercials.
Are lottery players greedy, immoral and selfish?
Some people looked into the hearts of lottery players and saw a dark side. A “moral tragedy,” as one letter-writer to CBC.ca put it, saying Canadians should not spend a cent on “frivolous things like lotteries” while millions around the world are in desperate need of help.
But surely this isn’t an either/or situation. Yes, I tried my hand at the big lottery. But I donate more to charity. And the figures show that many Canadians do the same.
Ontario stats reveal that the average resident spends about $15 a month on lottery tickets. The median charitable donation in 2003 was $220 (about $18 a month), according to tax records. And that doesn’t include the millions stuffed into Salvation Army kettles, counter-top receptacles, the money handed over at school fund-raisers, the donations dropped off at Goodwill centres, or the millions of unpaid hours Canadians volunteer to countless charitable groups.
The finger-pointers don’t go around criticizing people for having a dozen pairs of shoes or three TV sets or any of the other things people don’t really “need” but choose to spend their money on. Perhaps their unhappiness has more to do with the size of the damn prize. It is obscenely large. No argument here. I mean, who really needs $54.3 million?
So buy that ticket, if you’re so inclined. And donate to a good cause, too. The whole world could use a bit of luck.
If you defy the odds and win big, you can always donate some or all of it to charity. The stats also show that about half of all big prizewinners do just that.
(Disclosure: I was part of two office pools for the big draw – one with five players and one with no fewer than 28. We won a total of $5. We are all still working.)
Lotteries: a tax on the stupid and the greedy?
CBC News Analysis | October 31, 2005
Tom McFeat Tom McFeat is the Producer of the Business zone of CBC News Online. Tom joined CBC in 1979, and has worked as a TV reporter, writer/editor and producer at The National and at several regional CBC stations. Before joining CBC News Online, he produced The Money Show for CBC Newsworld. He is the co-author of two books dealing with online investing and money management.
As I write this, the country is spent – recovering from a serious bout of lottery fever. It peaked on Wednesday (Oct 26th) with word of a single winning Lotto 6/49 ticket among the almost 50 million that had been sold. One huge winning ticket worth $54.3 million. And many millions of losers.
A good time, perhaps, to deal with a couple of the more persistent questions that surface every time lottery prizes head into the stratosphere.
Are lottery players stupid?
You know where this question comes from. The non-players (and they were definitely in the minority ) scoffed at the overwhelming odds against winning. “You’re wasting your money,” they cried. “You won’t win.” And of course, they were right (except for the people who actually won).
Certainly, just looking at the odds should be enough to see that. One in almost 14 million. Much the same odds as tossing a coin and getting 24 heads in a row. One actuary was even quoted by a wire service as saying if you bought a ticket with three or four other adults, it would be more likely that all of you would be dead within the year than be winners of the top prize.
But here’s the thing. Despite a better grasp of the laws of chance than most, the actuary admitted that he too had bought a ticket.
So what’s at work here? Is the actuary stupid? Are lotteries a “tax on the stupid,” as some say? Not at all. For one thing, paying taxes isn’t voluntary. Playing the lottery is. And I think most Canadians knew how unlikely it was that their exact numbers would come up, however weak their grasp of statistics might be. Every news story pointed out those long, long odds.
Playing this lottery – this time – seemed to involve something more than your average risk-benefit calculation. It was arguably about more than merely trying to win a longshot.
For many Canadians, that $2 was a harmless venture into a national dream. This was, after all, a dream shared by millions. For a few days, the Lotto managed to supplant the weather as the favourite conversation opener from sea to sea to sea. “Bought a ticket yet?” Everyone knew what that meant.
Buying a ticket, either by yourself or with your workmates, became the thing to do. English and French, white and black, aboriginal and Asian, the rich, the poor and the middle-class. All of us lined up together. All the tickets had the same chance of winning. We played together. And we lost together. The ties that bind a nation.
“Lotto 6/49 Players – United in Loss.” Imagine the commercials.
Are lottery players greedy, immoral and selfish?
Some people looked into the hearts of lottery players and saw a dark side. A “moral tragedy,” as one letter-writer to CBC.ca put it, saying Canadians should not spend a cent on “frivolous things like lotteries” while millions around the world are in desperate need of help.
But surely this isn’t an either/or situation. Yes, I tried my hand at the big lottery. But I donate more to charity. And the figures show that many Canadians do the same.
Ontario stats reveal that the average resident spends about $15 a month on lottery tickets. The median charitable donation in 2003 was $220 (about $18 a month), according to tax records. And that doesn’t include the millions stuffed into Salvation Army kettles, counter-top receptacles, the money handed over at school fund-raisers, the donations dropped off at Goodwill centres, or the millions of unpaid hours Canadians volunteer to countless charitable groups.
The finger-pointers don’t go around criticizing people for having a dozen pairs of shoes or three TV sets or any of the other things people don’t really “need” but choose to spend their money on. Perhaps their unhappiness has more to do with the size of the damn prize. It is obscenely large. No argument here. I mean, who really needs $54.3 million?
So buy that ticket, if you’re so inclined. And donate to a good cause, too. The whole world could use a bit of luck.
If you defy the odds and win big, you can always donate some or all of it to charity. The stats also show that about half of all big prizewinners do just that.
(Disclosure: I was part of two office pools for the big draw – one with five players and one with no fewer than 28. We won a total of $5. We are all still working.)