Playing the Lottery

Playing the Lottery

By Keith Bunn Jr

You Have to Play to Win

For years, I've heard the same reply to my comment that it's not worth playing the lottery... "You have to play to win." So, the beginning of 2016, I decided to test that theory for a whole year. 

But how do I do this? Being a non-believer of the lottery, I didn't want to spend a ton of money on this, I also wanted to get the "Best Odds" of winning too. Seeing that playing the Powerball was absolutely out of the question, because the odds of winning that thing is 1 in 292 million, I decided to play the scratch off tickets. They were not expensive and the odds of winning were not too bad. Anywhere between 1 in 4.51 to 4.69.

My Experiment

I get paid every 2 week, so I bought $2 worth of tickets every payday. Sometimes that was twice a month, but there were other times it was 3 times a month. If I won anything, it went towards buying new tickets. If there were any winnings leftover by the end of the year, I'd give it away. 

So from January 1, 2016 - December 30,2016, I spent $54 on scratch offs. And even though I had some winners, I only won $15. So let me put it this way, it was as if you gave me $54 and I gave you back only $15. Would you call that worth it? Probably not. I didn't.

Date         Amount Spent     Amount Won

1/1/2016      $ 2.00
1/15/2016    $ 2.00                  $ 2.00
1/29/2016    $ 2.00
2/12/2016    $ 2.00
2/26/2016    $ 2.00
3/11/2016    $ 2.00
3/25/2016    $ 2.00
4/8/2016      $ 2.00
4/22/2016    $ 2.00
5/6/2016      $ 2.00                  $ 2.00
5/20/2016    $ 2.00
6/3/2016      $ 2.00
6/17/2016    $ 2.00
7/1/2016      $ 2.00
7/15/2016    $ 2.00                  $ 2.00
7/29/2016    $ 2.00
8/12/2016    $ 2.00
8/26/2016    $ 2.00
9/9/2016      $ 2.00
9/23/2016    $ 2.00                  $ 2.00
10/7/2016    $ 2.00
10/21/2016  $ 2.00
11/4/2016    $ 2.00
11/18/2016  $ 2.00                  $ 5.00
12/2/2016    $ 2.00
12/16/2016  $ 2.00
12/30/2016  $ 2.00                  $ 2.00

Totals           $ 54.00                $ 15.00

Now I'm not so naive to not know that there are examples out there where people do win large sums of money. But they never tell us how much money these people actually spend on these tickets before they win the big money. They also don't tell you what the opportunity cost you're missing out on either.

Opportunity Cost

Opportunity cost means, when you spend money on anything, you can't take that same money and spend it on something else. People who are wise with money, always think of the opportunity cost before they spend their money. And out of all the things they think of that they can do with the money, they make the best choice that they want to do most with that money. Whether they use it to take a trip, buy a car, invest it, etc... it is the best decision for them and there is absolutely no guilt by spending it.

Now if you were to take that $54 and invested it every year, starting at the age of 20, getting a 10% rate of return, and kept doing that until you were 60. That $54 a year would turn into $28,734.35! I know that's not much. It's not even enough to retire on, but people just don't spend $54 a year on the lottery. In fact, in 2015, Americans spent a total of $70.15 billion on lottery tickets. Folks, that's a lot of money that could have gone towards better things in your life, wouldn't you agree?

If you think playing the lottery is still the best place for you to spend your money on, do what I did. Keep track of how much you spend and how much you win in just one year. I'll even email you a copy of the Excel spread sheet I used to keep track, and share your findings. I bet you by the end of the year you'll find that it's just not worth it.

Why I Do This

The reason I do this is to inspire and give hope to people. To make them think about their finances, whether they are young or old, so they can win financially.

If you find any of this information useful, please share it with others. You can also find more money news, facts and ideas, on my Facebook pages. I'd be grateful if you followed me. Thank you!