Alphecca

14.

But only 1 for me. The other 13 were divided between my co-workers. I got stuck on the lottery ticket run today.

The stat about being hit by lightning is wrong....

How many people have won a powerball lottery... at this point a fair few.

How many people have been hit by lightning 19 times? I would venture to guess 0. Perhaps one or 2 - though there was a guy who claimed to have been struck something like 10 times it was not cofirmed.

There is, or was, a park ranger in the Appalachians with the unfortunate distinction of having been struck multiple times by lightning. He is, or was, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for living through the multiple strikes, at least up to the point I read about him. And similarly, there have been multiple winners of lotteries. The statistics of large sample sizes are amazing.

2.

Lightening stats aren't really a fair comparison any way you slice it. For one, I can greatly increase my chances of being struck my lightening if I stand on a rocky mountaintop while holding a large metal poll.

Also, if those comparative stats were really true then I would expect that the number of people who buy 19 lottery tickets would equal the number of people struck by lightening. Although I don't know for sure, I would guess that a lot more people in the world have been struck by lightening than have won the lottery in any given period of time.

As for me, I buy zero tickets. It's not the cost, I'm just too lazy and I never pay attention =).

"...beach-front houses, cars, boats, private islands, (and in my case) guns..."

Heck no. Hot and cold running concubines maybe, but a few measly things? nah. 'Course, I would need someplace to keep them. A concubine kennel, if you will. Hmmm.

Every time I see these big payoffs and the resulting lines at ticket counters, I just see a parody of the Dunkin' Donuts commercial. Some guy getting up at an uncivilized hour saying: 'Time to pay the math tax...'

I work in Washington, DC, so I stopped by the liquor store a block from my office and blew $5 for five P-Ball tickets. Yeah, usually I refer to the lottery as the "fools tax," but what the heck: $5 is a cheap price to dream for a few days. That's the price of one beer at a DC watering hole, so at least this one indulgence would be more useful than a hangover.

And given the astronomical odds, there is also a good chance that the jackpot will roll over to something even larger for Saturday. And I'll probably spend another $5 for it, too...but not a dime more. Dreams should not cost more than that.

Yeah, I'll probably have my wife pick up 5.

One. An infintisimal chance is very much larger than a zero chance.

I won $4 in last Saturday's Powerball drawing. That's twice in the last 6 months I've won $4. I only get a single ticket when it's over $100 million so this year I've spent maybe $10 total?

If I win tonight I promise to buy you all the guns you want Jeff. So make a list, and check it twice!

I bought 9 tickets.

Oh yeah, and I won, btw.

Psyched. Just kidding.

well, i did win something. . . .a lecture from my wife on wasting money :)

I can see buying a ticket or two 'just in case' and to dream. It's the idiots spending the grocery money on tickets that piss me off.