Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 10, 2020

It’s really true: Not everything is all about you!

You can’t win when you are not old enough to play

My world revolves around me, that’s just the way it is

It always bothers me when I see people in the store dropping significant money on the lottery, and clearly spending a lot of time planning out their numbers (“hmmm…37 hasn’t come up in a while”) as though it makes a difference.

Kid, the numbers of things that could happen to any one person are astronomical. Keep a good thought.

Well, you’ll never win if you don’t buy a ticket!

Here in North Carolina, 100% of the Lottery net proceeds go directly to benefit the state’s educational system. There’s a certain irony there, because in a well-educated populace, there would be nobody playing the lottery. What are the odds?

Try this one on for size – when casinos are advertising to the masses, there is always a disclaimer at the bottom of the ad, be it print or electronic, telling you that if you have a gambling problem, please call (phone#). Talk about talking out of both sides of your mouth! As it stands, I am no betting man. Like my late dad, when I part with my money, I want something tangible in return. The lottery, to me, is like throwing money down the toilet. No thanks. I will always be happy for the winners. Let them have the headaches!

One useful thing about the local paper is the reporting of traffic deaths, shootings, robberies/break-ins, obituaries and understanding that you have a number in the drawing.

Like Covid?

GOP Mantra: If it hasn’t happened to me, it’s not real, a fake, a hoax.

This is availability bias. Memories of lottery winners and prizes awarded creates a perceived reality in which the odds of winning are more than logic dictates.

Garrison Keillor once remarked that state lotteries constitute a tax on people who aren’t good at math.

playing the lottery is a form of entertainment nothing more. the two dollars a week I spent on the lottery gave me more satisfaction than 90% of sport/movies.

Million-to-one coincidences happen 8 times a day in New York City.

i played the hit 5 in Washington state, no state income tax and a lump sum payout, and (after fed tax) got $500k. although its not really much I was able to retire early. One of the most interesting points of winning the lottery is finding out how people really are. People who I had minimum contact with claim I promise them a cut. then there were the religious who claimed that it was gods money and I needed to give it to their community. bottom line if you win, be prepared for the onslaught.

The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math…

Lotteries are a tax for people who are lousy at calculating probabilities.

They never tell how many other losers there were

Ironically – that is an important concept in probability. Things happen – so the likelihood that something happens is almost a certainty, even if the probability of any one of them is very small.