NC man wins a cool million on a $10 lottery ticket... I'm still not going to play

The lottery is the only form of gambling that is legal in North Carolina, which is something that is the case in nearly all US States. I've always found the ban on gambling, when the State is actively engaged in offering it, to be a really strange case and of course a form of tyranny. It is a minor form of tyranny but still is one anytime that the government does a "do as I say, not as I do" situation.

The suggestion that the state-funded lottery doesn't encourage gambling addiction became more silly when years ago scratch-off tickets were introduced because it was making the process more comical and "fun." It was automatically, and probably intentionally more addictive than just going up to the counter and filling out a boring form choosing some numbers.

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These days there are dozens of different lottery games to play and they are all so colorful and have different rules in the games. They are fun to play but a sensible person will see that all of them have one thing in common regardless of what the game actually is: The odds, just like in a casino, are mathematically guaranteed to work out in the house's favor.

I don't personally know many people that regularly play the lottery scratch cards and for all of us it is a gift you put inside of a card for someone that you don't really know that well. I remember some Norm MacDonald stand-up where he said "Here you go! Nothing is your gift!....you don't really want them to win, what a nightmare that would be if you had something in your hands worth a million dollars and you gave it to someone else?"

So there story here is that a man named Jeremy Hartzell purchased a $10 scratch ticket "on a whim" saying he felt compelled to buy it for some reason, and then later ended up winning a million dollars on that ticket. The lottery organization always likes to highlight stories like this instead of the millions of people who spend a lot of money every week and never win anything. It is addictive, that is for sure. One time someone gave me 5 lottery scratch off tickets and I scoffed at it but accepted. The process is fun, even when you lose. I ended up winning a few free tickets but in the end the $10 that this person spent on this gift for me was like Norm said, "nothing!"

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Another thing that kind of upsets me every time I see it yet it seems to be the norm is that Jeremy decided to take a one-time payout of $600k rather than taking $50,000 over the course of the next 20 years. $50k is more than enough to live off of for 20 years and would really free up someone's time to pursue any number of things in their life such as a career that they really want. I don't know what Jeremy does for a living, but if he is buying lottery tickets chances are it is something low level.

The lottery is a game or a tax on the poor since they are the only ones that ever seem to play it. When was the last time you heard a news story about a lottery winner who was a successful engineer or executive? It never happens that way. They are always someone who is working for near minimum wage and am I supposed to believe that is a coincidence?

If the private sector was even suspected of targeting the lower-class with gambling it would get shut down immediately yet this continues on without objection and has done so for decades. Remember kids! It's not a nefarious addiction or a guaranteed ripoff if the government is doing it!