WOW! I just heard one fun fact: Americans will spend $73 BILLION this year on lottery tickets! Coloradoans spend right around $100 per year, while the overall average spending in the USA is $223 per person. REALLY?
For a GREAT article on this topic go here. The numbers will astound you!
Next I wondered who spends the most on the lottery by income. There I found that some households earning less than $13,000 a year spend a shocking 9% of their money on lottery tickets. The lowest-income households in the U.S. on average spend $412 annually on lottery tickets, which is nearly four times the $105 a year spent by the highest-earning households, according to a recent study by Bankrate.com. And almost 3 in 10 Americans in the lowest income bracket play the lottery once a week, compared with nearly 2 in 10 who earn more than that.
“Lotteries have become an alternative mechanism of social mobility—a way of achieving financial success in an economy that’s increasingly bereft of those opportunities,” said Jonathan Cohen, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia who’s completing his dissertation on American lotteries. “There’s an understandable belief that the economy is rigged and your best chance of making it out and getting rich is through the lottery, not through your job or savings.”
Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts 
We buy a ticket when the winnings get up to $50,000,000. “Buying the dream’, we call it. It makes for some fun mental entertainment. Until the draw . . .
I guess there’s a reason lotteries are called a ‘tax on the poor’.
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Who doesn’t LOVE to dream Diane? It’s only when you mix that up with reality….
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If it were easier, If I could buy a ticket on line. I would. It’s the little frisson of excitement. I’ve bought $5 tickets and never won a thing,. But one can always dream. Glad it helps the enviorment.
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I don’t buy them, because gambling freaks me out. It’s probably because I grew up fairly poor, and saw my parents desperately throwing money at lottery tickets. It never ended well…
But aside from my hangups, I wish you good luck if you bought some! I don’t buy them but hey, in moderation I’m sure it’s pretty exciting! Good luck!
Take care,
Yari
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I rarely buy a ticket but must confess to buying one last night. Haven’t been in a hurry to see if I won anything because my odds of time-traveling are about the same. xoxo, B
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LOL! Well nobody won it all last night so there’s still a chance….
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My husband and I rarely buy lottery tickets. When my Dad died, I found both he and his sister (living on small pensions) played the NY lottery regularly, as did my son before he started being able to support himself without help (he even explained his system of buying just scratchoffs with small payoffs to me, because he felt he had a greater chance of winning). I think the downward mobility has a LOT to do with buying tickets.
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It is fun to dream but I don’t buy the ticket.
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HI Haralee! We rarely do too. Even though it goes for a good cause in Colorado, I guess we are too lazy!
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I haven’t spent a cent on lottery tickets in several years and before that just one or two for fun. Sometimes I think I should. It would come in handy.
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