Thursday, May 5, 2011

Better Chance You'll Get Struck by Lightning

Do you play the lottery?  I do not, and generally describe the lottery as voluntary taxes for people with poor math skills.  What I mean by that statement is you are giving money to the state and your chances of winning are very poor.  Indeed, often times you have a better chance, especially in Florida, of getting struck by lightning than winning the lottery.*

So imagine my surprise, when Mr. Sam told me he bought a Florida Firecracker Millionare Raffle ticket this past week.  He said he kept hearing about the raffle on the radio and decided to buy a ticket.  The odds for this game are better than the regular Lotto, because they are selling a limited (750,000) tickets.  Anyways we were talking about what to do with the money if he wins the big prize and I was surprised that he said pay off the house.

What would you do if you won the lottery?  Or are you like me, you don't play and you'd invest that $10 instead of buying a ticket?

* Over the course of a lifetime, 80 years, the odds that you will be struck by lightening is 1 in 5000.  Your odds in Florida are even higher in that Florida is the lightening capital of the country. 

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