Quote:
Originally Posted by moeloubani
So you think that wagering $18,000 for a 1 in 27 odds of winning $50,000 is a good bet?
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Firstly, the 1 in 27 odds is to win $250,000! Please re-read what I wrote - Quinto has a fixed payout of $50,000 per dollar bet ... a person who wagers $5 on the same number could potentially win $250,000. With that out of the way...
Yes, for a low income person, spread out over 10 years, 1 in 27 to win $250,000 is a better wager than the odds of accumulating $250,000 in that same time-span.
Sure there's no guarantee when playing the lottery, but it gives many hope ... and that alone means a lot, in particular, for low income people who have little hope of moving up with the economic odds stacked against them even worse than such lottery odds.
Here's a hypothetical to consider ... say a person earning $30,000 per year who saves 20% of that; $6,000 of that annually ... overly optimistic, but certainly realistic.
10 years X $6,000 = $60,000
Now lets say they invest it all and earn 7% per year (not likely these days, but certainly possible) ... at the end of 10 years, they will have accumulated around $90,000. But that assumes they can afford to save 20% of their income and will earn 7% or so yield on it per year ... possible, but not likely. And more to the point, even in such a rosy scenario, that low income person is still far short of $250,000.
To be clear, one shouldn't rely on the lottery for savings, but treat it as a sizable extra bonus that, admittedly, with small, but over long periods of time, realistic odds could happen; gives people hope.
Ron