The lottery is now voluntary.

It's a tax on the poor.

But other forms of gambling are not? The bookies? The slot machines in the pub? Online poker?

I don't see why the lottery (which is the only gambling that has any measurable positive impact on society) deserves to be singled out. Or is it that the positive impact that makes it a tax, instead of just a way of [company k] making profits.

It's a tax on the stupid.

There's plenty of poor people that know there is better stuff to spend you money on.

A person who plays the lottery weekly is an idiot, poor or rich.

I once saw an excellent take on it by a mathematician who was explaining the odds, but finished by saying he bought a ticket weekly.

You can't spend the time dreaming you'll win it, if you don't buy a ticket.

I still don't buy it, but I've stopped being so judgemental on people who buy them.

While I don't buy, I think if someone does so with disposable income, I don't see a problem. Honestly I could even see some people might even enjoy the process of buying a lottery ticket so they might actually be getting a value back for every ticket.

> You can't spend the time dreaming you'll win it, if you don't buy a ticket.

I think this statement is more key to a lot of things than people realize. You can never be lucky if you don't take chances. People often like to defend gambles they take in life by using expected returns/risks as a premise that they are making an "informed risk". At the end of the day, however, buying stocks, creating a business, starting a new job, etc, are all gambles.