and the winning number is........

I work at a gas station (won't name which one) and everyday I am amazed to see how many lottery tickets people will buy. I have seen people buy dozens of lottery tickets at a time, bring them all in the next day, and lose all of them. Then what will they do? They'll proceed to buy a dozen more. The worst I have seen is when one of my customers just finished cashing his paycheck, and used it all on Powerball. It made me sick. The chances of winning are slim to none, so why bother. I suppose people would then insert the "you can't win if you don't play" card, but i'm sure you won't win even if you do play. I honestly don't see what the point is; I figure it's just a big waste of money. With everything being said, I bought a Badger 5 ticket today. I wanted to see if the allure of money is the only thing that drives people to buying these tickets, or if it is something greater.

Looking at the front of the ticket, there is a small black font that says the winning odds. The odds of winning a measly dollar are 1:7, the odds for winning $2 are 1:53, the odds for winning $50 are 1:1308, and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1:169,011. If I win back my money, I would be a happy camper, but I have a good feeling developed from seeing thousands of tickets winning nothing that I will be winning the same.

I never really studied the back of a lottery ticket, but I happened to find a gambling problem hotline:  1-800-Gamble-5. I have a feeling that the people who come into the gas station should definitely call this number. Of course not all people who play the lottery have a gambling problem, but the one's who waste paychecks on lottery tickets should definitely call the number.

If I win thousands of dollars I'll be sure to let you know!