"Lotteries: America's $70 billion shame"

The other thing I noticed was at one store that caters to the serious lottery player, whenever there was a big drawing in Powerball or one of those games, after the jackpot was won, all the regulars came back the next day to play scratch tickets and Keno. It was as if they viewed the big drawings the way serious drunks view New Year's Eve, as amateur hour.

 

Tell that to Mickey Mantle. That's what happens up in a game of chance.

 

I would be all for that if blackjack losses counted toward property taxes.

 

A harness-racing track that later became a casino opened right outside of Philadelphia a few years ago, in Chester, which is one of the worst areas in the entire Northeast U.S.

It was preceded by the usual empty promises of "revitalization" and the like, but has had little to no impact on the area overall.

 

Is that Harrah's? I've been pondering a trip....

 

Try Parx.

 

Yes. It's right next to the prison.

Honestly, it's fine for what it is. I recommend you don't get lost trying to get there, though.

 

Casinos, as much as I like to gamble, are some of the most depressing places on earth, along with dog tracks and horse tracks. Desperation and cigarette smoke.

Last summer we spent four days in Las Vegas. Decided to rent a car to see all of the off-strip casinos with my match-play bonuses. Holy depressing. El Cortez, Sam's Town, some place on north side called the Bighorn, Silver Nugget. You get those grind joints off the Strip and that is where you see true despair.

 

Student loans: If the commonly stated statistic that a bachelor's degree earns you $1 million more than a HS diploma over the course of your working life, then the vast majority of student loan loads still look like a great deal. Let's say a kid graduates college with $50,000 in student loan debt. That $1 million is a 2,000 percent ROI. Clearly, it's better without the debt, but it's hard to say the debt isn't worth it.

My favorite as-told-to-me lottery story: I had a computer course instructor (and, as you will see, an eternal optimist) who won $750,000 in the lottery and followed that up with $500,000 in the same year. He's a regular player, and knew the tax implications would be significant, so everywhere he went he picked up discarded scratch-off tickets. When he filed his taxes, the state department of revenue notified him he was being audited, and they specifically wanted evidence of the gambling losses he was claiming. So he filled up the back of his pickup with boxes full of these discarded scratch-offs and off to the DOR headquarters he went. Gets to the window, shows the lady the audit notice. She asks if he has evidence of his gambling losses in the form of documentation. He says he does and she asks him to show her. He says, "You'll have to come outside with me. And you might want to bring a hand truck." She goes outside, opens a couple of the boxes, goes back in and gets a supervisor. The supervisor opens another couple of boxes then asks if all of them are full of discarded scratch-offs. He says they are. The audit is cancelled.

 

For scratch-offs, have you EVER seen a person buy just one? Hell no. When I'm in line behind them they want two from that one, one from this one, three from the other one and so on. And they're not just playing the $1 tickets, they're buying $3, $5 and $10 tickets. I find it very easy to believe the people who play them spend at least $236 per year.

The clerks know these folks by name.

 

The people who play them spend far more than $236 per year. That's $236 per year for each man, woman, and child in the 43 states, not just the ones who play the lottery. I think it said that in South Dakota, it's $750 per person. Sadly, considering the demographics, I imagine that is dwarfed by the amount spent on cheap booze.

 

Ah, I forgot that $236 was for everyone in the 43 states with lotteries. I bet some of the folks I see spend $236 in a month.

Foolishly, I buy a Powerball or Megamillions ticket when the jackpots reach $200 million. But $2 or $3 every three months or so isn't going to break me -- and it gives the wife a reason to make fun of me. I never buy a scratch-off.