* * * * *
                                        
      You can't win if you don't play, but I still have my dollar. Do you?
                                        
> Just The Facts
> 
>   1. The odds of winning a Mega Millions Jackpot are 175,000,000 to one.
>   2. The odds, as an American Male, of being Tom Cruise are only
>      150,000,000 to one.
>   3. You are more likely to call heads twice, roll a six and then be struck
>      by lightning than win a regular 6/49 lottery.
> 

Via jwz [1], “Lottery | Cracked.com [2]”

That (and the rest of the article [3]) is pretty much why I don't play the
lottery.

I also don't gamble. I learned the “if, at a poker table, you can't spot the
sucker, it's you” lesson the hard way back in college (nothing like losing an
entire paycheck in a “friendly” game).

(As a digression—growing up, I preferred Mad [4] over Cracked [5], which I
found to be a weak imitation of Mad. But these days, the Cracked website is
lightyears better than the Mad website.)

Update on Tuesday, Debtember 5^th, 2017

For some reason, John Hawthorne thinks this post is pro-lottery [6]. I want
to make it clear it's not [7].


[1] http://jwz.livejournal.com/1088621.html
[2] http://www.cracked.com/funny-2134-lottery/
[3] http://www.cracked.com/funny-2134-
[4] http://www.dccomics.com/mad/
[5] http://www.cracked.com/
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2017/11/30.1
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2017/12/05.1

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.