The best reason I've read defending lottery ticket buyers was that it gave them fleeting hope. For a few days they could dream of buying things they would otherwise never afford.
There are plenty of reason not to buy lottery tickets, top among them is that the risk of losing the whole investment is 100%, less a very tiny fraction of one percent.
But this in difficult to believe: "Nearly 70% of lottery winners end up broke within seven years." That comes from Curse of the lottery: Tragic stories of big jackpot winners. That's where Nicole Bitette recounts several sob stories about lottery winners. There's no argument that many of the winners didn't know how to handle money or that they had trouble saying "No" to all the friends and relatives expecting a slice. But to say that only 30% still had some of it after seven years is simply not credible.
But then, how would I know? Besides, we are always hearing about movie stars blowing away their fortunes. So must happen to normals, too.
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1:21 PM 1/21/2018
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