I buy a scratchoff occasionally, mostly on Friday when I get paid. I view it as recreation. If I break even I throw it in the console for a day when I want a cup of coffee. If I win a little more I'll "reinvest" some of it in more tickets. More than $10.00, it goes into my general fund. One time I won $1000, some of that went toward a set of cutting torches; some went to something else I wanted; and the rest went in the bank to pay the taxes on it. I won't buy them if there's a line behind me... there's nothing I hate more than standing there waiting while somebody says "I'll take one of those, and-no, not that, the other one. What is the number of..."
I get it. I did something similar when I first moved to Vegas. I was 2 blocks from a local casino and went there on Friday night and dropped $20 at the games. Drank free and had some fun. Sometimes I would go home less $20, sometimes, I broke even and rarely I would make a few bucks.
you mean I'm not the only one?
I related a story here several years ago about waiting in line on Christmas Eve while the kid in front of me tried to decide what he wanted. It was a small grocery store that I frequent and all three lanes were backed up to the end of the store with people getting their last minute shopping done. I finally spoke up and wasn't very nice about it, telling him to make up his mind and stop wasting everyone else's time.
On a million as the base (Actually it started out as 3/4 mil) I have pulled over a hundered grand a year and some years well over a hundred fifty grand out of it as income leaving the res intact and have also grown it by half a million.
