fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5826 ]

[ SECRET POST #5826 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5826 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 39 secrets from Secret Submission Post #834.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Can someone explain to me the appeal of lotto tickets? We had a white elephant exchange at our office christmas party. One of the gifts was a stack of lotto scratch cards. Somehow that was the gift that got stolen the most, the only gift that got maxed-out on steals.

Do people not realize how unlikely it is to win anything on those? I work at a law office, I think I work with fairly intelligent people.

There were some really nice gift options. But people kept going for that one.

People like free money and the likelihood of winning at least a dollar or two on any given scratch card is usually around 20%. On the other hand, the likelihood of getting free money out of a coffee mug with a bag of four (4) Ghirardelli truffles in it is significantly less than 20%.

Well, I see it as just for fun. It's nice entertaining the idea that you might suddenly come into a little extra cash, even if the chances of it are super low. Everyone needs money. And as long as someone else bought the tickets, why not play?

People enjoy surprises. It’s the fun mystery of ‘will I or won’t I win?’

Well, lotto is literally gambling so the appeal and mechanism is the same: the dream that you *might* be the lucky person to win the big prize, combined with the dopamine hit you get playing the game (which can be addictive). Those two things basically mean it's a fun experience for a lot of people, even if they intellectually know their chances of winning big are miniscule.

As for scratch cards, if they're what I think they are (they're called scratchies here), the chances to win small amounts of cash (like $3-$10) are a lot higher than the chances to win the big prizes. So getting some $, even a small amount, for essentially nothing might appeal to some people as well.

As someone whose parents explained the lotto to me as "a tax on people who are bad at math," I ~~am bad at math~~ enjoy buying tickets for the really big jackpots, even though I'd have more chance of surviving a parachuteless fall out of a passenger jet at cruising altitude than of winning more than a couple bucks.

It's a cheap, almost no effort way to buy a day of silly speculation on, say, how many politicians I could buy with my hypothetical winnings.

I don't buy scratchers though. I do have a family history of addiction, although not to gambling, so that's why I only buy a ticket when a jackpot is in the hundreds of millions range. An occasional thing, not a habit.

Scratchers are available all the time, but the potential payoff is lower and less fun and the potential to waste more money on them and it becoming an addiction and not fun at all is too high for me personally.

But for some people, they're probably just a fun silly thing. And maybe more fun than other gifts—I don't drink coffee, would have no use for a spa day or random selection of bodycare products, etc, and those are common gifts.

Scratchers pay off fairly regularly - at least a buck or two, sometimes more. So those are fun little cheap things you can get people you don't know well, who might come out of it with a bigger payoff. Yay!

I buy the occasional 'big' lotto ticket. Why not? It's a buck or two, and yes yes, the odds, blah blah. But *someone* eventually wins, and I have the same odds as the last person who won, so why not?

I don't drink coffee, smoke, do drugs, buy porn or 'collectibles' or whatever, so i'm not worried about my couple bucks every month or so going to a lottery ticket.

I suppose its for the chance of a win. I get lotto tickets once in a while when I feel like trying my luck, but I certainly couldn't commit to it like my Dad who buys his every week.

I think it's the fact that it's free, people like indulging in the idea of winning a lot of money and it's even better if it's money you win in which you did not spend a penny to win.

It's a shallow desire that can go far. I think your disbelief that fairly well educated and sensible people would be so enthused over possible (but unlikely) free money is a lot like my surprise at people's vapid response/interest in a good looking person doing the bare minimum in being kind.

They're also kind of fun to scratch.

It's mostly the thrill of gambling and the daydream of winning

But I do think that a lot of people - even smart people - really don't understand how bad the odds are. They know that the odds are bad, but they don't fully internalize just how bad and how astronomically unlikely you are to win. Probabiltiy is tricky for people's intuitions.

As a gift giver, scratchies are cheap and fun, and personally, I like the idea of giving someone a sort of tangible way of wishing them luck!

As a receiver/purchaser of scratchies (about once or twice a year), it brings me memories of buying them with my grandma and her letting me scratch them with a lucky penny or something. Also, there's a fair (I'm not gonna do the math) chance of either winning another ticket to play again or winning a small prize (I pay $1 to pay, win $3, I made one dollar). Sometimes you'll get lucky and win $25-$150, but that's still a better chance than playing the lottery where you need pick numbers.

So personally, it's a mix of nostalgia, a bit of playing into luck, the rush of a possibility (aka gambling with low stakes), the physical scratching things to reveal other things (you can probably get a pop up/pull out windows book for children for the same effect), and the feeling you get when you win. Additionally, if it's a gift, then you spent no money and may possibly get some for free. It's just nice. All this said, I only spend money on the lottery once or twice a year. Anything else and I feel like I'm actively throwing money into a pit. I don't spend more than $5-10 on lotto tickets.

I believe there have been studies about anticipation of a thing being enjoyed more than the thing itself and lotteries sort of revolve around anticipation. Add to that the reward centers of a lot of peoples' brains being stimulated by any sort of gaming or gambling. As for statistics, well, a fair amount of people shy away from anything math related, but even when you do understand them, it's still a non-zero chance and that can be good enough. Even so, scratchers are better odds of winning something than big lottos.

It's unlikely, but they can be fun so long as you don't go overboard and hurt your own finances. I think people gravitate to not to the reality of losing, but to the possibility of winning. It's a silly dream, but maybe it's okay for people to have silly dreams.

We're on a community for fandom. Many people might say, "What's the point in writing fanfiction? You'll never get published and be a bestselling author." Or, "What's the point in reading fanfiction? It's not real." Or "The celebrity you like will never know you're alive, so what's the point in daydreaming about them?"

Silly dreams can make life a little (or a lot) more bearable, for some. If you think about it, you might also have some dreams or do things that others regard as frivolous.

I always pestered my mom to get me one when I was little. I just liked scratching the stuff off and even as a kid never expected to win anything. Still like scratching it off today, it's why I like buying the code cards for console money instead of just doing it online - because I can scratch the numbers free.

On the fleeting possibility that they might win big.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #5826 ]

What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?

Re: What's the appeal?