In this case I think it is a case of desperation. Here's what my father and I discovered a couple days ago.
My parents own a few homes that they rent out, and especially during this current economy we've had to evict several people...many in the past 6 months. Well, when people get evicted, many leave lots of belongings behind. Some do it out of anger, and some just can't afford to take EVERYTHING with them. One of the tenants that was evicted recently was in dire straits. The lady was completely broke with two kids and a husband with a mental disorder that was receiving disability checks. My father was lenient and gave them many chances to pay their rent, and eventually had no choice but to evict them, as it was hurting him financially having them not paying.
A couple days ago, I went with my father to clean out the house. A couple hours in, he calls me over and shows me a Timberland shoe box and tells me to guess what's in it. I, of course, just thought there must have been some brand new shoes in there or something that they had left behind. Nope. He opens it and I see lots and lots and LOTS of slips of paper in it. Initially, I had no idea what they were, but I took a closer look and realized they were lottery tickets. A shoe box FULL of purchased lottery tickets! This is what it looked like:
We were in such disbelief, amazed and just in awe. We thought okay, these MUST be over a couple years worth of lottery ticket purchases. Not even close. They were between the months of May and July. Three months worth of lottery tickets that filled up that shoe box. Of course, me being the curious person that I am, I just HAD to take it home and count it all and see how much was spent on these lottery tickets. And so I did. It took about 3 hours to count and calculate, but doing it in front of the TV made it seem like nothing. Plus just wanting to know the total cost just drove me to do it faster. lol Anyway, the grand total was (drum roll please)....
$4250.
Yes, four thousand two hundred fifty U.S. dollars. lol in a 3-month time period. That would be about 7 months of rent for them right there. We just couldn't believe it. These people were just so desperate for money that they spent pretty much all they had on lottery tickets. I was baffled, amazed and at the same time saddened by this. Although I'm sure these people knew deep down inside that they were running a fool's errand spending all this money on lottery tickets, I can see how when you're looking at a bank account with very limited resources, and your dreams, hopes and goals are unlimited, you feel a real sense of helplessness when you don't have the means to make anything significant happen for you and your family. So even though the odds of winning are one in a gazillion, you hang on to the hope that it may soon be your chance to come out on top.
The next day I did a bit of research and found out that on average poor people spend about 10% of their yearly income on lottery tickets. Then I found out that some states are trying to get rid of the lottery, especially the jackpot ones, because it just ends up hurting the poor. The poor are the ones who spend the most on lottery tickets, and the state governments receive about an average of 30% taxes on the lottery tickets sold and many times it's not spent on the people who need it the most: the poor communities. Instead of the states promoting the lottery as a way to profit without working and rather than encouraging people to spend their money on a long-shot chance of winning millions, they should promote investing in job training and educational opportunities - things that would help people get out of poverty in the long run.
But hey, many things sound great on paper, but will never see the light of day.
