Or you can do like my neighbor and lose his house and other goods because of a gambling problem . GA is gaining popularity .

The lottery is not a tax on the poor and working class. It is not a tax in any sense of the word because it is VOLUNTARY. You don't have to play. Yes, the odds of winning the big prizes are microscopic, but if you are going to label the lottery as anything, call it boredom insurance.
.
If you have a ticket for a future drawing, you can pass the time daydreaming about what you would do if you won.
.
In the last 8 months I've seen my 401K fund lose 27% of it's value, even though I've been putting money in from every paycheck. Saving the few bucks I spend on lottery tickets each week is NOT going to make me wealthy. At least I will get a few days worth of daydreams for my lottery purchase. I won't get anything from the 401K fund losses.
.
My IRAs had barely recovered from their losses due to the dot.com bubble bursting a decade ago. If I save and work until I'm 90, I may be able to retire. I can't count on Social Security and after Obama is done with health care, I probably won't be able to count on Medicare.

Looks like even the old Redneck 401K is down this year ;-)

The odds may be stacked against you to win but there is 1 firm statistic that nobody can deny.

You have ZERO chance to win if you don't play.

I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life because I have a rudimentary understanding of probability and statistics. Although I consider this a blessing, it can also be very frustrating when statistics are used to endorse policy. That doesn't mean that you can't have fun! It would be my luck that I would be the one literally struck by lightning. ;-)

sales dipped because people are noticing that the payouts are less and less.

garyprimer, I thought you were smarter than that. It could happen to you, but the odds are similar that you will be struck by lightning. For most people, over their lifetime, they lose significant amounts of money. The proof is in the money that is collected and used for other purposes.

Keep buying those lottery tickets. You can't win if you don't play. There was a recent report of a man who won twice in one night. He won $1000 and went back and bought four more tickets. The last one was for $1,000,000. If it happened to him, it could happen to you. I'll bet that the people who criticize the lottery have never even played and never won anything in their lives.

The lottery is nothing but a tax on the poor and working class. Spend $$ on lottery, never win but then possibly get property tax relief.

Those in poverty do not have homes but subsidize those that do. Thos that do have homes but want to have a bigger one, waste thier money on lottery with the "hope" that someday they will win.

Stop spending $$ on the lottery, get out of debt, then save your money. You have a better chance being wealthy than playing the lottery.

Buy those new $10 scratch tickets. Maybe out of every $100 you spend, you will win a whopping $10!! Good luck to all of us wise consumers. Maybe with some of this property tax relief, the Janesville School Board can hire a few more $150,000 a year "god's" for runnign the district.

We need more hopelessness, and irrational spending in the futile attempt to get rich by doing nothing. Come on people, help me with my property taxes, play the lotto!