What’s all this rubbish that the Lotto is a ‘tax on people who are bad at maths?’ I’m great at maths. I’m even aware that statistically you are 600 times more likely to be hit by lightning than you are of winning the lotto. But that’s rubbish, because every week you hear about people winning the Lotto but you seldom hear about people being struck by lightning. So you could say that the Lotto is taxing on people who are good at maths.
I spend €4 a week for the pleasure of lying in bed planning how I’m going to spend my winnings, and €4 is a cheap high. So saying that the Lotto is a tax on people who are bad at maths ( or ‘math’ pronounced with a lisp if you’re American), is like saying that going for coffee is a tax on people who are bad at understanding health issues.
Let’s face it, life is about getting high: sugar, drugs, drink, ambition, fear, greed, anything that gets you out of bed in the morning. Playing the Lotto is about the buzz of being in with a chance.
I know that I’m unlikely to win; however, being good at maths (math) I’ve figured out that my chances are slightly higher than other peoples. You see, there’s a story somewhere in my family that somebody called to my great grand uncle’s house asking directions. He walked out to the gate to point this guy on the right road. As he stood pointing he was struck by lightning and killed.
So with that in mind, I wonder how the statisticians would work out what the chances are of winning the lottery given that someone in your family has already been struck down by lightning. I reckon higher, because if somebody in your family has already been struck by lightning, then there must be less chance of it happening to you. So given that I’m unlikely to be struck by lightning but come from a family where freak things do happen, it must surely mean that the freak thing I’m likely to experience is a Lotto win. So I’m off now to play Lotto with that in mind. After all, it could be me!
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