Lottery mania has ticket sales moving at 622,000 an hour

[CShine]

With tonight's Texas Lotto jackpot hitting $100 million and last night's Mega Millions game at $85 million, Randy Dobbs decided it was a good time to organize an office pool. Dobbs, chief executive officer of Community National Bank in Bellaire, thought if all 23 employees put in $5 for each lottery, they just might get lucky. Of course, winning the lottery could be risky, he realized. After all, who would show up for work on Monday if every employee became an overnight millionaire?

"I hope I have that problem to worry about Monday morning," he said Friday.

The office pool is a tradition as old as the Lotto itself. And on Friday, the lure of $100 million was giving office workers throughout Houston plenty of reason to pool their resources in hopes of getting a share of that record jackpot.

Noor Merchant, owner of Glamour's Cards, Gifts & Sundries in the tunnel beneath the Bank One Building, was selling tickets nonstop Friday. "People are buying like crazy," she said as people lined up on their lunch hour to buy a few tickets, or in the case of one office pool, 400. "How can they win if they don't buy?"

The lottery reported sales of 10,368 tickets a minute between 11 a.m. and noon today, or more than 622,000 tickets an hour. Texas lottery spokesman Bobby Heith said that statewide, ticket sales were running more than 400,000 an hour Friday afternoon.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2624073

[Ezlivin]

1. When's the Pentagon's Lottery Starting?

If the Pentagon had lottery for the $2.3 trillion they lost track of, they could generate some awesome ticket sales, too.

I wonder how we could get our money back?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I play the lottery here in Minnesota

The couple of dollars a week isn't going to make a difference one way or the other in my total financial picture, and I've even won several 3-figure prizes. In fact, during a low point in my free-lance earnings, I once won exactly what I needed to attend a professional convention. :-)

However, it is painful to see people coming in when the jackpots hit the high numbers and dropping $100 or more on tickets, since of course, it does nothing significant to increase their odds. I've given up trying to tell them, because they just think I'm trying to better my own chances.

[cliss]

2. This has got to be the biggest money-making scam

ever devised. Pays off even better than looting the treasury. Right, George?

Think about it: 622,000 tickets are sold during an hour. Assuming the tickets are $1 each, that's $622,000 per hour, or $14,928,000 in one day.

And what services did the Lottery provide for all that money? Nothing, except the hope that someone will win big.

Also, the lottery commission usually keeps 50% of the proceeds so that's $7 million they just made in one day.

I could not come up with anything so profitable if I tried. They provide no services; expenses are probably minimal, and they get to keep half of what they rake in.

Fabulous!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Schools are raking it in!

I'm sure.

[Just Me]

4. Gambling always increases in hard times, doesn't it?

I faithfully buy a $3 ticket each week for my chance out of poverty.

Might seem like a total waste of $12 each month,...but, it sures invigorates one of the only free things in this existence: DREAMS!!