Not the Soundest Investment.

The Doser finds the whole lottery process sad. To begin with, though one hasn't heard of any studies on the subject, it seems probable that the larger number of people purchasing lottery "chances" are people who don't really have many dollars to throw away. It's sad too, because the lottery-users have to be reminded that they shouldn't think of the lottery as an investment. Yes, there is an advertising bill-board that reminds them of that fact. The Oregon Lottery just sold its first raffle game in a bit less than eleven and a half days (a very fast clearance!) And that's sad because it speaks of the financial desperation that people are experiencing and trying to relieve with an utterly desperate measure. We just sold out, in Oregon, a big lottery. There were 250,000 raffle tickets sold at $10 per ticket. The pay-out will be $1,300.00. But the last sad thing is that the reward involved is deceptively attractive. The reality is that the chances of winning anything at all are 1 to 1011. (There are one thousand and eleven winning tickets.) That's very sad odds!