[Newspoetry] winning lottery numbers

[Maiko Covington]

On Tue, 9 May 2000, Joe Futrelle wrote:

> 33 million Americans below the poverty line.
> 
> 2 kinds of people; those who buy lottery tickets and those who find
> that it's not worth their time to buy lottery tickets.

	Well, 3 kinds of people. There are those of us who bought tickets
for crazy people living in the Bay Area for a fee and used that small fee
to buy huge, jelly-filled, sweet, frosted DOUGHNUTS to go with our morning
coffee this AM.

> 1 winner: the states selling the tickets.

	If people really really gotta play the lottery, they were far
better off when it was the old illegal local numbers games. The jackpots
were smaller, yes, but the odds were much better, and as all the players
were in one small local area, the money tended to stay in town. On a 
regular basis, neighborhood people's pocket change would turn into one
smallish windfall for some guy to make improvements to his place, or
whatever. Of course, the state wasn't getting its cut.

> 12 times more likely to die of a heart attack while waiting in line to
> buy the ticket than you are to win.

	Apparently one had better odds of successfully dropping a penny
from the top of the Sears Tower into a dixie cup on the sidewalk below
than winning this thing. Buy another ticket? You get to drop another penny.
Maybe THAT one will make it...

	Maiko "but probably not" Covington