We've got a lottery pool together at work.

[Tobin S.]

Eighteen people played chipping in $10 each. We have 90 lines for the Powerball. The guys were all sitting around before work started today dreaming what they'd do with a billion dollars. Someone asked me what I'd do. I kind of drew a blank. I have no idea what I'd do with that kind of money. I just said I'd buy my wife a new car and we'd get a new house. I'd also set up family pretty sweet. Other than that, I don't know.

[clarice]

1. The State sponsored lotteries are the....

bane of the underprivileged class.

[Tobin S.]

3. No, that's tobacco.

It was $10. It's not like I'm taking food out of our mouths to play the lottery.

[clarice]

5. No No Tobin, please don't misunderstand me....

I should have been clearer. I didn't mean you personally. I was thinking more of the homeless man
who won a lottery not long ago. While that was a cool, feel good story, I wondered if more homeless
and poverty stricken people might follow his example and spend actual food money on the hope that they could strike it rich too.

[Tobin S.]

6. 10-4, Clarice.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[clarice]

8. have a great weekend. nt

[rurallib]

2. good luck - I hope we each have one ticket that match

[Tobin S.]

4. We won $24.

Matched the powerball 6 times. That was it.

I was telling my wife what a deceptively simple game the lottery is. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard to win. I guess that's how so many people get sucked into playing it habitually.

[gratuitous]

7. We did that, too

It started off as a lark for the staff, then the partners decided that if by some cosmic fluke we actually won it could be very lonely at the office. So they all chipped in their $2. Then some genius (that would be me) figured that since we weren't going to hit the big bucks, we should add the extra dollar for the power play and maximize the return on any lines that did hit.

We won $99 on our $150 layout. By mutual consent, we decided to put it into the pool for the firm's charitable outreach: Humane Society, Christmas Family, or similar.

But it was an awful lot of fun for three bucks.