Photo of the Day: The Lottery Line

Posted on October 20, 2018 at 9:07 am by West Sider

Trader Joe’s on 72nd Street usually has the longest lines in the neighborhood. But on Friday, an even longer line stretched down Broadway between 71st and 72nd. This one was to buy Megamillions — now worth over $1 billion — from a local tobacco shop.

Photo by Bette Kerr.

NEWS | 6 comments | permalink
    1. Upperwestsidewally says:
      October 20, 2018 at 12:26 pm

      Lotteries are a special tax on people who failed basic math tests.

    2. JeffS says:
      October 22, 2018 at 10:51 am

      Such a snarky comment. Quite a few of your seemingly mathematically challenged purchasers of lottery tickets are fairly well heeled folks who dream of a lifetime of travel and leisure. You could have mentioned that many of the lowest wage earners in the country do this out of a sense of hope for a better and more beautiful life, and that government preys on that hope.

      Now that the Lottery has been made mathematically even more difficult to win, it raises hopes (and state revenues) even higher. In their latest financial statement, it was revealed that in fiscal 2018, New York State netted over 9 billion dollars in revenue from the lottery of which about 3 billion was shared with education. That fixes a lot of rail track, paves lots of streets and buys a whole lot of books and supplies for schools. So, you could think of purchasing a Lottery ticket as a self-imposed tax intended to help the state, with a side, improbable benefit of some kind of financial rainbow lingering in the distance.

      • BillyNYC says:
        October 24, 2018 at 10:31 am

        So very true, but the lower income lotto people don’t think of what they’re really doing, do they? And playing is a win-win.

    3. Jeff Segall says:
      October 22, 2018 at 8:34 pm

      An unnecessarily debasing comment. Quite a few of your seemingly mathematically challenged purchasers of lottery tickets are fairly well heeled folks who dream of a lifetime of travel and leisure. They have the right to have those dreams. Now, you could have mentioned that many of the lowest wage earners in the country do this out of a sense of hope for a better and more beautiful life, and that government preys on that hope.

      To your point: Now that the Lottery has been made mathematically even more difficult to win, it raises hopes (and state revenues) even higher.

      I read the latest financial statement posted by the New York State government. Right at the outset, it is clearly stated that in fiscal 2018, New York State netted over 9 billion dollars in revenue from the lottery of which about 3 billion was shared with education. That revenue fixes a lot of rail track, paves lots of streets and buys a whole lot of books and supplies for schools. So, you could think of purchasing a Lottery ticket as a self-imposed tax intended to help the state, with a side, improbable benefit of some kind of financial rainbow lingering on the oh, so distant, horizon.