Lottery

Mark’s father informs him that PowerBall is up to some astronomical figure again and we should buy Lottery tickets. This always produces much hilarity at my house as we have a running joke about how to win the lottery that will never get resolved until we win it!

Mark has this convoluted theory about being Sincere (as in not sarcastic or disbelieving,) and buying just the right number of tickets, as the technique to winning. $10,000 worth would be about right, he jokes. I get nightmares about him gambling the family’s future earnings… he laughs heartily and will never actually say whether he thinks he could do that.

I think the right number of tickets is One – on the theory that that’s all it takes and the odds don’t increase appreciably with 2 or 10 or even 100. Mark counters that the odds actually double with 2 tickets, increase 10-fold with ten etc. Of course he is right, mathematically. But I am right financially.

We also have to have the discussion about whether to claim our winnings in a lump sum or payments over time and whether he should even bother to go to work the day after we buy the tickets (all part of the ‘sincerity’ requirement – if you really believe, you have to act as if you do!)

So, until someone wins this big payoff (oops – was that insincere?) we’ll be here laughing about winning theories and the Easy Life.