Yes, you are OLD Minkski!!
So am I. But let me ask you a question. When you look at the pictures of the people in "Winners Stories" haven't you noticed that many of the people who have won a JP are OLDER? Sure, you do see younger faces in those pix, but the majority of them are elderly people. And if you go to other state lottery websites, you'll see the same thing. Why is that? What would cause that?
I think I know. Us old fogies are living on FIXED incomes. And incomes that are probably smaller than the income we had when we were working. Yes, I know, right now, neither of us is living on a fixed income. But we're probably closer to living on a fixed incomes than we know. It's sad to say or think it, but my feeling is that many people don't have at least the same amount of money coming in when they hit the golden years as they did when they were working. To keep the same quality of life or lifestyle in retirement that people had while they were working means they have to save a very big pile of money for retirement. But the reality is many people did not do that because they couldn't. Or maybe they had some kind of financial problem while working that was no fault of their own. (People do get laid off)
So if you're an old guy, your Social Security and pension aren't enough to live on, and you don't have a huge nest egg, where else can you get money from besides the lottery? A guy could keep on working, but sooner or later old age and/or his health wont allow him to do that. Then what?
Right now, I'm playing the lottery because I can. I enjoy it, it's my hobby. Maybe I'll win a JP, but I probably wont. But the day may come that I'll play the lottery because I think I have to in order to just to live. I really hope it never gets to that point, but Hey! Ya never know. G5