My father once won $100,000 from a scratch off ticket. It was a $20.00 scratch off ticket. I gave him crap for years over it because between playing Keno, and buying other scratch offs, he's probably spent close to that trying to recreate the effect.<p>The thing is, he's very serious about his lottery. He enters every losing ticket into a second chance registration on Maryland's lottery site. (This was how I got him to start using the internet, actually) He won a few times and knows what he's losing. He's not bad at math. He's not rich either, he lives off of a very small military pension and has a job filling vending machines on a route.<p>I've pressed him again and again about how stupid the lottery is. I've pointed out the math, the bad odds, the addictive design of the games.. you name it. His answer remains the same. A shrug and "It's fun." I have since realized after spending afternoons with him at the places he likes to play, that it's his own odd social network. He knows all the employees, the other regulars. He complains about politics to the other players. He sweet talks the old ladies behind the counter. It's his excuse to leave the house. He keeps making his mortgage payments, keeps making his wife dinner every night, and takes care of his mother. If he wants to blow his fun-money on lottery at this point, I've just quit arguing with him and I go play with him when I visit. Losing 40 bucks to spend the afternoon with my old man is a bargain, in my eyes.