Just to prove I won nothing, there’s a pic of my losing ticket. Not the big $410 million MegaMillions jackpot. Someone in Arizona won that. Not $1 million. None of those were sold in Jersey. Hell, I didn’t even win a stinking 2 bucks.

But it was fun while it lasted, and no one buys a lottery ticket with 302,575,350 to 1 odds of winning big thinking they really can. It’s the daydream we’re buying. For everyone who got in on our Lottery Wish List these last three drawings where we promised should we win big we would cut those listeners in for $2 million apiece, I’m sorry it didn’t work out.

But it was fun to think about the guy who would modify his '87 Monte Carlo SS into something truly extraordinary.

Or the woman who beat cancer three years ago who would have spent a month in the paradise of Hawaii.

Then there was the poor guy whose lottery fantasy was just to be able to afford a divorce. Ouch.

No one should go overboard buying lottery tickets. The Lottery Commission is the first one to tell you that. But when people say the lottery is a tax on the stupid, I disagree. A tax is not voluntary first of all. But if you insist on calling it a tax then call it a tax on the hopeful. Those who still have some magic left somewhere inside their souls, as Gaslight Anthem says. And sure it’s not going to happen, but that hope keeps a little of that magic alive.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.

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