r/memes • u/PoopsMcScoots • 19h ago
The lotto is stupid enough. Stop screwing people over.
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u/Sgt__Koolaid 12h ago
The lottery isn't even real. Its an institution made to catch time travelers.
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u/JohnnyTsunami312 12h ago
This is the best conspiracy I’ve heard in a while. Do you have some literature?
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u/TuskanElfMan 12h ago
Go on...
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u/AnArgonianSpellsword 12h ago edited 10h ago
Well originally the New United Nations tried to use an instant time prison to automatically capture anyone time traveling across 3:16pm 21st of April 2273, essentially anyone from before then travelling to after then or after then to before then would be captured. Given the nature of time travel though its 10,000 prisoner capacity instantly got overwhelmed by every traveller being captured at once.
About 23% of the captures was one guy repeatedly being captured and broken out by future versions of himself, another 18% had visas for time travel which were issued in the 2300s and were very unhappy to be captured, and another 21% was time warriors from the 2400s time war against the dinosaurs who damaged the facility enough that it shut down.
So they changed to sting operations like lotteries and monitoring historic events for anacronisms
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u/NiklasDeNero 10h ago
You're gonna send some poor dude who's so close to losing it down a spiral lmao
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u/AnArgonianSpellsword 8h ago
I mean those 3510 instances of Unknown Traveller for Incident 2273 are the real spiraling victims imo, though it is kind of impressive how many versions of him were present at one time without a paradox going off
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u/Cultural-Company282 9h ago
I must admit, it's working better than the Baby Hitler trap.
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u/AnArgonianSpellsword 8h ago
Yeah, early time travel traps were a lot more miss than hit, they did fix The Drive after the 2273 Time Prison so it wouldnt burn out after so many Jumps across one date but they severely underestimated the exponential it had. That many Jumpers going through one date and forced into one trap without The Drive burning out after capturing so many Jumpers was, messy, to say the least. I still can't visit 1889 without shuddering. That whole section of Siberia had to be cleaned in very short order before the Kulik expedition came looking in that area.
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u/Taystats33 18h ago
*puts on tin foil hat
The lottery isn’t even real. It’s just a way for the cia to fund black ops projects. That’s why it’s always some 75 year old guy in the middle of no where “winning” it.
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u/Zagtram1 18h ago
Honestly, I doubt that was the case ten years ago. Now days? It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest
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u/lookitsafish 17h ago
Why do you think not 10 years ago lol CIA been doin sketchy shit for 70 years
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u/PoopsMcScoots 18h ago
lol, wow.
I mean….
Ok…
But why would they bother if they can advertise a jackpot of $3B and give away $100M?
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u/Davidepett Lurking Peasant 17h ago
For the appeal to gamblers and the looks of a bigger pot than it actually is
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u/dyslexics_untied 14h ago
I know the mob used to buy winning tickets so they could pretend that's how they got their money
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u/Brad23212 18h ago
In Canada there’s no tax on lotteries
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u/dorkyfever 18h ago
I mean in Canada all winnings whether they are lotto or Casio winnings are all tax free
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u/Mikeologyy Professional Dumbass 18h ago
Wait, I could’ve been winning money from my Casio calculator watch this whole time?
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u/drunk_haile_selassie 18h ago
That's the case in almost every country in the world.
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u/AdHom 18h ago
Some countries tax the tickets and not the payout, some countries tax the payout but not tickets. Some countries do both. In the US it varies by state.
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u/lc4444 5h ago
Lotteries should have 200 $1million winners rather than 1 $200million winner
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u/Tonegle 3h ago
It's a good sentiment, giving a larger number of people enough to retire early vs. giving one person more than they could ever possibly need even for the next 10 generations, however the lotto company would have to do 200 times the amount of paperwork and labor to facilitate, and a million doesn't get the clicks on headlines like the big numbers do.
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u/Andromeda_53 12h ago
Wait you guys get taxed for lottery winnings?
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u/TheRowdyLion52 12h ago
As someone else said the lottery is meant to generate tax revenue. There are two ways to do that - tax each ticket purchased or tax the final winnings.
The thought behind taxing the pot is that each ticket purchased is worth nothing unless you win, once you win it’s realized income, similar to stock market gains. Personally I prefer taxing the pot since in my experience a majority of the people who buy tickets already don’t have a lot of money, no need to take even more.
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u/Andromeda_53 11h ago
UK lottery tickers aren't taxed either.
The lottery company pays a tax to the government and so the lottery winnings amount is in ratio to the ticket price. Lottery tickets in the UK range from £1-£5
You tax the winnings instead I guarantee you lottery tickets will still cost £1
The only thing the gamblers lose is if they hit the astronomically low chance of winning is the amount they get.
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u/Captain_Gordito 10h ago
In Canada the winnings are "windfalls" and not taxed, but you can still take a cut of money up front or an annuity, depending on the game.
Provinces and regions run the lotteries as Crown Corporations, and the math means that they run a profit off the lotto. That gets brought back into government programs and such. There are even lotteries for hospitals and other healthcare things. There are also 50/50 draws at sports games and such.
In essence, each ticket is voluntary tax that you pay to buy a ticket and imagine winning.
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u/TheRavingDinosaur 11h ago
In the UK the lottery winnings are also taxed but the company pays the tax before giving it to the winner and the advertised prize money is the value after tax
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u/-Eliass 7h ago
Lottery wins are tax free in Germany, never understood why you should pay taxes on your win...
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u/atmoose 4h ago
Isn't part of the point of (state) lotteries to raise tax money?
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u/Traditional_Formal33 3h ago
Thru ticket sales. If anything the lottery should just be like a 50/50 raffle where the winner and the house both get 50% untaxed.
How it actually works is that lottery raises money for elderly and schools, so politicians can cut funding to the elderly and schools without an uproar. Then the winner is taxed an outrageous amount after all the funds also go to the state programs.
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u/StrategicCarry 6h ago
The tradeoff is supposedly that because winnings are taxed as income, you can deduct losses from your taxes. But it’s not something anyone but professional gamblers would ever do.
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u/Original_Working3823 18h ago
Where I'm from gambling winnings are 100% tax-free as they are legally considered "windfall".
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u/Thomppa26 12h ago
In Finland it works like that. The lottery company pays the taxes and you get the whole amount to your account without paying any extra.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad4457 9h ago
So instead of winning the money and paying the tax, they take the tax first and give you the money.
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u/neptuneposiedon 8h ago
And they don't lie to you about what you're going to win
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u/Apprehensive_Ad4457 2h ago
no one's lying. the amount you win is what you won. if anything we're more truthful here, in Finland the pot is actually much bigger, but they don't tell you about the amount of tax you won for your nation.
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u/ronnie_reagans_ghost 12h ago
Are the lotto companies owned privately? Here in the US they are owned by their respective states in most(all?) places. So while it would save the lotto winner money, it wouldn't actually generate any tax revenue overall, just transfer a chunk of it from the state's coffers to the fed's.
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u/Corrie7686 16h ago
They are tax free here in the UK. I was always surprised that they are taxed in the US, I don't understand why.
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u/snoopydoopy84 16h ago
We pay tax on the price of the ticket, and none on the winnings. In the US they don't pay tax on the ticket, but do on the winnings. The government has to get their cut somehow
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u/MadmanDan_13 16h ago
I guess Americans are use to always having to pay more than what is displayed (e.g. sales tax, tips).
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u/projectFirehive 15h ago
My understanding is that the the US is one of the only countries that does tax winnings from gambling.
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u/Frosty_Scholar5940 16h ago
They are tax-free in a lot of countries (in Europe eg. Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Ireland…).
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u/TheDutchisGaming 15h ago
They’re also taxed in the Netherlands. But it depends on which lottery you partake in. Some lotteries will pay the taxes for you upfront so it’s tax free.
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u/muffin2333 15h ago
That should be how it's done. Taxes need to be paid, but lotteries should not be allowed to advertise an untaxed and thus substantially larger amount.
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u/Tuffwith2Fs 10h ago
Someone once told me lotto is just a tax on being poor and stupid and I've never forgotten it.
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u/hot_cheeks_4_ever android user 9h ago
This is a common phrase. I've heard it all over the place. It doesn't stop me from the occasional (annual?) scratch offs
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u/Mithur 16h ago
In Spain we also pay taxes with lottery winnings, and there is a good reason for this.
In the 2000s there was an inordinate amount of lottery winners that were owners/partners of real state (also other kind of bussiness, but mainly those) related bussiness.
As it happens, in that time, real state had a lot of black money that they needed to launder.
So, when your regular guy went to the bank with the winning ticket os, let's say, 100K €, the bank director take him to his office and told him that he knew someone who was interested in buying that ticket for 110K €.
This was so common and extended, that the only way to stop that kind of money laundry was to tax the lottery. And it worked.
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u/Beaveroar 16h ago
How does that solve the problem? If the 100K € winning ticket only gives you 60K € after tax (random number) then what stops someone who launders money to buy it for 70K €?
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u/Mithur 14h ago
Three things: for once, it's not the same for the original winner get 70K for his 100K ticket, even if he will get less after taxes. Psichological thing. It also makes him reflect that the money he'll get it's black money, with all the complications involved in this.
But the important one it's that that way tax authorities (hacienda) gets involved, something that beofre couldn't happen. Wining lottery twice (sometimes once) grants you an in-depth fiscal inspection that nobody really wants.
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u/madurin1234 17h ago
Is this not the case in the US? You actually pay taxes on a lottery win?
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u/alcomaholic-aphone 17h ago
I haven’t looked into it but is this just another case of the US putting the price before tax? Like in our stores an item has a dollar amount and then you go to the register and they add the tax on that. When we get paid our salary it’s 60k or whatever but tax will come out of that. Our whole system always talks about prices like taxes don’t exist.
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u/kilertree 10h ago edited 10h ago
That is because products in a store are taxed by the state, not the federal government. As a resident of Michigan it does suck going to a different state and finding out they tax food.
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u/KileAllSmyles 11h ago
The whole reason states agree to allow the lottery is because of the tax revenue. The negative effect to gambling in the community is outweighed by the potential revenue.
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u/EpilepticSquidly 9h ago
Thank you, I'm kind of amazed everyone does not know the whole point of the lottery is to raise tax revenue. It's literally run by the government as an incentive for the government.
I'm not defending that is awesome or that the government doesn't take too much of the pot, but that's literally the function of the lottery.
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u/happy-otter 5h ago
You get money for basically doing nothing except just being somewhat stupid and really lucky. Why should that income not be taxed if income from honest work is?
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u/Greedy-Thought6188 5h ago
It's like the person doesn't understand economic incentives. This is stupid and we shouldn't do it, so let's remove taxes from it increasing more incentive to do it.
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u/Sufficient-Clue4686 3h ago
Many places dont apply income tax to lottery winnings because they arent income.
The lottery is already a tax, because the winnings always make up less than the payouts. If your government runs a lottery and taxes winnings, they're actually taxing you twice.
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u/beatricefilmroom 18h ago
The government when you win: “Congratulations! Now give us our cut before you even see the money.
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u/DICKPICDOUG 18h ago
Even if it wasnt taxed they'd just take a cut of every ticket and make the pot smaller. The whole point of a lotto is to raise money, whether its as taxes after the fact or as a portion of ticket sales. It all gets functionally taxed no matter what.
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u/DeCoder656 16h ago
The tax code is generally designed that any form of income is taxed the same way, taxing differently by source of said income creates accounting loopholes that paves the way for people to avoid paying tax.
Oversimplified example: You could say "let's not tax income generated by cash found on the street" Then an employer pays an employee extra by placing dollar bills on the street, thus avoiding tax.
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u/gangleskhan 12h ago
I mean, the tax code has about a zillion specific exceptions. They could just make an exception for lottery winnings and you'd have to have a special tax form that you can only get from an official lottery "institution."
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u/GrimbyJ 12h ago
Unemployment is taxable income. That seems like a bigger problem than lottery winnings
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u/Newgeta Professional Dumbass 10h ago
I think its more that we wont tax the Billionaires but if some poor schmuck hits the lottery we MUST tax them.
My small business pays so much in taxes that its beyond frustrating.
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u/FamiliarFilm8763 5h ago
It is not an oversimplified example. It is a stupid example. This is not how fiscal law works. How is this even upvoted?
The tax code is generally designed that any form of income is taxed the same way
No it is not? In most developed countries it is exactly the opposite of that actually? Dividends are differently taxed than income from your labor. And so are capital gains? And in the countries that levy wealth tax, wealth. Everything in this comment is just incorrect.
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u/FinnSkk93 7h ago
Well in finland they are. You pau the tax when you buy the ticket. Winnings are exactly what you won.
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u/PomegranatePro 7h ago
It sounds like you don’t understand the point of the lottery.
It’s a tax on the stupid. “The winner” is just the tax payer.
Quite hysterical when you think about it.
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u/Herman_McP00tis 3h ago
I'm against this, at least in spirit. I'm also against the "Congratulations, you won $2billion, here's a check for $600million!".
The taxation should absolutely still happen. However, I don't think it should be visible to the person winning/playing the lottery. The burden should happen on the back end before payout. This would mean that the $2billion would still be $600million, but it would be "Congratulations, you won $600million, here's a check for $600million!" while $1.4billion was paid in taxes, just not advertised as "winnings" that the winner will never see.
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u/KarmaticEvolution 2h ago
This is just how America does things. Like all those service fees on concert tickets, Airbnb, hotel rooms, car dealerships, shoot even restaurant prices showing without tax.
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u/Herman_McP00tis 2h ago
Descriptive vs prescriptive. That's how it's done. That doesn't mean it should be done like that
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u/LuckyMushyGrower 1h ago
That is if you take the lump sum option…why do you all conveniently leave that out?
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u/Herman_McP00tis 1h ago
Because the conventional wisdom is to take the lump sum.
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u/JediMasterKenJen 14h ago
That unfortunately is not the origional reason it was created. It was in fact a tax for the stupid where most of the profits go towards the State that the person lives in.
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u/chomphell 6h ago
No, teh government needs to regulate gambling, instead they should only advertise the untaxed jackpot, so if the jackpot is 10 and you gain only 6 then they should only advertise the smaller number
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u/Dramatic_Corner_8259 13h ago
Yeah! Like in Canada.
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u/Ok-Thanks321 13h ago
Exactly! BTW, I'll be winning the $90 million tonight. 💰💰💰
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u/skafaceXIII 16h ago
Is this some American opinion I'm too Australian to understand?
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u/Thatburlidude 4h ago
Lotteries exist here to generate additional tax revenue. If they went tax free then other taxes would increase to make up the difference.
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u/Objective_Mousse7216 14h ago
'Merica. In the UK they are fully paid out and completely tax free.
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u/cookiesnooper 14h ago
Because in UK the winnings are classed as gambling windfall and in US they are treated as income
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u/sirguynate 14h ago
‘Merica also has billion dollar lottery jackpots what’s the UK have, a measly couple hundred million?
/s
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u/JustAPerson599 17h ago
I think in Europe everywhere it is law that they can only advertise the net winnings. It's only the USA where they show the gross amounts.
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u/Bossman01 7h ago
You can tell who is American in this thread so easily. Speaking as a Canadian where we do pay them upfront (not sure on the taxes part later though)
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u/HiImPM 10h ago
They should just advertise what you’ll get after taxes
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u/ogreberry 9h ago
And while they’re at it, have stores show prices with tax included
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u/sprout92 9h ago
Well, that wouldn't be possible (at least not super accurately).
They don't know how much the winner will have already made that year, so how much of the lotto winnings is in the top tax bracket is also unknown.
Also, does your state tax lotto winnings on top of the fed?
Also, are you taking the lump sum or the payments over time?
Too many variables.
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u/Pentinium 18h ago
Imo lottery should be banned anyways.
It only takes money from people who need it the most
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u/beebalooba 17h ago
If you ban it mfs will just go do underground lotteries instead
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u/Pentinium 17h ago
Yr I dont think many grandmas will go do underground lotteries lmao
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u/Extreme_Design6936 17h ago
You clearly havent experienced the underground bingo scene. It's cutthroat.
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u/Neon_Eyes 11h ago
No.
In Tennessee those taxes go to the education fund. If they're being used for the people then it's good.
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u/HopeSubstantial 17h ago
In my country lottery and gambling is tax free.
If you win 10 million euros, you keep 10 million euros.
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u/blacklizardplanet 1h ago
I read even game shows prizes in the US are taxed. You won a car! Now pay us 6k, mate or you can't have it.
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u/erockbrox 18h ago
I’ve been told that, it’s a tax on the poor.
Poor people need money, so they play the lotto. While real winners do exist, mathematically the probability is almost zero.
Should you play? Well it’s your choice, but when poor people need money, they get desperate and make bad choices.
The result is that the lotto just makes poor people even more poor.
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u/yewdryad 18h ago
Its a tax on people who are bad at math
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u/Fearless_Owl_2172 17h ago
I know the odds are bad, but every so often I’ll get a ticket when the jackpot gets pretty high. Not to say gambling is a good habit or anything.
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u/Basic_Loquat_9344 18h ago
Also people (arguably rightfully) believe their chances of financial freedom are higher in the lotto than the opportunity the current economic landscape offers them if they work hard. It’s disheartening.
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u/GreenMachine1913 18h ago
The "one of us might make it out" mentality is so sad man
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u/bluris 17h ago
Well, lottery is for the poor, so of course it is taxed.
You'll notice that the wealthy - who will exploit anything that can profit them - are not buying lottery tickets.
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u/FascinatedOrangutan 16h ago
That's because anyone with any understanding of financial literacy is not buying them
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u/flowers0252 16h ago
I buy lottery tickets in the UK because the money - aside from the prizes - goes into Lottery grants for things like music, sport, historic buildings, etc etc. I can see evidence of the money I use to buy tickets. Unlike the US, it doesn't go into some education fund that nobody sees evidence of.
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u/Level_Bobcat_8729 14h ago
Because similar to many insurance products, lottery tickets are sold tax free, which gives gov the right to tax you on your winnings. Had they added a sales tax to your ticket, winnings would be tax free
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u/fuchkead 14h ago
Australians don’t pay tax on lotto wins
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u/NotBillderz 13h ago edited 13h ago
I'm Guessing they just advertise the pot size as a post tax amount?
Edit: looked it up and yeah, countries either tax the winner and not the buyer (like the us, Spain, Italy , and india), or they tax the buyer and not the winner (like basically everywhere else). Some countries in the latter category do it slightly differently, but the idea is the same, the advertised pot is a post tax amount.
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u/Hache_raw 18h ago
It's the same...
With taxes: 4 million price, pay 1 million taxes.
Without: 3 million price, pay nothing.
People would be happier not having to pay taxes tho and the lottery/state would get the same amount of money anyways.
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u/shadowthehh 10h ago
"Screwing people over" they're already getting more money than they likely know what to actually do with that they can still just coast comfortably for the rest of their lives with.
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u/Pleb_Overlord 14h ago
They are in most countries, including my own Australia. It's freedom country that pays tax on lotto winnings as far as know.
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u/JustRedditTh 13h ago
Wasn't there a meme about the guy in US, who won a 2 billion Jackpot, but took "only" 600 million home, being the first properly taxed Billionaire in the US in decades?
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u/Polar_Bear_1234 13h ago
No. He took the lump sum that paid 1/2 and about 33% in federal and state taxes.
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u/moccasins_hockey_fan 13h ago edited 11h ago
They should be 100% tax free because the government already took their cut when tickets are purchased.
Clarification: When you spend $1 on a lotto ticket, $1 does NOT go into the prize pool. A portion goes to the lottery commission for expenses and the government takes a cut
When you buy a $1 powerball ticket..... About 50 cents goes into the prize pool 25-30 cents goes to wherever the state government designated or into the states general fund
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u/Vertrix-V- 12h ago edited 12h ago
"Stop screwing people over". Mate, you are talking basically about gambling here
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u/E4g6d4bg7 19h ago
The entire point of the lottery is to generate tax revenue