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Powerball
Dave Ross is hoping one of these Powerball tickets holds the winning numbers to the $500 million jackpot. (MyNorthwest.com/Josh Kerns)

Skin in the game

BY Dave Ross  on November 27, 2012 @ 8:19 am (Updated: 10:25 am - 11/27/12 )

Tomorrow is the record Powerball drawing. And for the first time, I actually care. Because for the first time, I have joined the office pool.

I've risked money before - I've invested in stocks since I was 12. But stocks are different because you're investing in something that has value. Or will. Eventually.

Whereas with gambling, it's just pure income re-distribution, regardless of merit.

And Powerball is the most lopsided form of income redistribution ever conceived, which is why I have never bought a ticket.

But when the office pool was organized, the social pressure was overwhelming. Plus, the fear of waking up Thursday and being the one non-millionaire on the staff. Awkward, right?

So I put in $2. Now it's all I can think about. I don't care about the fiscal cliff anymore, all I'm worried about is office pools gone bad - Where the holder of the office pool forgets to write your name down, or makes a side bet that just happens to win. So I demanded to know if Ursula, who is the official holder of the office pool, made a side bet. She swears she hasn't. But how do we know?

Then I saw that her record-keeping was just a bunch of names on a piece of loose-leaf paper...no transaction numbers, no security pattern, no way of knowing whether the names were real or phony. I don't know who works here.

Now I hear that some people have already bought their own tickets in addition to being in the pool. How do we know they won't cut some backdoor deal with this woman who I really don't know all that well?

Everybody says the lottery lets you dream for a couple of days.

But now I'm just hoping nobody here wins. It would be a disaster. We may never know the truth.

Until Thursday, when Ursula suddenly vanishes.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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Comments (9)


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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Dave, Dave, DAVE - This is a question of morality.
    November 27, 2012 7:53 am
    Slowly but surely you are being corrupted by Luke - every day, that is, that he closes to show up. ... Next thing you know, It's wine in the studio and then...........?

    But POWERBALL ? Even Dori preaches that Lotto is for losers. And your chance of winning is something like 1 in 200,000,000. So.....

    .

    Hey, wait. Than means in a country of 300,000,000, SOMEBODY has to win. ... Might be ME. Off to get my winner now............

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Winning the lottery would be the unluckiest thing....
    November 27, 2012 8:06 am
    A lot of people wind up far more miserable in life after winning the lottery than they were before.

    Talk about ripping away any real meaning, at least financially, to all of your previous accomplishments in life.

    Let's pick a figure. For a guy like Dave Ross, with a 40-year career in broadcasting,(and some of those years very well compensated), maybe the total figure for all 40 years is $10-million. With all the effort, the application of talent, the countless hours spent working, and the roller coaster ride of triumphs, disasters, climbing, and coasting that characterize a professional career; the economic/personal income productivity of Dave's life so far has been (in this theoretical, wild guess example) $10-million.

    All of a sudden, by virtue of buying a $2 lottery ticket, Dave receives 10 times as much money as he has ever earned in his life? A 15-second transaction?

    So, what does that have to say about the way a guy spent his life, (at least financially)?

    Winning the lottery can be especially unlucky.

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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Hey, Chuck. Just got my ticket. I'll take my chances.
    November 27, 2012 8:32 am
    Worse comes to worse, I can give (most of) the money away. And help people the government never will nor can.

    But the idea of spending retirement on property in Disney World IS a dream. Be nice.

    And be nice to Dave - he's getting old, too.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    @Ron P
    November 28, 2012 7:44 am
    Brilliant :) & good luck
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SeattleNerd wrote...
    The reason people are more miserable...
    November 27, 2012 12:41 pm
    ...after they win is because money doesn't complete you. At the end of the day after you've bought everything you'd ever want, you still need to LIVE. You still need a job, a task, something that keeps you waking up everyday. Of course with money not a motivator it could be anything, but 95% of the population lacks a drive to go DO something creative, interesting or helpful. Most people work to live. They don't live to work. Winning the lotto would force you to live to work because there's no other pedestrian desire left in life. You could buy anything you wanted. Goals are hard to establish in life if you have no true desires after "wealth". Society is easily tricked into thinking that money is the ulitmate goal. Its not. Having some purpose to wake up and start your day is. (Cheesy, but true) Also, quite simply, people are HORRIBLE with money. The US as a whole has never educated their children (or adults) in simple finance and accounting practices, can't tell you how the stock market works, and is unclear as to how credit and loans fuction. because we aren't educated at an early age how these things work and tested on it, later in life we think its "Bad" and "Evil" and that the 'Big Business' has it out for the little guy. Instead we teach our kids golf, creative writing, home economics and pottery and fail to prepare them for a future that we all take a part in. We are all a part of the national and global economy. You can't get into much trouble on $25/hr when it comes to financial worries, comparatively speaking. But $400 million? That screams bankruptcy if you don't think clearly, have a plan and stick to it, and if you don't have a financial advisor you trust. For Serious.
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  • cdbtx wrote...
    *LOL*
    November 27, 2012 9:19 am
    Yes - it's much better to tax the rich and become a social dependant verses winning the lottery... or wait.. it's the same thing isn't it... receiving money for doing nothing..
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • logical open mind wrote...
    Lotto and Gov dependancy are the same thing-"don't want to study hard, don't want to work hard I just want those that do to support me or as a backup plan--
    November 27, 2012 11:11 am
    win the Lotto. Just wait libs, gov dependency combined with an aging population is going to hit people bettween the eyes so hard that the Republican party can make a come back.and that's saying something Oh I forgot to add the fact that China still values hard work and education and their work force will mop the US work force up. Just wait libs--it will happen.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    cdbtx: If your version of accepting personal responsibility for your financial future
    November 27, 2012 11:12 am
    hinges primarily upon the regular purchase of lottery tickets...then good luck with that. That philosophy is shared by a lot of folks who will always be dependent upon somebody else.

    Being wealthy isn't simply a question of piling up a ton of cash. You can have money out the wazoo, and still effectively be a pauper. People should aspire to wealth not because a pile of money permits them to live a lavish, indulgent, and irresponsible lifestyle. The benefit to the acquisition of wealth isn't so much the money, it's the lessons learned along the way as you progress from having a few bucks in your wallet to having a 7 or 8 figure surplus in the bank.

    It's the process of doing the things and taking the risks that payoff and make you rich that *really* enhances your life, not the money you pile up along the way.

    The problem faced by most lottery winners is that they don't know what to do with that much money. It would be like picking a guy out of the stands at a Seahawks game and asking him, "have you ever fantasized about being in the NFL?" If he says yes, then take him down to the locker room, put him in a uniform, stick him out on the field, and hand him the ball. He'll get creamed immediately- he doesn't begin to have the skills to deal with the situation.

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  • Moondoggie wrote...
    Dave. With this sort of thinking.....
    November 27, 2012 9:04 pm
    "Whereas with gambling, it's just pure income re-distribution, regardless of merit." We need to sit down and play some poker. (Bring lots of cash!)
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