this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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[–] Blackout@fedia.io 146 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I just walk to the 7/11 and buy a scratcher. I never win anything but I could make at least $100,000 in just one day!

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 145 points 1 month ago (7 children)

I know you're joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn't in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 78 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I remember one day walking into a 7/11, in maybe 2002, and there were 2 guys in suits, totally dishevelled, collars undone, looking like they've been awake for 3 days, depression coating their faces, and they had a stack of scratch tickets that they were silently just scratching off.

The story I have in my head is that their business fell apart and this was some past ditch desperate attempt to save it with the little money they had left. I have no idea what actually happened but here we are 20+ years later and I still think about them occasionally.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 82 points 1 month ago (4 children)

The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.

Really depressing crap.

[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 41 points 1 month ago (10 children)

And yet Donald Trump still managed to lose money somehow, which should have really told us something about his supposed "business accumen".

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh yes. The bankruptcy of Trump's casino was a thing to behold. I wish I could find the video of the people who worked with him back in the day as they all remarked as to just how absolutely ignorant he was about all aspects of both gambling and managing a casino.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I associate my time in Las Vegas mostly with elderly people with oxygen tanks, chain smoking while they put coin after coin in the slot machine. Just sad.

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Vegas is a good place to go if your idea of a good time is eating and hanging around the pool. Other than that, it's a glittering shithole in the desert built on the losses of prior visitors.

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[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now you just hook your debit card to the machine and you don't even have to put a coin in!

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And they took the pull handles away because they can siphon money out of retirement accounts much faster if the ~~victim~~ player only needs to press a button.

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[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

And smoke. Don't forget about the smoke

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Oh for real. Walking through a casino is like being immersed in despair and obsession. I find no enjoyment in it at all.

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.

They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China_robbery

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

gambling is a helluva drug

[–] Blackout@fedia.io 14 points 1 month ago

The guy who started FedEx literally put his company's payroll on a roulette table just to make enough to stay in business.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 37 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I know of a few small stores that owe their livelihoods to the local gambling addicts and the lottery machine. The entire business if dedicated to a few whales since selling snacks and coffee to randos didn't work out and they would otherwise close. They even set up private rooms where they could sped the day scratching tickets as they would come in and blow and entire pay/welfare/retirement check.

The logic is always the same, "I'm up $500 today" not even calculating the losses and "I just need one big win". People will farm gamblers like cattle.

[–] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's really sad. It's the equivalent of putting lab rats in a cage with a cocaine/amphetamine button.

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[–] Damage@feddit.it 29 points 1 month ago (10 children)

I never understood the appeal of scratch offs, 100k? If you gotta dream, dream big, play the lottery

[–] TheOneCurly@lemm.ee 25 points 1 month ago

Instant gratification is a hellava drug

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The keno addicts at the bar i work at are wild. They just keep silently putting in money and watching the drawings. I prefer that to the ones who try to explain their strategies to me or complain that some number appears in every drawing. Or the guy who came in Wednesday night and kept betting $10 that the first pitch of every at bat of the Mets/Brewers game was gonna be a strike. It's bleak.

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[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 96 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Since when have treasury bonds gone above 6%?

[–] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 79 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Oh, I get it now! 8%! How droll!

(What the fuck is he talking about?)

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Three million is the joke, 8% is the hint that it’s a joke. It’s the same sort of satire that Lemmy frequently reposts. “I became wealthy with hard work, determination, and a small loan of a million dollars.”

[–] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

How I became a Tech VP at age of 30

  • Wake up at 5am

  • Only take cold showers

  • Have a dad that owns a tech firm

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[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's like those educational explanations of compound interest I remember from childhood that tried to encourage you to save money. They would always start with 1 dollar and a savings account with 20% interest, and end up retiring as a millionaire.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I remember getting really frustrated as a young man when I decided to take that advice, and wasted hours looking for these mythical 18% return accounts.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yep those 10 percent accounts got me laughed out of the bank. One banker did helpfully ask how much I made though. Actually that was what set off the laughing. At any rate that was the year I learned rice stretches any food. No relation I'm sure.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 74 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A treasury bond delivering 8% is probably one from a dangerous country to invest in.

[–] dance_ninja@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (5 children)

US I bonds were at like 9 back in 2022.

[–] Fox@pawb.social 42 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I too would like to make 2024 investments at 2022 prices

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago

Well, it fits.

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[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 53 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Sweet, I just need a small, interest-free loan of 3 million dollars and I'll pay you back $10,000 a month for 300 months. Don't believe me? Here, check out my credit report.

Credit report: trust me bro

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[–] WereCat@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I didn't buy Twitter and saved over $40B now I don't have to work my entire life

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

The real LPT is in the comments once again

[–] Zoidberg@lemm.ee 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What a silly post...

First, where are you going to find a 8% treasury bond? Even a few months ago, when they were giving record yields, it didn't even get close to that.

Second, if you borrow $3m with high interest rates (needed to get high yield treasurys) you'll also pay a high rate on your loan. Duh.

[–] cralder@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Pretty sure the post assumes you have $3m just sitting in your bank account.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The opposite end of “The most expensive thing is to be poor”.

It’s a common image for so many millionaires to have a Scrooge McDuck vault, but that’s the thing; so often their millions are out earning them further millions.

[–] Phate18@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This is a person who doesn't understand how the fixed income market works.

He's assuming he's buying $3m notional of a bond yielding 8% and paying for the face value $3m (i.e., he's buying it at par). This is not how it works, even if you're somehow subscribing at issuance as a retail investor.

You're going to be buying the bond at bid, which is going to be higher than par when prevailing future yield expectations are lower than the coupon rate of the bond.

TL,DR: You can't buy $3m of a high-yielding sovereign bond for $3m today. You'll get less of the bond for the money if it's yielding more than the market is expecting base rates to be in the future.

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[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is such bullshit advice. Instead of doing this, we could invest that money in a 16% bond and make 40k a year. Simple hack they don’t you to know.

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[–] Zoidberg@lemm.ee 21 points 1 month ago (20 children)

Yes and good luck finding a 8% treasury (and please let me know if you do) 😆

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[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hey if you don't have 3million stuck between your couch then that's your problem.

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