I had a discussion with one of my co-workers about bringing a lottery to Utah. Morally I’m opposed to a lottery because it’s just another way to waste money looking for a dream rather than saving money to get through leaner times (like now). Arguments against me include the need for the funding for schools, the fact that it’s the peoples choice to buy the tickets or not and it shouldn’t be up to me to say whether someone else can buy the tickets or not. Other arguments against my stand on the lottery are simply that I’m stupid and I don’t know what I’m talking about. That may be true, but I’m still not convinced a lottery would solve any problems and I’m confident it would create new problems. If you need to throw your money away you can go to Idaho.

Now, before you get your poison pen out and write to tell me how stupid I am let me tell you this. About a month ago the McDonalds Monopoly game came out. I didn’t know about it but I walked in to get a side salad for $1.00 and ended up getting a stupid Big Mac meal, super sized because it came with the most tickets. The girl behind the counter admitted to me that people (apparently myself included) go crazy for this Monopoly game. I decided it would be a good idea for me to not go back to McDonalds after that visit, at least not until after the contest was over so therefore I went back every day.

So the guy I work with made a comment concerning my stand on the Utah lottery after he noticed how I jumped straight into the McDonalds lottery. His claim was that I obviously support a lottery since I’m over at McDonalds trying to win every day. I can see the point he was making but I rebut that with the fact that I ended up spending on average $5/day at McDonalds where if they didn’t have the lottery I would have averaged $1 per visit and I would have only gone there at most 2 times a week. I’ll prove that next week when the lottery is over with. I also ended up gaining about 10 pounds because of the stupid game. Now I have to work hard to get down to my goal again. I have this goal to get down to 200 pounds. I don’t want to go less than 200. I just want to get on the scale and see my goal come on the screen. I should get a prize for achieving my goal, and I know what I want – and it’s not bacon.

The point of this blog is simple. I’m still against the Utah Lottery. My obvious weakness for the McDonalds lottery is evidence enough for me that I’m a sucker for the chance to win something. I knew I didn’t stand a chance at winning the $1,000,000 from McDonalds but that didn’t matter, I just wanted to peal the sticker off and see that I won a breakfast sandwich. I wanted to win something and I didn’t care what it was. Powers of persuasion have a strong pull on me – at least when it comes to food. No matter how content  I am, if I see a delicious hamburger on the TV I’ll instantly need to go get that hamburger. I know this feature about myself and I’m confident that I’m not the only person who came to life equipped with this ‘weakness’. Everyone is susceptible to persuasion. The lottery is just a giant persuasion telling you to give it your money. The difference is with McDonalds I at least get food out of it. Maybe if the lottery tickets had coupons on them I could find a justification for them. That’s not a bad idea actually.

So, this weekend marks the final week of the McDonalds lottery. To celebrate I’m NOT going to McDonalds all next week, or maybe I’ll get that side salad that I went in for originally. I can finally get off the Diet Coke, which I had to get because the medium drinks had the tickets on them. I can get away from the fries because the fries are deadly to diets. I can go back to my granola bar diet. I should tell you about that next. It’s the most effective diet plan ever.

I’m just glad that Burger King hasn’t figured out that they would have equal success if they were to play Life.