Podcast 2 What are your chances of winning the lottery?

Hello everybody and welcome to Blabbinit.com. I am Missy from southern California. Thank you for taking the time out of your day in order to join us.

This is the second podcast that we are broadcasting. We are very excited to help you on your journey of English learning. They say that the best way to learn a language is through exposure and practice. The more you listen, the more vocabulary you will retain, and the more fluent you will become.

Today, I would like to talk about something that I just realized yesterday. Well….yesterday I went into a mini-mart to buy myself a cup of coffee before work. They have a machine that makes a wonderful vanilla cappuccino. Mmmmmmmmm. You just have to select your cup size and then place the cup on the machine and push the button. The steaming hot coffee will pour directly into your cup. I added some whipped cream to give it a little more flavor and placed the lid on the cup and then I got in line to pay for the coffee.

While I was standing in line, there were about 5 people ahead of me. The lady in the front of the line also had a coffee. I observed her as she told the man who was working at the cash register that she would also like to purchase 5 quick-picks. Quick-picks are lottery tickets. The lotto machine automatically picks the numbers and prints out a paper that looks like a ticket. When the winning lottery numbers are announced, the person can then check their tickets and see if they have won.

Well, this lady purchased her coffee and her quick-picks and went off to work . The next few people in line were buying coffees or breakfast. It was almost my turn to pay for my coffee when the man directly in front of me walked up to the cahsier and asked for 6 scratchers. These are another type of lottery ticket that you can purchase. There are many different kinds that you can choose from. The type that this man chose were $2 a piece. That means that he spent $12 on lottery tickets alone.

After I walked out of the market I started to wonder how many people waste their money on the lottery. They really believe that it is a way to get rich quick. But, honestly, how many people actually win the lottery?

After work, I went home to research more about this. I found out that among the people with the lowest income in the United States, 38 percent believe that winning the lottery is the best way to succeed.

According to the Boston Globe, $52 billion was spent on the lottery in 2005. This means that the average person spends about $177 dollars per year on the lotto.

One-third of the people living in the United States feel that winning the lottery is the best way to have financial security. Although, the odds of winning the Mega Millions is one out of 175,711,536. Wow! That shows that the odds are NOT in your favor!

I believe that winning the lottery is a dream for everyone. Although, your chances of getting in an airplane today and crashing, or getting struck by lightning are much higher than actually winning the lottery.

If the average person spends $177 per year on the lottery and they never actually see any results from it, it is a big waste of money. They could save that $177 to pay for two weeks worth of food or to buy themselves some new clothes.

The lower income Americans should not be wasting their money like this, they have hopes that they may win and that their life will get better.

Everyone dreams, but it is good to also live in reality and know that the chances of winning are very slim.

Instead of the poorer people spending money to buy lottery tickets, hoping that they will win in order to better their lives, they should spend their money on a better education. The government provides many grants, loans and scholarships for college. The poorer people are very fortunate to live in the United States. They are provided many opportunities that poor people in other countries cannot obtain. They do not have to stay living in the same rut as their parents did. A rut is a bad situation that you seem to be stuck in and cannot find a way out of. Although, it seems that often times, people do not look outside of the box. They don’t look outside of their own little world nor do they see the millions of opportunities that surround them.

Most of us just go about our day in the same pattern and do the same things that we always do. There are those that actually look outside of their own little life, and think, “I don’t have to stay like this. The world is big and I have to take it on!”

Who knows, maybe this person could be the next Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey or Will Smith. All it takes is one great idea and a lot of hard work and commitment and we could be on our way to a better future. The chance of us making a better future for ourselves is so much more likely than for us to win the lottery.

I have a friend, whom I met in college. We were not majoring in the same subject, but we became very good friends. He was majoring in business. His motivation to pass his classes surpassed anyone I know. He was not a typical “college-bound” student. He grew up in a very poor neighborhood where violence was very prevalent. His mother was single and was raising her two sons on her own. He was a senior in high school and was playing around like most of the kids his age do, from his neighborhood. Getting good grades was something that was NOT COOL.

One day he arrived home and he saw his mom sitting on the couch crying. He asked his mom what was wrong and she told him that she had just received a phone call from the doctor and that he told her that she had a very serious illness. He stood in shock, unsure of what to do. He hugged her and just cried.

He promised his mom, that day, that he would make something of himself and he promised her that he would always take care of his little brother.

Well, his mom got very sick that year, not only did he take care of her, and his little brother, but he also pulled up all of his grades. Well, he decided to transfer to a university, a community college at first. He stayed there for two years where he got excellent grades. His mom started to feel a little better at this time.

He transferred, the following year, to a full university. He took classes at that school for 3 years more and finally graduated! He received his business degree!

His mom had recuperated from her illness and was much better. His little brother was now starting high school. This friend of mine, whose name is Jimmy, opened his own business 3 years ago in Los Angeles. He is now making really good money. One year ago he bought a house for his family in a much better and safer neighborhood.

His family is doing fantastic now. His younger brother is almost finished with high school. He has all A’s and B’s and always looks up to his big brother because he sees all that he has done for the family.

Jimmy has made a difference, without winning the lottery!

Life is not always fair. Things happen to the best of us and we shouldn’t always assume that the luck will fall our way, or that we will win the lotto. Work hard and dedicate yourself to what you are doing, and you, like Jimmy will succeed and make a better life for yourself.

Thank you all once again for listening to us at www.blabbinit.com . Check out the rest of our website and become a member to enjoy all of the site benefits. Again, this is Missy from Blabbinit, the chattering world of English. Bye bye!