• Press Releases
    • Submit a press release
    • Read All
  • Advertise
  • Contact us
Crypto.com Logo Crypto.com Logo
Bitcoinist.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • Price
    • Bitcoin Price
    • Ethereum Price
    • Litecoin Price
    • Binance Coin Price
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
    • Bitcoin Casinos – Where, What and How to Play
  • Events
  • Play Games
  • Play Casino Games
  • Bet & win BTC
Breaking News: Crypto Exchange Binance To Launch Prepaid Card In This South American Country
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • Price
    • Bitcoin Price
    • Ethereum Price
    • Litecoin Price
    • Binance Coin Price
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
    • Bitcoin Casinos – Where, What and How to Play
  • Events
  • Play Games
  • Play Casino Games
  • Bet & win BTC
Bitcoinist.com
No Result
View All Result
Breaking News: Crypto Exchange Binance To Launch Prepaid Card In This South American Country
Lottery tickets
Advertisement

Bitcoin Too Risky? US Lottery Ticket Sales Exceed Entire BTC Market Cap

Christina Comben by Christina Comben
4 years ago
in Bitcoin, News, News teaser
0
Advertisement

Every year, US citizens spend north of $70 billion on state lottery tickets. That’s almost $8 billion more than the entire market cap of Bitcoin. And more than half of the entire crypto market as a whole.


US Citizens Spend Billions on Lottery Tickets

Comparison is a great way of putting things in context. Lose your wallet, arrive late to a meeting, miss a flight… These can all seem like catastrophic events when you’re living through the painful moment. But there’s usually a voice of reason from your partner, a caring relative or stranger, or simply just turning on the news. People are dying in Africa. Your problem is insignificant.

Get 30 FREE SPINS at Punt Casino - NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED! Start Playing Now.

In a similar and yet totally off-the-topic sort of a way, the US state lottery spend does the same thing to crypto. In the US every year, they spend more than the entire market cap of Bitcoin on lottery tickets. Money that is simply shot straight into the drain.

The latest accurate information on just how much of their savings the hopeful masses plow into lottery tickets is from 2016, the latest year the US Census has data on.

And in 2016, some $80.55 billion was readily thrown away on what is to all intents and purposes just another tax, albeit one that citizens willingly pay.

BitStarz Player Lands $2,459,124 Record Win! Could you be next big winner?
570% up to 12 BTC + 300 Free Spins for new players & 1 BTC in bonuses every day, only at Wild.io. Play Now!
US Spend on Lottery Tickets
US Spend on Lottery Tickets

In 2017, the number dropped a little with CNN placing it at approximately $73.5 billion.

Here’s another mindblower for you. About half of all US adults buy a state lottery ticket. Around five percent of them hold Bitcoin.

Facebook Active Users Make Bitcoin Look Tiny

And just one more comparison to give you food for thought. Despite gathering controversy over data usage and leaks, Facebook has almost 2.3 billion active monthly users around the world.

Facebook Monthly Users
Facebook Active Monthly Users

How many does crypto have? It hasn’t quite pierced 32 million. With Bitcoin Market Journal placing the number at 22 million Bitcoin wallets as of July 2018.

Okay, so Facebook had a headstart on Bitcoin of four years. It was also a free product until people realized they were paying with their data. But still, 2 billion+ for a social media platform compared with less than a third of a billion for a revolutionary neutral, sound money based financial system puts things into perspective.

Moreover, of the people who have actually heard of Bitcoin around the world, a recent video by Naomi Brockwell shows that the majority have no idea what it is.

What Does All This Mean?

Bitcoin may be all-consuming in the lives of many, but it’s barely a fly on the windshield of most people around the world. It’s still early days. However, let’s do the math:

According to the Washington Post, taking a state by state average on US lottery spend places the figure at around $600 per person per year.

If the average person had invested $600 in Bitcoin in January 2016, they would have scored around 1.25 bitcoin. By January 2018, that would have translated into $21,250.

Even if they didn’t cash in on their investment back then, they’d still have around $4,500 now–rather more useful than a pile of scraps of paper.

It’s interesting that Harvard professor Ken Rogoff compared buying Bitcoin to buying a lottery ticket. Even with fewer users than the most unpopular of social media platforms, and a market cap dwarfed by US lottery sales, the simple numbers alone prove this to be incorrect.

Not to mention the obvious fact that when buying bitcoin, everyone holding wins. When buying a lottery ticket, only one person in hundreds of millions of people wins.

With odds at something like 100 million to one, even your chances of riding a spontaneous ‘shitcoin’ pump are infinitely higher. Whichever way you swing it, lottery tickets are mathematically proven to get you rekt–and it’s still an $80-billion industry in the US alone.

Would you rather buy bitcoin than a lottery ticket? Share your thoughts below!


Images courtesy of Shutterstock

ShareTweetShareShare

Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

For updates and exclusive offers enter your email.

I consent to my submitted data being collected and stored.

Christina Comben

Christina Comben

Related Posts

Bitcoin

Bitcoin Bearish Signal: Aged Supply Flows Into Binance

4 hours ago
Bitcoin this week

Bitcoin And Crypto This Week: Here’s What Will Be Important

8 hours ago
Bitcoin price

Bitcoin Price Nears $24,000 Mark – Can Bulls Push BTC To $25K This February?

12 hours ago
50% of Bitcoin hashrate Controlled by Two Mining Pools

Data Shows 50% Of Bitcoin Hashrate Controlled By Two Mining Pools

1 day ago
Institutional Bitcoin Buying Is a Positive Sign, Suggests Matrixport

Institutional Bitcoin Buying Is A Positive Sign, Suggests Matrixport

2 days ago
Bitcoin BTC

Inflation May Be In A Lull, What Does That Mean For Bitcoin?

3 days ago
Please login to join discussion

Premium Partners

Premium Casino Partners

Top Casinos

BitStarz
BitStarz
Punt Casino
Punt Casino
mBit
mBit
Metaspins
Metaspins
1xBit
1xBit
Coinplay
Coinplay
K8
K8
Vegas Casino
Vegas Casino

Sportbooks

Coinplay
Coinplay

Press Releases

  • Binance Coin (BNB) Trading Volume Pumps By $7 Million While...

    8 hours ago
  • Polkadot (DOT) sees 5% Growth, why Cardano (ADA) and...

    10 hours ago
  • More than a trillion dollars moved in Litecoin (LTC)...

    10 hours ago
  • Moralis has revealed the integration of Web3 API with Aptos...

    11 hours ago
  • Is Aptos (APT), Solana (SOL), or Snowfall Protocol (SNW)...

    1 day ago

Bitcoin news portal providing breaking news, guides, price analysis about decentralized digital money & blockchain technology.

Bitcoin

  • News
  • Price
  • Businesses
  • Acceptance
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Regulation
  • Reviews

Altcoins

  • News
  • Price
  • Ethereum
  • Ripple
  • Litecoin
  • EOS
  • NAGA

Categories

  • Blockchain
  • Security
  • FinTech
  • Technology
  • Trending
  • Breaking News
  • Press Releases
  • How to

Pages

  • Contact us
  • Editorial Policy
  • Advertise
  • Crypto Prices from Nomics
© 2023 Bitcoinist.com. All Rights Reserved.
  • Bitcoin
    • News
    • Price
    • Businesses
    • Acceptance
    • Technology
    • Investment
    • Regulation
    • Reviews
    • All Bitcoin News
  • Altcoins
    • News
    • Price
    • Ethereum
    • Ripple
    • Litecoin
    • EOS
    • NAGA
    • All Altcoin News
  • Tech
    • Blockchain
    • Security
    • FinTech
  • Industry
    • Industry News
    • Press Releases
  • Price
    • Bitcoin Price
    • Ethereum Price
    • Litecoin Price
    • Binance Coin Price
  • How to
    • Buy gift cards/mobile Top Ups with Cryptos
    • What Is Bitcoin?
    • Best Bitcoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin vs Ethereum
    • Why Use Blockchain Technology?
    • Bitcoin Cash ABC vs. Bitcoin Cash SV
    • How to Buy Cryptocurrency
    • Bitcoin Mining
    • Best Bitcoin Brokers
    • Best Bitcoin Forex Brokers
    • How To Earn Bitcoin
    • What is Facebook Libra?
    • Ripple and XRP: The Complete Guide
    • Bitcoin Casinos – Where, What and How to Play
  • Events
  • Play Games
  • Play Casino Games
  • Bet & win BTC

© 2022 Bitcoinist. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy Center or Cookie Policy.