In the latest from the front lines of ridiculous gambling promotion by states, the PA government is trying to convince companies to give out lottery tickets as employee incentives. Typically rational indictment of state lotteries from the Motley Fool:

Lottery tickets typically have a payout rate of 50 cents per dollar spent, which means that they are not only among the worst gambling prospects around; they also offer companies one of the worst investing payoffs. This may be exciting and fun for employees, but does that actually double the value of the tickets? We doubt it.

If any company I worked for adopted this as their incentive program, I'd let my voice be heard real fast. Link

The thing is...I think it actually does double the value of the ticket. Most people would rather *choose* $1 in hand then a lottery ticket with a expected value of of $.50, but I suspect that more people (well, the ones that aren't gambling-averse) would be more *thrilled* with receiving the lottery ticket than $1. How many company parties are really worth the money spent? The employees would rather have the money in pocket then pony up the equivalent amount that it would cost to put on the party. And yet employees appreciate company parties.

Not that I *advocate* the practice of handing out lottery tickets as company incentives. I'm just saying it's not so crazy from the perspective of either the employee or employer.

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