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我很自豪来自犹他州——美国仅有的六个没有彩票的州之一。
I'm proud to be from Utah - one of only six states in the US without a lottery.
因为我不傻。不像数以百万计的中国人和美国人，拿辛苦赚来的钱玩几乎没有获胜机会的“游戏”，我从未觉得这种事儿“有趣”。当然，我看到*率赔**，也理解他们。
That is because I am not stupid. Unlike millions of people in China and the United States, I never considered it "fun" to hand over hard-earned money to play a "game" that I had virtually no chance of winning. I actually look at the odds and understand them.
What's so "fun" about knowing you're going to lose and shelling out cash anyway?
知道你要亏本还撒钱，这究竟有什么“有趣”？
玩彩票就像烧钱。像用斧头把它砍成碎片，像把钱倾倒入海，或在高速行驶把时它扔到车窗外。
Playing the lottery is like burning currency. It's like chopping it to bits with a hatchet. It's like dumping money into the sea or throwing it out a car window at high speed.
耶! 多有趣啊!
Yippee! What fun!
看，我是个不赌博的假正经。比如，众所周知我曾玩过二十一点，游戏中*率赔**并非绝顶荒谬 。正常的二十一点中，*场赌**获胜几率多10-20%。熟练的玩家能让比率为50-50，这还不够好，但至少能赢。
Look, I'm no gambling prude. I've been known to play casino blackjack, for example, a game in which the odds are not utterly ridiculous. Normal blackjack favors the house by about 10 to 20 percent. Skilled card counters can drive the odds to 50-50, which is still not great but at least winnable.
那彩票呢？ 最近美国强力球（一种彩票）*率赔**为2.92亿比1，——所谓玩家在买票的同时已经输了。
But the lottery? At 292 million-to-1 - the recent Powerball odds in the US - a so-called player has already lost at the moment he or she buys a ticket.
对我而言这没什么意思。就像陌生人索要我口袋里的所有钱，承诺将其给我年迈的妈妈，我相信他并且高兴地拿出钱。然后等待来自妈妈的好消息，当然这永远不会发生。
This is not my idea of fun. It's like a stranger asking for all the money in my pocket and promising to give it to my elderly mother - and I believe him and happily hand it over. Then I wait to hear the good news from my mother, which of course never comes.
想想看，我相信了那个家伙! 好吧，能开心几天，至少在妄想他会把钱给妈妈的那几天。对不起，妈妈。祝你下次运气好点。
And to think I trusted that guy! Well, at least it was fun for a few days hoping he would give her the cash. Sorry, Mom. Better luck next time.
我们很容易认为彩票没有坏处——毕竟，购买者是自愿的，彩票收入按理用于公益事业。但根据美国的研究，彩票实际上不成比例地剥削穷人。这是出于希望的力量。挣扎收支平衡的穷人，迫切希望单凭运气就扭转财富，然而这遥遥无期。
It's easy to think lotteries are harmless - after all, they're voluntary, and the revenue supposedly supports good causes. But lotteries actually exploit the poor disproportionately, according to studies in the US. That's because of the power of hope. The poor, who struggle to make ends meet, desperately hope to reverse their fortune in a single stroke of luck, however remote that may be.
实际上这很悲伤。
It's sad, actually.
美国的一项研究发现，收入低于贫穷线的人平均将9%的收入用于彩票。如果存钱或投资，他们有可能改善生活、促进经济或帮助他人。
One US study found that people whose incomes were below the poverty line spent an average of 9 percent of their money on lottery tickets. If they had saved or invested instead, they could have improved their lives, boosted the economy or helped someone else.
上周，中国"专家"建议人们在美国谨慎使用彩票代购、朋友或亲戚等中介购买彩票，因为如果中奖，证实彩票真正所有者时会有“风险”，我认为这特别可笑。
What I found particularly laughable last week were the news reports of Chinese "experts" advising people to be careful about using agents in the United States - a shopping service, a friend or a relative - to buy lottery tickets for them, because of the "risk" of establishing the true owner if a ticket won.
当然在这里几乎没有风险。因为赢不了彩票，你永远不会有该问题。
There is virtually no risk here, of course. You will never have this problem because you will not win the lottery.
我有一个不同的节约时间的商业模型。它这么运作：你往我的微信钱包发钱，我承诺什么都不做。这样你就不会失望。
I have a different business model that saves time. Here's how it works: You send money to my WeChat wallet, and I promise to do nothing in return. In this way, you avoid disappointment.
