The North Carolina Lottery (and I suspect other state lotteries, as well) has a game called Lucky For Life, where the top prize is $1,000 dollars a day “for life”. I looked up the details on their web site and found that this top prize is “guaranteed for a minimum of 20 years.” What a spectacular bonus prize! Not only do you get an income of $365,000 a year, you’re also guaranteed to live at least another 20 years! And they aren’t even advertising that part of the deal! You’d think they would be aggressively marketing this game to old people. I bet there are lots of old folks out there who would throw down huge amounts of cash for a chance to extend their lives by 20 years.

On the other hand, young people should probably steer clear of this game. After all, once that guaranteed 20-year period is over, the North Carolina Lottery will have a vested financial interest in seeing you dead! So if you get a winning Lucky For Life ticket for your 20^th birthday, you can probably expect to encounter a state-funded hit man on your 40^th birthday. Truly, you are gambling with your life.