Whenever the lottery reaches a certain point, I feel compelled to play.

For me, $14 million does the trick.

Wednesday I'll buy two tickets from my lucky store...a gas station in Delray. Another part of my lottery routine is tickets must be purchased on the day of the drawing. Preferably later in the day.

Then I look over my numbers to see if they look like lucky ones. And they always do (until after the drawing.)

With all of the strategies I have in place, you probably think I've won a lot.

Wrong.

I don't think I've ever won more than $5.

But there's always the possibility, which brings me to my point.

If Florida were like 29 other states in the country, we'd be in the Multi-State Lottery (powerball) on Wednesday night. And instead of a $14 million jackpot, we'd be playing for $95 million.

Unlike Florida's lottery, which starts out at $3 million after someone wins the jackpot, powerball resumes at $15 million.

So why isn't Florida in the multi-state lottery?

I know others complain about this because ads promoting the Florida lottery poke fun at people who say the jackpots aren't large enough.

Do they really believe making fun of us will change our minds?

I looked up the history of both lottos to see if I could understand why Florida has elected not to participate in powerball. This is what I learned.

The state of Florida gives part of the money earned from the lottery to an fund education. But they could do the same thing with the multi-state lottery.

According to the multi-state lottery web site, states that have powerball versus a state run lottery take in more money.

That's because more people play when the jackpots are larger. Florida schools would benefit if the state changed to powerball.

In January of 1999, Florida was invited to join the multi-state lottery but Gov. Jeb Bush declined. No reason was given for this decision.

Given these few facts, there doesn't seem to be any logic behind Florida maintaining it's own lottery.

Are we to believe it's okay to gamble...as long as we gamble for less?

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