This question was brought up on a different forum that escalated into a massive argument were me and another forum attender was cussed out for not agreeing with people who choose playing the lottery over giving that extra money over to charity, the thread was locked, I don't expect to get positive results here either. My answer is I never played or ever will waste my money on the lottery if I had even more money to donate than I already donated to some charity organizations like St, Jude Children's hospital I would defiantly do that with my extra money then go get a lottery ticket.

The admins were not okay with me making this statement yet were fine with someone posting a meme of quote "Charities? *&^% those kids, then openly stuck up for someone who called me and another member a lunatics for making what he thought was a stupid thread like that.

I am open for discussion on this and hopefully sims fans are more friendly than a general gaming fans forum's off topic section

I don't agree with people who play the lottery because #1 most of them lose more than what they get like on a scratch off or something like that. #2 people are starving and in poverty yet rather ignore people outside the lottery store with nothing but a trashbag of clothes and no where to go but up and down the street each day and some people who have more to give go play the lottery again, and they only are losing their money doing so.

Point being it's not my money but I think it's reticula's how people could cuss me and another person out for saying what I think about the lottery

and last but not least what is your opinion on this, and does anyone ever have homeless sims in their game since after all this is a sims forum and that game is for fun, thats all

Charity is the obvious answer. I'm trying to work out why someone would choose the lottery when the chances of winning are so stupidly low that it's like throwing money down a well. In the off chance you do win the lottery, its pretty much impossible to avoid alienation, drug problems or bankruptcy. I'd rather just give to charity. Though personally as someone who grew up pretty poor and tries to save any money I can... I'd rather keep my money lol.

To answer the op question for the thread's sake:
'Charity' as a concept, if compared to a practical take on, actually, caring for people, is much less thought through than a socialistic well fare state, for instance; one which I live in, and prefer, since the responsibility for providing basic need fulfillment then is applied to the state and paid for with taxes from the population in large. I find this method to be less corrupt, degrading, and prone to individual and organisational benefits from a system of arbitrary charity.
I do not give to charity for that reason, but always vote for the leftist/socialistic approach in political elections.
I do not buy lottery tickets, since the idea of a lottery, and one that is able to make a profit, is to not have a winner and that lotteries are therefore for the desperate; or for entertainment reasons, like on a festival.

I think your question of the homeless sims was more interesting though:

I create many homeless sims, both homeless in the game sense (npc without a home residence lot), and sims that I set up with a 'character' of being homeless in concept, based on the people I see here, and elsewhere.

I have one lot so far made to look like an abandoned yard, for the homeless sims to 'live' on (as a residence, and as roommates to the active sim), and plan to build another. I will use these lots to move some chosen sims into, when I decide they are to be 'homeless'.

I also have a couple of residential lots with an active sim and room in the house, where I will move some sims in to stay awhile, in a sense being homeless since the house belong to the original sim in it.

I also have travellers and romani living on a residential lot, but in the way common in the 50', at least here, in carriages; and a lot build for temporary travellers like seasonal workers, much in the same way, although still occurring, here.

I create many sims to act as back drop for my active households, that is, sims with a specific character like musicians, 'intellectuals' (hehe, it's the sims), party goers, handsome sims, 'partner'-material etc, that I import to the world and evict.

Being homeless is like a prison, first off, even if they had a job the chances of them getting robbed are 9 out of 10 every single cent they managed to save up 24 hours a day 7 days a week, apartments in my area all cost about $1500 in order to afford the 1st months rent and a security deposit and rent is like $500USD or more a month plus utilities for the cheapest rooms available. yes rooms not apartments. Everything you own is in 2 rooms in those $500 or more studio apartment rooms. You got a bathroom and a main room that is it, your bed is basically in your living room as well as your kitchen and cooking area.

There are some one bedroom apartments in the main city but it's crime ridden and your likely to get shot and killed in your own apartment or house, I used to be homeless, but I lived in a group home instead for 4 years during 2 1/2 years it was the pit of the ghetto in Detroit Michigan, where the home I lived in was broken in to 4 times by gunmen in the middle of the night before I moved out. I did have a computer and a ton of music CD stored in a hidden closet that was never stolen luckily.

Now I live in a house story goes I got out of the group home and got free furniture and money from a grant that enabled me to get out of a group home and into 2 cheap apartments, one in Detroit Michigan and another in Romulus in the middle of nowhere. Now I stay in a house and live easy. But the taxes in my area are going up each year and I have a relative who works in a hospital and she can't even afford a one room studio or an apartment either.

people walk up and down the main street by my house with no place to go, it's virtually impossible to get into an apartment in my local area due to the cost of living, I am lucky I have a home that is inherited otherwise I would be homeless myself

If you want to know how much money it cost to rent a small apartment in my area I'll tell you it's just like the sims 2

being $700-$1500 a month plus bills and imagine having sims making $90 Simoleans a day and needing to pay that every week if my city were a sim city in the sims 2

Not much of a gambler and I live so deep in poverty that, not only do I live with my parents, but have no assets beyond personal effects.

However, on the off chance I win the Powerball or whatever multistate lottery you want to insert that New Jersey participates in, I would divide it up so my parents and I can fulfill our dreams. My father would probably buy land teeming with fungi and protect it under state law. My mother would probably build a cat sanctuary with a 24/7/365¼ on-call staff to care for all kinds of cats. As for me? Build my own private continent and populate it with a population of droids and freak flag flyers like myself.

But if charity was my only option, I would donate to space exploration, LGBTQIA+ rights, animal cruelty prevention and animal rehabilitation, raising those in poverty out of that hole, senior and disabled rights, children's rights like UNICEF; funding schools to teach beyond white male dominated historical figures, not because it's a social issue, but because history is grossly underserved and the point is: if it offends you, learn from these mistakes; women's rights groups, donations to gun control groups in various states (I currently live in NJ, which has the strictest gun control laws in the country. You can only buy an air rifle or shotgun but ownership of any other type of firearm unless you are with the police or military or have license as a special security personnel can land you 5 years automatically in state prison for possession of a handgun alone.)

You get the point humanity is a big deal to me.

But since money is a hard-to-come-by asset for me, I don't normally gamble or donate. Mainly because I have addiction issues in both sides of my family and being in poverty, I rely on United Way's donation every holiday season for the kindness of the community, but since the pandemic became a big deal, donations were slim last year.