Why You Shouldn’t Play the Lottery
If you’re in a hurry or don’t care which numbers to pick, most modern lotteries let you mark a box or section on the playslip that indicates that you’ll accept whatever set of numbers a computer randomly selects for you. This increases your chances of winning, but you’re still not guaranteed a prize.
If the entertainment value of winning a lottery is sufficiently high for an individual, the disutility of losing money may be outweighed by the combined expected utility of the monetary and non-monetary gains, making purchasing a ticket a rational decision. However, the odds of winning a lottery are usually quite low. In fact, the average American would have to buy a ticket every 14 days for over a century to win a billion dollars.
State governments promote their lotteries by describing them as “painless revenue.” They point out that lottery players spend money voluntarily, rather than being forced to pay taxes. And they claim that the money raised is a good thing for states, because it helps fund public services. But this is misleading. The percentage of lottery proceeds that go to the state is actually quite small, and most of what’s left goes to the winners, who can then use it to pay taxes or cover other expenses. The rest is spent on marketing and administrative costs. The result is that the lottery is a massive financial loser for most people, and they should focus on saving more money instead of gambling.