Why do you play any of the national lotteries?

Question

Do you play any of the national lotteries because you want to have fun, hopefully quit your day job, have more money, have bragging rights? Why do you play the lottery?

When Megamillions is at $200million + I will buy a Megamillions ticket. I probably spend $3.00/year on lottery tickets.

Answer 1

The odds of winning powerball (and I think MegaMillions has the same odds) are roughly 146,000,000 to 1 against you. Therefore, to make a smart bet, your payout has to be more than $146,000,000 to get better than 1 to 1 odds on your money (the standard of a "good" bet).

You must take into account that $146,000,000 is your NET payout after taxes and everything else is taken out, and provided you don't have to split the jackpot with anyone. All of these criteria would almost never be met as the jackpot would have to be up around $250,000,000 which almost never happens, and when is does there's such a frenzy of people buying hundreds of tickets at a time which makes the odds of you not having to split it with anyone about the same as winning the thing in the first place.

As to why people play the lottery, I would say it's for all of the things you listed, apart from "bragging rights." I don't think people really care if anyone knows they won the lottery, as long as the check clears.

Answer 2

There's always that teeny little chance I could just win.  The most I've ever won is $7 (Powerball)  I usually don't buy them unless they're over $100million.