Why Do We Still Play the Lottery?

In a lottery, prizes are allocated by chance. This means that if you play enough times, you have a reasonable chance of winning one of the prizes on offer. The word lottery comes from the Dutch noun lot, which means ‘fate’ or ‘chance’.

Some people might play the lottery for the social experience of sharing their tickets with friends and talking about what they would do if they won. Others may be addicted and spend a lot of money to play. The most serious players will buy lots of tickets – buying in bulk, for example – in order to increase their odds of winning the big prize.

Large jackpots draw attention and drive lottery sales, but it’s hard to win when there’s a huge amount of cash on the line. Lottery commissions know this and promote jackpot sizes that are so large they are “newsworthy” – earning them a windfall of free publicity on news websites and television broadcasts.

The odds of winning are a little less dramatic for smaller prizes, but still not great. There is a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning a prize worth millions, and the vast majority of lottery winners will find themselves bankrupt in a few years. Americans spend $80 Billion each year on lottery tickets – that money could be used to build an emergency fund or pay off credit card debt. It’s time to ask why we continue to support this form of gambling.