Silly Greed

CTV.ca | Lineups long for tickets to $40M lotto jackpot

Whenever I go up to the corner store counter, the guy at the counter says, "You want lotto tickets?"

"No thanks," I reply.

"Why not? You know the jackpot is seventeen million?"

"What would I do with seventeen million dollars?"

The clerk usually stands there dumbfounded, as though they cannot comprehend my question. But I think it is a salient point - what would I do with that much money? Oh, I know the usual, pay some bills, go on a vacation, get various relatives out of debt, secure the kids' futures.

But you know what? Everything's going to be just fine without all that money. So why I do I need it?

In the link above, CTV notes the jackpot has gone higher than it ever goes in Canada, although this is quite tame by California lottery standards. Statistically, we should know the score. The more people there are buying tickets, the less likely you are to win. The higher the jackpot goes, the longer your odds go.

Consider the community center raffle - let us say they are giving away a toaster, but a really nice one. Now - if you buy a raffle ticket and ten others do as well, are your odds better or worse than if a thousand other people buy that ticket?

It works the same in a lottery. The bigger it goes, the longer your already long odds. And who really needs forty million dollars?