[onion2k]

I don't think people actually make that mistake. They know the chance of winning is tiny. The point is more that a non-zero chance of life changing money (plus the entertainment of fantasising about a win) is worth more to them than the cost of the ticket.

[gamepsys]

Exactly, winning the lottery is massively life changing. This is actually something I think people don't understand about the psychology of lottery. In some regards it doesn't matter if the money is $50M or $500M for most players even though that has a huge impact on the EV.

[93po]

this was my approach when i lived in oregon. i played the state lottery which was something like 20x better odds, granted the jackpot was usually like $6 million after cash out, but that was still totally good in my book. it cost a buck and i got to have fun with the idea of it for a few days.

one time i get like 20 weeks in a row up front (a post-dated ticket) and i won $56 dollars or something one week. i did the odds of that happened and it was something that would happen like once every 30 years if i played weekly. i stopped after that, haha.