[JoeAltmaier]

...but once the payout grows after several iterations of nobody winning the jackpot, the expected value CAN be positive!

[Iftheshoefits]

There's a catch to that that not many consider: the likely number of winners, which divides the jackpot and reduces the expected value per-play. The number of likely winners increases with the number of tickets sold, which increases (dramatically) with the jackpot beyond a certain threshold.

[JoeAltmaier]

A random pick can mitigate that considerably, without changing the odds of actually winning.