Expected Return Another way to look at lotteries is with expected returns. This gives another sleight advantage to putting 50 dollars on a single lottery when you wait for the jackpot to exceed the odds of winning. What is not realized is that for every dollar put into the lottery at least 50 cents go to the state general fund, with some states taking as many as 70 cents on the dollar. A four million dollar jackpot would have an expected gain of 4 cents. The Best way to play the Lottery Still, with the likelihood of winning being so small, you are better off burning your money, or giving it to charity.
Lottery is a voluntary tax.
I give enough to taxes, thank you very much. If my money is going to benefit someone else, it will be someone of my choosing. The odds of winning are around 80 million to 1 per ticket. Such gigantic sums of money are tempting lots of people. People are using their rent checks and paychecks to buy hundreds of tickets in an attempt to better their odds.