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To quote Mark Twain (or someone) "The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math"

• Dylan16807 6y ago
  Presumably the math there is expected value, but does that even matter? Imagine two lotteries that each sell ten million $1 tickets, and will only sell one ticket per person. One has a jackpot of $7 million. The other has a jackpot of $15 million. Math would tell you there's a significant difference between the two, wouldn't it? But I would say the right answer is that the difference in payout doesn't matter. And you probably shouldn't buy either ticket. Am I reading it wrong, is 'math' supposed to mean something else here?
  • marshmallow_12 6y ago
    You overanalysed it. The math is simply that you are statistically unlikely to get your dollar back.
    • Dylan16807 6y ago
      Is that even math? I can accept that but it's not a very satisfying answer. And almost anyone playing the lottery can tell you the chance of winning a jackpot is very low!