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Ask HN: NY lottery $500 Million - Why do people insist on buying tickets?
- richf 15y agoProbably have a better chance hitting the lottery than striking gold creating a startup.
- tosseraccount 15y agoIt's rational. Sometimes. If the expected value is more than a dollar, and the ticket costs a dollar, you should buy a ticket : See: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2001/08/is_powerball_a_mugs_game.html http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2001/08/is_po... If you limit it to about two dollars a year it's also a cheap entertainment to fantasize about hitting the numbers. Otherwise it's a tax on people who can't do math.
- jeffool 15y agoIt's not the NY lottery, but a multistate lottery called "MegaMillions". And people buy tickets for many reasons. Neverminding "being rich seems awesome," I imagine the two chief reasons are: -They can afford to throw away a few bucks every now and then. -They know they have no opportunity to be so wealthy otherwise.
- donretag 15y agoThe math is quite simple: The probability of winning millions from a lottery is greater than the probability of making millions from working (for most people).