Sure, if you take the whole population, then each ticket will, on average, be worth more than $1. That doesn't change the odds of my making money back on this.

Sure, if you take the whole population, then each ticket will, on average, be worth more than $1. That doesn't change the odds of my making money back on this. There's going to be a handful of people who massively skew the statistics, but it doesn't mean that for the vast majority of players the odds get any better or that their ticket becomes more winning. Expected return doesn't matter on a ticket by ticket basis when the odds and winnings are so skewed, it creates an illusion of worthiness that doesn't exist for the single player.