A lot of people love to play the lottery, whether it’s a state pick-3 game or something larger like Powerball. Some people are even willing to spend a substantial percentage of their incomes on the tickets. The odds of winning are incredibly low but it is a form of entertainment that some enjoy, and many of the same psychological principles that apply to any gambling activity can be applied to the lottery.
It is important to remember that your chances of winning do not increase by playing more often. Advertised jackpots are the cumulative sum of the annuity payments winners will receive over decades; the alternative lump-sum payout is significantly smaller, especially after factoring in income taxes.
The vast majority of winners spend the money they win, and many blow it all on expensive cars and houses or gamble it away. Some are even killed in the process. There are some notable examples: Abraham Shakespeare was murdered in 2006 after winning $31 million; Jeffrey Dampier dropped dead the day he won $20 million; and Urooj Khan drank poisoned cyanide after scooping a comparatively tame $1 million prize.
There are also a number of lottery winners who have nailed down a system that works. Some of them, as described in a recent HuffPost article, buy thousands of tickets at a time and use a quote-unquote “system” that is based on mathematical reasoning. Others, like a Michigan couple, have figured out how to manipulate the rules to make their games more profitable.