Odds of winning the Lottery: 1 in 300 million “This is my day!”

Odds of a car crash involving a cell phone: 1 in 4 "I won't be the one who crashes"

Every day, people spend hundreds of dollars on the lottery, whether it’s in the form of scratch-offs, printed tickets or even a simple hand of poker at the local dog track. They never come out ahead, and go home poorer than they started out. But they’re winners, and always come back to buy more in the end.

The trick is in the details: spend a hundred dollars, a five here, a ten there, and you always lose. But take a chance with that last grubby one in your fist and nab a twenty dollar winner, and all of a sudden you’re all smiles, a true champ. Never once does it occur to you that you’re still eighty short, you WON, and now it’s time to reinvest for another chance at the jackpot. After all, there are pictures absolutely everywhere, showing smiling people holding giant checks with outrageous numbers scrawled on them. This one’s yours.

But wait, that doesn’t seem right. After all, it’s common knowledge that the government takes roughly half of all jackpot money in the form of taxes; most people know that going into it. But if the odds of winning are one in 300 million when the jackpot itself isn’t even half of that… who’s getting the money? Who’s pocketing all of those millions?

And that’s the scam. You pay the government in a futile effort to strike it rich, only to lose a huge chunk if you ever do win. But does anyone really care? No. Because it’s all about the instant gratification that comes with a good ticket. Sure, over the last twenty years you’ve probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. But there’s still that chance that you’ll get it all back in one shot. Just one more ticket…

The lottery will never go away; it’s been with us since time immemorial in one form or another. They say the house always wins, but that’s not always the case. Be the smart gambler: you’ve won the 50 grand, don’t blow it on a chance for a million. If you can’t kick the habit, might as well use this opportunity to come out a true winner and stop while you’re ahead. Be the game-changer. The smart shopper. Show the con man that you aren’t the sucker born every minute.

But next time there’s a jackpot over a million dollars, there will still be lines a mile long, desperate people who just can’t wait for their chance at a brighter life. A better life. A life with no worries. They’ll never achieve that, not like this. However, they have something far more powerful than money, more potent than all the anger at not winning for the nth time this year: they have hope. And that hope is all that matters.