The odds of winning any grand prize are so minuscule that a friend of mine considers them a “Stupid Tax” and would never consider purchasing them. I don’t care if anyone buys a hopeful lottery ticket; I’ve even bought them when jackpots are high.
This weekend I was in line to pay for gasoline and a man in front of me was buying $300 in Megamillions lottery tickets. While we were waiting for all of the tickets to be printed I mentioned, “I wish you the best of luck but statistically you might expect to win about $30.” He replied, “I know the statistics but I don’t need the jackpot, I just want the 2nd place win of $250,000.” I said something polite and let it go, it was none of my business, but unfortunately the condition of his car gave me the impression that he could not afford a $270 loss.
For my own curiosity, I ran a few simulations on two popular national lotteries to see how many years it may take to win their 2nd place jackpot. The simulations estimated that it would take over 70,000 years of buying tickets for each twice-weekly drawing to win 2nd prize (it took over 500,000 years to win the jackpot). In neither case did the amount of money won for 2nd place cover the cost needed to buy all the tickets to get that win.
Go ahead and buy a ticket if you want but please don’t spend an unaffordable amount thinking that you may come out ahead financially.