

Ask HN: NY lottery  $500 Million - Why do people insist on buying tickets? - danvideo


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richf
Probably have a better chance hitting the lottery than striking gold creating
a startup.

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jcmoscon
Don't spoil the fun!!!

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jarek
I don't see how GP post spoils the fun of playing lottery.

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jcmoscon
the fun of becoming millionaire with your startup...

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richf
good luck :)

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tosseraccount
It'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_po...](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2001/08/is_powerball_a_mugs_game.html)

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.

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donretag
The 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).

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jeffool
It'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.

