Lotteries and possibility vs. probability

[Rabata]

The existence of prizes from the lottery is what attracts people to continue buying tickets; with cheap ticket prices, they try to buy as many tickets as they can. And if they haven't won one of the prizes, they keep trying to buy a ticket to win it one day.

You nailed it right. What attracts people to buy lottery tickets is their cheap price and the huge amount they can get if they win.
We all know how odds works but we tend to neglect this when buying a lottery ticket because we become blinded by our greed.
When you buy a ticket, you don't think of what your odds of winning are, instead, the first thing you think of is what are you going to do with the money if you win!

That means we have started compiling a list of what we want to buy even though we don't know which ticket will come out as the winner. And by trying to buy lots of lottery tickets, means that we have a bigger chance to compete and become winners, but we forget that that's not how it works because lottery tickets work according to luck. And when we are lucky, we win and get the prize money.

In my sense people who buy a lot of lottery tickets to win the lottery are a little panicked about winning. But in reality, even if their chances of winning the lottery increase slightly, they should not take that kind of risk. Some people consider buying a lot of lottery tickets as a waste of money. We have to believe that this type of lottery depends only on luck. A major advantage of purchasing tickets is that it does not require a large amount of money that is why people are more interested purchasing lottery.

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[ethereumhunter]

The existence of prizes from the lottery is what attracts people to continue buying tickets; with cheap ticket prices, they try to buy as many tickets as they can. And if they haven't won one of the prizes, they keep trying to buy a ticket to win it one day.

You nailed it right. What attracts people to buy lottery tickets is their cheap price and the huge amount they can get if they win.
We all know how odds works but we tend to neglect this when buying a lottery ticket because we become blinded by our greed.
When you buy a ticket, you don't think of what your odds of winning are, instead, the first thing you think of is what are you going to do with the money if you win!

That means we have started compiling a list of what we want to buy even though we don't know which ticket will come out as the winner. And by trying to buy lots of lottery tickets, means that we have a bigger chance to compete and become winners, but we forget that that's not how it works because lottery tickets work according to luck. And when we are lucky, we win and get the prize money.

In my sense people who buy a lot of lottery tickets to win the lottery are a little panicked about winning. But in reality, even if their chances of winning the lottery increase slightly, they should not take that kind of risk. Some people consider buying a lot of lottery tickets as a waste of money. We have to believe that this type of lottery depends only on luck. A major advantage of purchasing tickets is that it does not require a large amount of money that is why people are more interested purchasing lottery.

I don't think they panic because they have planned it well and know how many lottery tickets they will buy. Unless the person is just having fun and not chasing the prize too much, they probably aren't going to spend a lot of money on a lottery ticket. During this time, people buy lottery tickets to win the prize. And the prizes are so big that they are willing to spend a certain amount of money to buy the ticket. And they keep buying for the next several periods. And it's true. The lottery depends on luck so we have to know that buying tickets in large quantities does not guarantee getting the prize.

[Porfirii]

but if these revenues financed public expenses that revert to the common good: would you agree to pay systematically 1 USD more in your annual taxes as something that ensures the right to dream of a dear life of every taxpayer?

I wouldn't bother paying an extra dollar on yearly taxes to have a slight chance of becoming a millionaire, and at same time contributing with my country, so the government can have more money to invest on areas which will revert benefits to ourselves, as citizens.

-snip-

Regarding your country , I have no idea which one is yours , but the way you talk makes it clear that it is a country where its rulers are very fair , unlike me , who comes from a country where politicians stole their wealth, I have nothing left to give something in taxes, because they are still stealing, I am in another country Because I could not stand that system, but for gambling, for bitcoin or for anything else that means playing in a casino we should not pay , it is not the duty to be, we have the right to have fun and that is not why we should Pay taxes, a Government , politicians always have fun with the money of the people , and they do not pay Anything.

Yes, I live in a country where welfare state is important. Nobody is left behind if they need basic social or medical assistance, for example.

I saw yesterday a documentary that explained how in the US diabetic people have to pay around 17k per year for their insulin: 250 USD monthly for the health insurance + a > 14k franchise, which means that below that money the insurance company doesn't pay you a dime. Hopefully where I live you have free insulin (for example) even if you are poor and homeless. Not to talk about other serious diseases nobody is risk free.

[Negotiation]

The past declared winners inspired people to continue grabbing their tickets because they also fantasize to win a huge amount of money and can change their life instantly.

There's no doubt that some have made this an opportunity to win a lifetime experience they will never forget in lottery, yet some have also been trying over time to make such opportunity but it never comes but despite they keep trying while some had stop giving a try on lottery application, since it's believee that lottery comes with alot of benefits, if everyone can made it to the entry because they needed just few applicants to be selected among many applying.

The lottery game has less risk and more joy in winning no need to invest anything here. A lucky person gets a chance to win tickets that are cheap even if one chooses to play the lottery, and there is no incentive to spend a lot of money to get a large number of tickets. Because the lottery does not participate in the game, there is no reason to accuse the organizers of wrongdoing. The risk of addiction is the least, this type of gambling is the least risky, so the joy of winning the game once is more.

[Webetcoins]

The past declared winners inspired people to continue grabbing their tickets because they also fantasize to win a huge amount of money and can change their life instantly. That's why we see to many people always betting especially when the prize at stake became more bigger and bigger. The thrill factor when that scenario came in lotteries increase that's why it create demand for people want to hit a one time big time on their life. Many got addicted and buy a lot of ticket because they think it can increase their chance to win but they realize after that even though they hold a lot of ticket still this doesn't guarantee them to declared as a lucky winner.

A lottery is just like other gambling games where even if you have a 99% chance of winning, you will lose if you are not lucky, so even if a lottery has sold 100k tickets and you have 70k tickets which means you have 70% chances of winning, but that doesn't really guarantee that you will win a prize or the main prize if there are more than one prizes in a lottery, so it's better if someone only buys a reasonable amount of tickets only to try their luck.

Buying a lot of tickets or spending a lot of money on lotteries doesn't really increase the chances of one winning the main prize, but people don't understand that just like how they think that betting with higher amounts increases the chances of them winning in gambling.

[klidex]

The existence of prizes from the lottery is what attracts people to continue buying tickets; with cheap ticket prices, they try to buy as many tickets as they can. And if they haven't won one of the prizes, they keep trying to buy a ticket to win it one day.

You nailed it right. What attracts people to buy lottery tickets is their cheap price and the huge amount they can get if they win.
We all know how odds works but we tend to neglect this when buying a lottery ticket because we become blinded by our greed.
When you buy a ticket, you don't think of what your odds of winning are, instead, the first thing you think of is what are you going to do with the money if you win!

That means we have started compiling a list of what we want to buy even though we don't know which ticket will come out as the winner. And by trying to buy lots of lottery tickets, means that we have a bigger chance to compete and become winners, but we forget that that's not how it works because lottery tickets work according to luck. And when we are lucky, we win and get the prize money.

It doesn't matter to me as long as he uses a small amount to buy lottery tickets and just to try his luck it doesn't matter what matters the most is using money he can afford to lose.
Because we always know that the chance in the lottery is indeed very small and there's nothing wrong with trying to buy tickets in large quantities with one cent per ticket.
If we are lucky, of course we will get a very large multiplier and we won't lose too much if we are not lucky.

[uneng]

but if these revenues financed public expenses that revert to the common good: would you agree to pay systematically 1 USD more in your annual taxes as something that ensures the right to dream of a dear life of every taxpayer?

I wouldn't bother paying an extra dollar on yearly taxes to have a slight chance of becoming a millionaire, and at same time contributing with my country, so the government can have more money to invest on areas which will revert benefits to ourselves, as citizens.

However, here in my country I don't have any expectations of invesments by the government thinking on common good, because politicians always and only think on themselves. That 1$ dollar from each citizen would be used to raise their wages, to create more jobs' spots inside the government for their supporters or would be simply stolen through corruption schemes.

So I'm not sure how worthful such measure would really be for the country.

Regarding your country , I have no idea which one is yours , but the way you talk makes it clear that it is a country where its rulers are very fair , unlike me , who comes from a country where politicians stole their wealth, I have nothing left to give something in taxes, because they are still stealing, I am in another country Because I could not stand that system, but for gambling, for bitcoin or for anything else that means playing in a casino we should not pay , it is not the duty to be, we have the right to have fun and that is not why we should Pay taxes, a Government , politicians always have fun with the money of the people , and they do not pay Anything.

I meant the rulers aren't fair here where I live. That is why I said I'm skeptical about the efficiency of such measure if implemented in my country. Actually, what you mention about your country is something I can say about mine as well. Politicians are having a lot of fun with taxes income creating more benefits and raising wages for themselves, while only dust of scraps is shared with the people through investments on the country.

Therefore, it really doesn't make sense to raise income of taxes for the government, since it's always going to be used to give extra advantages only to them, and not to the people who are paying the taxes.

Moreover, due to the high level of untrustworthiness on the local society, even lotteries ran by the government are under suspicion by the common citizen, since it's likely to be cheated. So people might avoid it.

[BitcoinPanther]

The past declared winners inspired people to continue grabbing their tickets because they also fantasize to win a huge amount of money and can change their life instantly. That's why we see to many people always betting especially when the prize at stake became more bigger and bigger. The thrill factor when that scenario came in lotteries increase that's why it create demand for people want to hit a one time big time on their life. Many got addicted and buy a lot of ticket because they think it can increase their chance to win but they realize after that even though they hold a lot of ticket still this doesn't guarantee them to declared as a lucky winner.

A lottery is just like other gambling games where even if you have a 99% chance of winning, you will lose if you are not lucky, so even if a lottery has sold 100k tickets and you have 70k tickets which means you have 70% chances of winning, but that doesn't really guarantee that you will win a prize or the main prize if there are more than one prizes in a lottery, so it's better if someone only buys a reasonable amount of tickets only to try their luck.

I agree in lottery it is not the number of ticket that determine the winner but the one who is lucky but having more ticket will grant us more chances of winnings.  Aside from that, as a lottery ticket buyer, we must consider our financial capability in buying ticket.  I agree it is attractive and very enticing to increase our chance of winnings but it would be devastating in our everyday life if we happen to neglect that we need funds to meet our daily needs.  So , we must buy tickets in moderation.

Buying a lot of tickets or spending a lot of money on lotteries doesn't really increase the chances of one winning the main prize, but people don't understand that just like how they think that betting with higher amounts increases the chances of them winning in gambling.

It does increase the chance of winnings but the problem is, does the amount of ticket in hand does have a huge impact on that chance?  So we better calculate if it is worth spending extra before buying the amount of ticket in the lottery.

[khaled0111]

..
It does increase the chance of winnings but the problem is, does the amount of ticket in hand does have a huge impact on that chance?  So we better calculate if it is worth spending extra before buying the amount of ticket in the lottery.

Couldn't agree more!
If we take the national lottery as example then we are talking about millions of tickets being sold. If you buy one ticket, you have a small chance to win. If you buy ten tickets then you have increased your chances of winning ten times but those chances are still small given the huge number of sold tickets. Personally, I prefer buying a single ticket and hope for the best.

[ethereumhunter]

It doesn't matter to me as long as he uses a small amount to buy lottery tickets and just to try his luck it doesn't matter what matters the most is using money he can afford to lose.
Because we always know that the chance in the lottery is indeed very small and there's nothing wrong with trying to buy tickets in large quantities with one cent per ticket.
If we are lucky, of course we will get a very large multiplier and we won't lose too much if we are not lucky.

People buy lottery tickets according to what they can afford, but many people expect a lot from the lottery, so they buy tickets in large quantities. And they shouldn't risk using a lot of money to buy lottery tickets because the chances wouldn't be that great either. Even if they buy lots of lottery tickets, that doesn't guarantee that the tickets will come out as winners. So they better understand that and not force to buy tickets in large quantities. It's better to buy lottery tickets in moderation and not hope too much about getting the prize. After all, lottery tickets depend on our luck to be the winner.

[Blitzboy]

The past declared winners inspired people to continue grabbing their tickets because they also fantasize to win a huge amount of money and can change their life instantly. That's why we see to many people always betting especially when the prize at stake became more bigger and bigger. The thrill factor when that scenario came in lotteries increase that's why it create demand for people want to hit a one time big time on their life. Many got addicted and buy a lot of ticket because they think it can increase their chance to win but they realize after that even though they hold a lot of ticket still this doesn't guarantee them to declared as a lucky winner.

A lottery is just like other gambling games where even if you have a 99% chance of winning, you will lose if you are not lucky, so even if a lottery has sold 100k tickets and you have 70k tickets which means you have 70% chances of winning, but that doesn't really guarantee that you will win a prize or the main prize if there are more than one prizes in a lottery, so it's better if someone only buys a reasonable amount of tickets only to try their luck.

Buying a lot of tickets or spending a lot of money on lotteries doesn't really increase the chances of one winning the main prize, but people don't understand that just like how they think that betting with higher amounts increases the chances of them winning in gambling.

Lotteries are misunderstood by many. Buying additional tickets does not significantly increase one's odds of winning. Each lottery draw is autonomous, and every ticket has the same chance of winning. Your recommendation to restrict ticket purchases to a fair quantity is sensible and kind. Lotteries should be seen as entertainment, not a source of money.

Higher bets dont increase odds either. Let's discuss this and encourage a more realistic and responsible attitude to lotteries and gaming. After all, having a good outlook and knowing the odds is the greatest way to enjoy these activities.

[Porfirii]

..
It does increase the chance of winnings but the problem is, does the amount of ticket in hand does have a huge impact on that chance?  So we better calculate if it is worth spending extra before buying the amount of ticket in the lottery.

Couldn't agree more!
If we take the national lottery as example then we are talking about millions of tickets being sold. If you buy one ticket, you have a small chance to win. If you buy ten tickets then you have increased your chances of winning ten times but those chances are still small given the huge number of sold tickets. Personally, I prefer buying a single ticket and hope for the best.

That is what I do too, and the point of this topic (apart from the question about people paying an extra dollar in their taxes every year): if the real value of lotteries is the possibility and, therefore, the right to dream about a dear life, but the game is uncompetitive in terms of probability, then the most intelligent strategy is to play maybe more often, but never more than the minimum required; unless you play with a group like, for instance, office mates.

If you have near zero chances of winning, even if you buy a thousand tickets you'll still have near zero chances to win, and the joy of dreaming turns, instead, to grief of frustrated expectations.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

The existence of prizes from the lottery is what attracts people to continue buying tickets; with cheap ticket prices, they try to buy as many tickets as they can. And if they haven't won one of the prizes, they keep trying to buy a ticket to win it one day.

You nailed it right. What attracts people to buy lottery tickets is their cheap price and the huge amount they can get if they win.
We all know how odds works but we tend to neglect this when buying a lottery ticket because we become blinded by our greed.
When you buy a ticket, you don't think of what your odds of winning are, instead, the first thing you think of is what are you going to do with the money if you win!

That means we have started compiling a list of what we want to buy even though we don't know which ticket will come out as the winner. And by trying to buy lots of lottery tickets, means that we have a bigger chance to compete and become winners, but we forget that that's not how it works because lottery tickets work according to luck. And when we are lucky, we win and get the prize money.

Very correct, atleast, from the little lotteries ive participated in, I've leant they lotteries is all about being lucky, before I started playing lottery, I used to also believe that winners are picked based on how many tickets they own, but playing it myself have made me realize it's majorly all about luck, a person could own 10 tickets and still not win, meanwhile, the person holding just 2 tickets might end up winning the jackpot.

But then again, it still depends on the lottery company involved, or should I say the organizers of the lottery, some might still tell us that the amount of tickets held will determine the winners.

[ethereumhunter]

Very correct, atleast, from the little lotteries ive participated in, I've leant they lotteries is all about being lucky, before I started playing lottery, I used to also believe that winners are picked based on how many tickets they own, but playing it myself have made me realize it's majorly all about luck, a person could own 10 tickets and still not win, meanwhile, the person holding just 2 tickets might end up winning the jackpot.

But then again, it still depends on the lottery company involved, or should I say the organizers of the lottery, some might still tell us that the amount of tickets held will determine the winners.

Exactly right. That's what happens to people who buy without thinking about luck or about winning and he just buys the ticket just for fun. But he can win the prize and come home with the money. The person who buys a lottery ticket can never know what will happen at the end because he just buys what he can afford and waits for the results to come out.

If the result is a loss, he will try again later and maybe increase the number of lottery tickets by buying more. Even though it wasn't recommended, he still bought it in large quantities.

[Popkon6]

I have recently read an interesting essay on this topic, but it was already explained it to me a few years ago.

The thesis would consist that, although the probability of winning classical lotteries is near zero (typically between 0.0000007% in the case of Euromillions and 0.000003% in the case of national lotteries), people is willing to pay an excessive overprice because they are buying the right to dream about the possibility of winning.

Although there are extreme cases that get addicted to lotteries, this is quite uncommon if I'm not wrong, because, if you are not paying for the probability but for the possibility, a bet of 1 USD is enough to buy said possibility.

On the other hand, national lotteries are known to be "taxes on ignorance of mathematics", but if these revenues financed public expenses that revert to the common good: would you agree to pay systematically 1 USD more in your annual taxes as something that ensures the right to dream of a dear life of every taxpayer?

We participate in the lottery with everyone's dream. But lucky people are not necessarily rewarded, only lottery games are rewarded. You paid money to buy lottery make your dreams come true don't hurt anyone's dreams. Every person should keep separate money for winning lottery. I have seen many people who are not happy about winning the lottery because of the hassle of paying taxes. Yet people come forward to these ads and spend a dollar to change their fortunes to win the dream.

[Crypt0Gore]

It is something I have already been aware of, people who play lotteries, specially those that offer huge amounts of money, are not really aware of the probability of winning but they know there is a minimal chance of it.

On the other hand, I think differently on the national lotteries because I like the idea of those funds being used to improve the living conditions in the country. Here we do not have those, all lotteries as privately held and it would take a change in the government so the people could trust more public money on the administration.

In the end, dreaming is free but playing the lottery is not.

They know that there is a minimal chance of winning and yet they proceed, well not all of they are in their liberty form of sanity, they don't really think about the aftermath, the present mind is on winning, if you are planning something out and you don't think about the disadvantages then you are blindly doing it,

Some people feels special when gambling, they believe that their small wins are limiting their chances to become the next millionaire and they go pull out high amount of money to gamble that's when they will lose everything and start to hate gambling.

Only 10 people out of millions make the best gains from gambling, this shows that a huge number of people always lose money to gambling, when the chances are too slim you need to play your game rightfully, to avoid getting burnt.

[goldkingcoiner]

Of course you are paying for the “dream” or opportunity. Otherwise people would have to be crazy to play at all. I’ve always said that lotteries are taxes on people who are bad at math, but more honestly they’re for people who have no hope of getting rich through investment knowledge or by building companies, this is their long shot hope at a different life.

I think that playing the lottery in hopes of changing one's life is already crazy. Whether or not this kind of business model is opportunistic or provides people with a "ticket for hope", which may or may not provide that person with a kind of psychological relief service or something similar and therefore constitutes as a "paid service" can be debated. Personally, I think all of gambling is the same, regardless of the individual winning chances. The game's probability is always against the player, so technically, every gambler is paying for the "dream of opportunity".

Although I think saying there are people who have no hope for getting rich through investment and instead gamble is wrong. If they saved up the money instead of losing it, they could have made an amazing investment in some unicorn company like the coca-cola of the future. In fact, their chances of making such an amazing investment are probably higher than becoming rich by gambling.

[letteredhub]

One doesn't have to pay to dream of becoming a winner only that in this case you won't know when to stop dreaming to win in life until you have no breathe left. But the winning dream from lotteries has a limited time attached to each lottery game, immediately the lottery ended and your number isn't picked your dream stop at once.  Looking at the idea behind a national lottery if we'll organized and I see my penny coming to actuality through provisions of social amenities and more, I wouldn't mind thrusting more than a 1 USD to that effect.

[Hispo]

It is something I have already been aware of, people who play lotteries, specially those that offer huge amounts of money, are not really aware of the probability of winning but they know there is a minimal chance of it.

On the other hand, I think differently on the national lotteries because I like the idea of those funds being used to improve the living conditions in the country. Here we do not have those, all lotteries as privately held and it would take a change in the government so the people could trust more public money on the administration.

In the end, dreaming is free but playing the lottery is not.

They know that there is a minimal chance of winning and yet they proceed, well not all of they are in their liberty form of sanity, they don't really think about the aftermath, the present mind is on winning, if you are planning something out and you don't think about the disadvantages then you are blindly doing it,

Some people feels special when gambling, they believe that their small wins are limiting their chances to become the next millionaire and they go pull out high amount of money to gamble that's when they will lose everything and start to hate gambling.

Only 10 people out of millions make the best gains from gambling, this shows that a huge number of people always lose money to gambling, when the chances are too slim you need to play your game rightfully, to avoid getting burnt.

One does not need to reach the point of hating something like gambling even if it is only because the ignorance of the person.
Some casinos are clear enough that this is supposed to be an activity which is to be viewed as entertainment and we should not gamble what we cannot lose.

It is part of a duality of concepts, on one hand you can see the huge wins or other people and on the other there is the losing part, which receive less promotion than the winners. If we keep ourselves aware of it, then we can avoid disappointment and hatred towards something as old as gambling.

[slapper]

I have recently read an interesting essay on this topic, but it was already explained it to me a few years ago.

The thesis would consist that, although the probability of winning classical lotteries is near zero (typically between 0.0000007% in the case of Euromillions and 0.000003% in the case of national lotteries), people is willing to pay an excessive overprice because they are buying the right to dream about the possibility of winning.

Although there are extreme cases that get addicted to lotteries, this is quite uncommon if I'm not wrong, because, if you are not paying for the probability but for the possibility, a bet of 1 USD is enough to buy said possibility.

On the other hand, national lotteries are known to be "taxes on ignorance of mathematics", but if these revenues financed public expenses that revert to the common good: would you agree to pay systematically 1 USD more in your annual taxes as something that ensures the right to dream of a dear life of every taxpayer?

We participate in the lottery with everyone's dream. But lucky people are not necessarily rewarded, only lottery games are rewarded. You paid money to buy lottery make your dreams come true don't hurt anyone's dreams. Every person should keep separate money for winning lottery. I have seen many people who are not happy about winning the lottery because of the hassle of paying taxes. Yet people come forward to these ads and spend a dollar to change their fortunes to win the dream.

Although everyone has the right to hope for something better, could the lottery's continued popularity contribute to an unhealthy preoccupation with rapid gratification? A society that has devalued effort and perseverance in favor of luck. You recommend dedicating a certain sum of money specifically to the lottery. But why not save up for something concrete, like a future adventure or a contingency fund?

Taxes, what a pain! This seems like a textbook example of "champagne problems," don't you think? It's like griping about the brightness of the sun on a tropical paradise. You're doing better than most people if you can complain about lottery taxes.