Well, now that the 1.5 billion-dollar Powerball frenzy is temporarily over in the US, I can admit I’m one of the players that lottery officials hate.
I don’t buy many tickets, and when I do, I buy only one per game. The jackpot has to reach a certain level before I even consider spending money on it.
Over the years, that level has climbed. When our state lottery first reached 5 or 6 million dollars, my friends and I thought that was a big deal.
Our state joined one big multi-state lottery, then another. Now I rarely buy state lottery tickets anymore, and only if the prize pool is higher than normal *and* I’m buying a ticket for a big multi-state lottery. Even though the odds are marginally better on the state game.
I buy fewer multi-state tickets, too, and my prize threshold has risen along with the jackpots. First 45 million, then 100 million, then 200 million. When the recent odds/rules changes to some multi-state games lifted their prize pools even higher, my buying threshold followed.
Now that we know a 1.5 billion prize is possible – and probably likely in the future, given those changes – I doubt I’ll even look at any lottery until it reaches 500 million.
My wallet will be happier. I’ll miss the little thrill of ‘what if’ while I have an active ticket. But my life will have a little less hassle in it, too. I know enough math to be able to grasp that the odds of winning a meaningful prize have gone from merely astronomical to cosmological…if not mythological.
Great planning, lottery officials. What’s your next trick?