A One Step Guide to Winning the Lottery
Making a consistent profit through playing the lottery is practically impossible.
Sure, every now and then an enterprising mathematician is able to find an exploitable flaw in a lottery’s design. Some players even win multiple jackpots through sheer dumb luck. But in terms of a scaleable, accessible strategy for playing the lottery, the best solutions the all-knowing internet can offer are questionable (and expensive) lottery guessing algorithms.
So why do so many people play lotto?
It is tempting to attribute such behaviour to human stupidity. Probability can be counter-intuitive, and a lack of knowledge about the underlying mathematics is exacerbated by psychological biases. We tend to a) have difficulty wrapping our heads around large numbers (like the astronomical number of lottery tickets typically eligible to win a jackpot) and b) underestimate the chances of negative outcomes, such as losing.
However, there is more to the lottery than meets the eye. Namely, profiting from the lottery doesn’t necessarily mean making more money than is spent. Rather, the satisfaction derived from the potential of winning may outweigh any monetary losses incurred by players.
But how can the excitement of buying a ticket and checking its winnings counteract the real money wasted through its purchase?
The potential prize money offered by any lottery does not have any inherent value. It is by purchasing goods and services from which satisfaction can be derived that a winner benefits from their newfound riches. If we think of money as a mechanism through which we can achieve some happiness, it follows that happiness can conversely be measured in monetary terms.
In other words, the positive emotions experienced through the mere act of playing lotto are just as real as the price of a ticket. Just as with any good/service, lottery tickets are a tradeoff between cash and the utility which can be extracted from them.
For some, spending a small amount on the lottery is a fun way to pass time and feel some excitement. Of course, the opposite is true of others who do not gamble responsibly. It is possible that the lottery may even trigger an overall negative amount of satisfaction as feelings of desperation, frustration and addiction overpower any beneficial emotions.
Nevertheless, there is a significant portion of people who regularly win the lottery. The never make the news or charter a yacht to the Mediterranean, but they come out on top regardless. All they do is follow one simple step:
Enjoy it, a lot.
