There are a lot of variations on the theme of "the lottery is a tax on people who can't do math"

Sometimes when people commonly say a thing, it's a myth, or a meme that they all got from the same place. Sometimes it's because the thing is plain for anyone to figure out who does the figuring.

but the fact remains it's the only form of gambling which has million-to-one payouts

All forms of organised gambling, whether a lottery or casino games, are rigged heavily toward the house. Let me put it to you this way: even under optimal condition, if you could buy the tickets only at the perfect times when the ratio of the jackpot verses the probability of winning most favours you, if you could buy every ticket sold, you would lose money even before you had to pay taxes on your "winnings". You would lose money every time, without exception. If the lottery were not run by the state, it would be criminal under various laws regarding fraud and other ways of taking advantage of gullible people.

With the lottery, I can put down a dollar and have the excitement of dreaming of winning a million.

I can dream for free about winning a million dollars, or about inheriting a kingdom, or about anything. Dreams are free. Convincing people to pay money for something that's free is one of the oldest and best-known scams in the book.

Also, my odds of winning it are infinitely greater than yours

Mathematically speaking, this is a wash. My expected returns, at zero, are a good deal higher than yours.

Look, the money is in your hands, and if you want to spend it on tickets that's your decision to make, but since you were talking about math, I just thought I'd bring up the mathematical side of the thing. If you want to buy dreams, hey, it's your money. Some people justify it by saying it's fun, and all forms of entertainment cost money. Sure, okay. But as far as the mathematics of the thing are concerned, it's an expenditure, not an investment of any kind. Ordinarily I don't trouble most people with this, because it just upsets them, but you were showing enough interest in math that I thought maybe you'd be interested. 

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In reply to Re: Lottery combinations golf by jonadab
in thread Lottery combinations golf by Cody Pendant

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