Once a lottery like Mega Millions has a high enough jackpot so that the expected value of the ticket is higher than the cost, why does it still feel like it’s a bad investment to buy a ticket?
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A financial consultant once told me that investing in the Lottery was actually a good investment, as long as you were prudent about it. Let’s say you play every other week for $2, that would be a $52 dollar investment – that would be less than the cost of buying one cup of coffee every other week. His explanation was that although you were most likely not going to win but if you did, the return on investment would beat any other way you could have invested that money.
The argument that you will most likely not win and are just throwing money away must be considered with the context of investments. Any investing requires a certain amount of risk, so it’s a matter of what and how much risk you are willing to accept. Investing in the stock market or real estate carries no guarantee of return either, so it depends on which you find more interesting or entertaining. Granted, long term shows that the market or property is more likely to succeed
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