If you spend any time in a casino, you learn how the odds are stacked against you.
But you go anyway and you win a few bucks and try to have a good time even if you lose.
And then there’s the Mega Millions lottery where the odds are probably as bad as they get when it comes to the chances of you winning the big jackpot.
Yet tens of millions of people play the lottery every week and even more when the jackpot was as big as it was last night, 667-million-dollars.
With no winning ticket last night, the Mega Millions jackpot jumps to 868-million dollars for the next drawing, a record high for the mega millions lottery game.
And despite the odds of winning the big jackpot being 1 in 302-million, 575-thousand-350, tens of millions of people will be buying lottery tickets for that drawing Friday night.
Some will buy more than one, and sometimes many more than one. But those who know about statistics say that’s a bad idea.
While buying more tickets may technically increase your odds a sliver, a very tiny sliver, they say the odds are still more than a 100 times better you will be struck by lightning than win a big lottery jackpot.
The best advice you’ll hear about playing the lottery is to decide on a budget. Buying one two-dollar ticket won’t get you in trouble and the odds on that are pretty much 100 percent.
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