11-18-2023, 04:48 AM
Missing Variable
It can be demonstrated
mathematically
that purchase of a ticket
in a major lottery
is quite the good deal.
Let us say the jackpot
is a modest sixty-five million
and chance of winning it
one in thirty million.
This means your two-dollar ticket
(even without “instant” side-games)
has a present value of around
two-seventeen.
How can any punter
resist odds like that?
Well, do the other math:
after the drawing
your two-dollar ticket
is worth Zero.
And every week you buy one
without winning
you’re down two more bucks
with no return at all
except frustration.
The missing variable
is time: live a week in hope
and thirty years in loss.
Still like those odds?
They say the lottery’s for education
but bettors never learn.
It can be demonstrated
mathematically
that purchase of a ticket
in a major lottery
is quite the good deal.
Let us say the jackpot
is a modest sixty-five million
and chance of winning it
one in thirty million.
This means your two-dollar ticket
(even without “instant” side-games)
has a present value of around
two-seventeen.
How can any punter
resist odds like that?
Well, do the other math:
after the drawing
your two-dollar ticket
is worth Zero.
And every week you buy one
without winning
you’re down two more bucks
with no return at all
except frustration.
The missing variable
is time: live a week in hope
and thirty years in loss.
Still like those odds?
They say the lottery’s for education
but bettors never learn.
Non-practicing atheist