I played the lottery a few times leading up to January’s ultimate $1.5 Billion Powerball drawing. The enormity of this record jackpot prompted me to think about the lottery phenomenon. I mused that big jackpots can make some people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do. And I realized I’m one of those people.
I’ve heard that the chances of winning Powerball are something like 1 in 272 million. Microscopic. But does that stop me from buying a ticket? Yes, most of the time. I hardly ever play. But when huge jackpots beckon, thoughts about long odds suddenly become inconvenient and not fun. Instead, I shift my focus to the far sunnier notion that “someone has to win”. I know – not smart.
Most of the time I don’t even think of playing the lottery. Under normal circumstances, when the jackpots are at historically unremarkable levels and the lottery is not in the news, my brain functions better and allows me to recognize that these lotteries are bad bets and not even particularly fun to play. The transaction is mundane, and not much more interesting than buying a pack of gum. There’s no excitement, no fanfare, no pomp or circumstance. And I guess I just don’t want to spend the money, AND LOSE, much more often than I do now. Waiting for the largest of jackpots confines my playing to a handful of times a year.
When the jackpots surge to the multi-hundred million dollar levels, they command attention. People that normally don’t play start buying tickets. The lines get longer, the din louder, and the phenomenon becomes a prominent feature in the newscasts. And I’m drawn to participate – again. Even some people who understand the odds and the math much better than I join in. In the week of the $1.5 billion lottery drawing, a respected Wall Street Journal financial columnist admitted on TV that he bought a ticket. He wasn’t proud of it, but said if everyone else in his office pool won, he feared they’d quit their jobs and he’d be the only one left holding the bag. So he bought one in self-defense. It sounded extra funny coming from an expert in Finance.
I don’t have much more excuse than he does however. I’m a project manager called upon to make decisions objectively and conduct sober assessments of risk in our projects. Such an appraisal of buying a Powerball ticket would quickly compel me to steer clear, even if the investment is only $2. Yes, one need not be a financial expert to understand that this decision is not difficult. DO NOT BUY THE TICKET!
… But I expect I’ll play again the next time the jackpots swell and the news of it heats up. It’s sometimes fun to do things one doesn’t ordinarily do.