Why Do Americans Lose Their Time To Play The Lottery

Americans who play the lottery waste way too much of their time and hard-earned money. The chances of winning are unlikely and unrealistic. Although many dream of becoming wealthy, it can be argued that money doesn’t buy happiness. All in all, those who play the lottery should stop because they end up losing more money than they actually gain; the main cause of this imbalance is the low return rates the lottery gives out. The average return rate of the lottery is 53 cents on the dollar, meaning someone who plays the lottery losses 47 cents for every dollar they spend on the lottery, and that statistic still doesn’t scare people away (Americans Spend More). Since that fact hasn't necessarily sinked into many peoples minds, here’s the situation in context; imagine going to your local gas station and saying, “Hey, here’s my dollar! Can I get half of what it’s worth back?” What makes Americans so ignorant to the fact that they’re actually losing money in exchange for the slightest odds to actually hit some winning numbers. “The Powerball winning odds are 1 in 292 million, while those for Mega Million are slightly better: 1 in 259

Sadly, in this world we live in money, an inanimate object, speaks for itself. Since the lottery first became popular, multiple lotto jackpots exceed 100 million dollars every year, and have even reached $759,000,000 for one single payout to one single person (Largest Single US Lottery). Those kinds of payouts only make playing the lottery even more tempting to gamblers. Stories like the the ones of [insert name], who won a $5 scratch off from the local Shell gas station, also make the lottery sound more reasonable. Those types of tickets, called scratch offs, offer lower risks, with lower (but more frequent) rewards to people who want a little hands-on action. They keep the idea of playing more fun to