If I were Filthy Rich
By yawara25+41 Playing every draw
So theoretically if you buy a ticket every draw, even when the jackpot is at $20 million, wouldn't it be strategically better to wait until it's high (say $600 million or something) and then buy as many lines as drawings have passed since your last purchase? Then effectively it's like buying all those tickets at the higher jackpot instead of the lower amount they were at the time. Does that make sense or am I thinking about it wrong?
Recent responses
+46 @postmanpat84 Lottery is designed for you to lose thousands over a life time of playing in the hopes of winning the top prize in a draw. You would probably be over the moon playing a low prize draw and winning like 100k
+31 @GooderApe My thinking is I have a non-zero chance of the jackpot if I play one line or 20; basically the same. Heck, a thousand lines is basically the same. (0.00000034% vs 0.00034%). Slightly higher for any prize. So, I have no chance to win if I don't play, but basically the same chance no matter how many lines I play. So, if the jackpot gets high enough, I'll play a line per drawing for the entertainment value of "what if...?" and recognize I'm throwing the money away.
+19 @Terradactyl87 Statistically, there's no point in playing at all, so it's not worth bringing logic into it. People basically play to have a little dream that they might win and all their financial troubles will go away. I think it makes more sense to do that more often than to put all your hopes into one drawing. I like having a couple tickets waiting for me to check. There's always the chance that it'll be the one and everything will change. Why put more money into a single shot when I can play my $9 a week and always have the hope of winning.