I'm always amused that lottery ticket sales go way-way up when the prize money gets really high. The more tickets that are bought, the longer the (already astronomical) odds of winning. Also, you hear about large groups of co-workers pooling their money to buy large numbers of tickets, which increases the odds but reduces the per-share winnings.

I "play" (i.e., discard a dollar bill) only occasionally, and most often do so the week AFTER a large sum has been won and the prize-money sum is reduced to the designated baseline amount. This "smallest" prize in the multi-state Powerball drawing is well over a million bucks, which would be enough for me. Hell, I'm not greedy!

(I realize that, by participating at all, ever, I might seem to some to be "mathematically illiterate." Not so. I'm cognizant of the odds, but I also know that only those who play can win, and people do win.)