Lotteries

[sdill]

What are your thoughts on playing state lotteries? If we apply the principles of pot odds, if a jackpot was $1,000,000 and the odds of winning were 1,000,000 to 1. Then it is breakeven to play that lottery, in the very very very long run obviously. Since I've learned about pot odds in poker, i've been applying this concept to the lottery. For example, I live in Indiana and our state lottery is up to $41,000,000 and the odds of winning our ~12,500,000 to 1 (per the state lottery website). I see this as a good bet since I'm getting over 3 to 1 for my money, in the very very very long run. Anyway, we only live once, so if I was to win it would be awesome, but if I don't win, I'm only out that $5 or $10. Thoughts?