Researchers say our decision to play is based in what they call the Cinderella complex — the fantasy that, with a wish and a prayer, our lives will drastically change in a second. With the wave of a wand or the matching of the numbers on our ticket, we can have and be all that we have dreamed.
I’m talking about playing the lottery. With Saturday’s Powerball jackpot building to a crescendo of $435 million dollars, I was prompted to join in the fun and purchase a lottery ticket. As I stood in line, the words of my undergraduate statistics professor came back to me as clear as if he was standing right next to me. People who buy lottery tickets have the same statistical odds of winning as those people who don’t even buy a ticket.
I bought $10 worth.
Why do we do it? Why spend our hard-earned money on something for which the odds of success are so low they are virtually invisible? Why wait in line to hand over our hard earned cash for a gamble that we know with almost 100 percent certainty will not pay off?
As Lloyd Christmas said in the movie Dumb and Dumber, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”
State lotteries have become lucrative sources of funding for state programs. In Pennsylvania, the revenue from the Pennsylvania lottery is used to support programs for senior citizens including prescription drug programs and other activities. In many states, the lottery is used to support education programs. As a result, the lotteries are marketed through slick campaigns and high-profile advertising. We are talking billions across the nation in revenue that wouldn’t otherwise be there.
Unfortunately, the lottery doesn’t make much from the occasional player, like me, who jumps in on the well-publicized mega drawings. Studies have found that lottery players are usually in the lower level socioeconomic strata and tend to be male and minority in their profile. Critics have said the lottery has almost served as a “tax” for poorer groups of people in that they have less money but spend more money buying chances and gambling on the potential for a big win. Opponents have pointed out that lottery purchasing centers and targeted marketing campaigns are disproportionately located in lower socioeconomic areas and intentionally play on the idea of hope and of “anyone can win” for people who feel like they have few options. The social implications for gambling and gambling excess are a whole other cause for concern.
And yet we do it. About half of us will participate in the lottery this year.
Who wouldn’t want to be that person pictured in the news with that gigantic check made out in the amount of a gazillion dollars? Travel. Cars. Homes. Stuff and more stuff. Financial security for not only ourselves but for our extended family. It would surely guarantee the happiness and the contentment that we seek.
Never mind the news stories about people who win the lottery and end up in worse shape than they were prior to winning. Ignore the tales of loss and of lost relationships from people who find themselves in a position of overnight excess and who can’t ward off the greed, resentment and selfishness of others and of themselves. Ignore the odds and focus on the possibilities.
It has been said that a life without dreaming is a life without meaning.
People who play the lottery focus more on the minutes spent waiting in line or the seconds of fun and excitement spent scratching off a lottery ticket and fantasizing about the win than on the ridiculously low odds of winning and the incredibly high probability of a lottery jackpot screwing up one’s life.
With the ticket tucked safely in my wallet, I found myself thinking about what I would do if I won. How I would change my life. Who I would help. The impact it would have on my kids and their kids (who aren’t even born yet). The charitable programs and services I would support if I had such abundance. The stuff I would buy. How I would handle the inevitable requests and people coming out of the woodwork in response to my newfound wealth.
Sadly, when I woke up on Sunday morning, I learned that winning ticket was purchased in California. I haven’t taken the time to check my ticket since I heard. While there were a few smaller payouts in Pennsylvania, I will most likely have to be happy with the fact that my $10 went to a good cause and gave me a few minutes of fun thinking about the “what ifs.” I have to go back to looking for contentment and happiness in a life of work, family and my ability to directly impact my future irrespective of a lottery ticket.
As author C.S. Lewis said, “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.”
