7 Startling Facts About Lottery Games

Everyone has played the lottery at some point in their life. This means that lottery games are no new and quite popular. But it doesn’t say that lottery games are the best use of your money. Here are 7 Facts About Lottery Games

Everything about playing lottery games ends up bad. Still, you can play for $1 or $2, the long term return is worse than any other gambling activity. Unless you get sufficient entertainment from buying lottery tickets to cover your cost, you should stop playing. 

Here’s a roster of 7 facts about lottery games that every player should know.

1 – The return to player numbers is not good

When you participate in a gambling activity the first thing you look at is the return to player numbers. This means how much you can expect to get back for every $1 a risk and you must know how big the house edge is.

The return to player percentage and the house edge is 2 sides of the same coin. When you add the house edge and return to player percentages together you get 100%.

Lottery games are terrible when it comes to return to player and house edge numbers. The exact numbers depend on the particular lottery games you’re playing, but the best games have a return to player around 50%, and the worst is as low as 20 or 25%. This makes a house edge of 50% to 80%.

Slot machines have a return to player of between 85% and 95% on average, with a house edge of 5% to 15%.

Blackjack games offer a return to player of 95% to 99.75% with a house edge of .25% to 5%.

2 – The odds are worse

The house edge, return to player numbers, and the odds are closely related but they’re not the same. Odds are the return to player and edge numbers, but they’re more useful as a way to see how likely you are to win something.

For instance, if you have odds of 1 in 250,000,000 of winning something, it means that if you played 250 million times that you should win 1 time. In other words, the odds are against you ever winning because there aren’t many things you can do 250 million times.

The important thing to understand is that the odds are so high against you when you play the lottery that it’s a waste of time and money.

3 – Daily tickets are just as bad as big draws

The odds can be better for a game whereas the return to player and house edge numbers can be the same. Daily tickets are just as bad as big draws with lower possible rewards. This is one of the 7 Facts About Lottery Games.

The odds of winning a daily lottery ticket, like a pick 3, are much better than the odds of winning a big lottery draw.

But the return to player numbers and the house edge is mostly about the same playing daily games as playing big draw lottery games. The return to the player is based on how much of the money taken in is paid back to the holders of winning tickets.

4 – Scratch-off tickets are worse

Scratch off lottery tickets is just like daily lottery games. But it doesn’t matter if they’re worse or not. Both options are terrible for gamblers.

Scratch off lottery tickets has the same problems as daily games. The top prizes are much smaller than the top prizes on Mega Millions and Powerball and other similar games, and the return to player numbers aren’t improved on most games.

And even if the returns to player numbers are 10 or 20% better, you still have to risk money on a game that’s worse than every other gambling option. Better not to take a risk when you can’t even win a life-changing amount of money?

5 – A lifetime of losses

When you play the lottery in any form you’re going to lose. And the longer you play the more you’re going to lose. If you play lottery games your entire life, you’re going to spend your entire life losing.

You can avoid a lifetime of losing as a lottery player by stop playing.

Odds are always bad, and it doesn’t matter how many tickets you buy. The house edge is going to win even when you get lucky and win a small amount from time to time.

6 – The only value is pure entertainment

You can buy lottery tickets for one reason. When you buy a lottery ticket for Powerball or Mega Millions, do you send time fantasizing about how you’re going to spend the money if you win?

This is a form of entertainment, and as far as entertainment goes it’s a fairly inexpensive form.

It costs anywhere from $20 to $100 for the most common forms of entertainment. If you’re buying $20 worth of lottery tickets, you might be better off seeing a movie or going out to eat. This is one of the 7 Facts About Lottery Games.

7 – Any gambling activity is better

Lottery games are the worst way to gamble. It’s ok to spend $1 for a ticket every once in a while for the entertainment value, but overall the lottery is not recommended.

The only downside to most other gambling activities is that you risk more money on them. But there are ways to gamble for a few bucks that offer better numbers than playing the lottery.

Better to find a gambling activity that offers a better chance of return that is cheap to play. This is going to save you a great deal of money in the long run.

Synopsis

If you’re playing lottery games for some reason other than entertainment you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. The odds and return to player numbers are so bad that it’s impossible to win. These are the 7 Facts About Lottery Games.

The lottery is bad enough that can be replaced with any other gambling activity. It might be cheap to play in the short run, but the lottery costs you a lot of money in the long run.