How do you see the lottery game? Is it the game of chance or the game of probability?

based on the odds, it is a scam.

a tax on the stupid...

It's a game of probabilities with the likelihood (probability) of winning so small that it becomes a game of chance.

Actually, it's entirely a game of chance. The odds of getting tails if you flip a coin are 50-50. If it comes up tails, and you flip it again, the odds are still 50-50. The difference in the lottery is that the odds are millions to one against you choosing the winning numbers. Neither losing nor winning change the odds.

I once knew a co-worker who claimed he spent five dollars a day on the lottery. I knew him for a little over five years which meant in that time he spent approx. $9,125 (have no idea if he played on holidays). I always told him I thought he was nuts and was wasting his money, he begged to differ. One day he comes skipping into my office waving a scratch-off ticket showing he had won $500. He said "see you're wrong, you can win a lot of money in the lottery if you are persistent ". To answer the direct question - it's a game of chance. By chance you can't do math, you are more likely to play the lottery

So while you knew him, he spent more than nine thousand dollars, and won five hundred in return. That boy badly needs some remedial math.

Some people just cannot see The Big Picture. I also think the element of addiction has to be factored in. If the addiction part of the brain is not involved I think it's easy to walk away.

That's one addiction from which, i thank Dog, i have never suffered. I'm a good poker player, and intentionally lose my poker face to give the impression that i chronically lose. That way, people don't pay any attention when i walk away from the table with my winnings--they often don't realize i have won anything. Over my lifetime, i am modestly ahead of the game in poker. That's good enough for me. If you know the odds, and you're paying attention AND you won't play with anyone who allows wild cards, poker is not a game of chance.

When the Texas lottery was introduced, I read in the paper that the regular player could expect to win one time each 700 years. So, your chance of winning depends if you are at the beginning or not of the 700 years.

What are the odds of winning the UK euromillion lottery?

When it comes down to it, it's how you play that determines if it's a game of chance of pure luck or one of probabilities.

Let me try to explain what I mean. If you only play once, only buy one ticket then it is purely on luck, no probabilities in it. You just get the standard odds of winning.

However if you were to purchase multiple tickets and play consistently then the chances of you winning go up although marginally. We are not talking about the odds of winning, they stay the same regardless of how many tickets you purchase. What I am referring to is the chance of YOU winning.

If you already had a lot of money to waste on purchasing tickets. You could purchase a thousand tickets per drawing, your chances of winning are better than that of a person who only purchases one ticket every drawing.

This is what people are referring to when it's a game of probability.