The lottery game has existed since the Han Dynasty in China. Historical event has it that the Chinese used the money generated from the lottery to finance the construction of the Great Wall of China. The lottery was also in existence during the reign of King James. In 1612, he used the lottery to raise fund for the building of the new settlement at Jamestown, Va. Everyone's dream was to draw up a lucky number which could give a jackpot. In 2006, more than half of Americans were able to buy themselves a state lottery ticket. Many myths surround both the winners and losers of lottery games. In this article, we will be discussing the Top 5 myths about the lottery.
According to Prof. Sanjiv Chopra from Harvard Medical School, winning a $20 million lottery ticket would not make you happier. He said this in one of a recent TED talk in America. He also further explained this by citing recent research on how happiness vacillates with changes in positive and negative circumstances within a short period but people tend to regress to their initial set point of happiness over time. From his research, it is clear that winning the lottery may worsen people's live than improving them. For example, the International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice reported a case in 2009 about two German patients who got admitted into the hospital for depression after each won approximately half a million dollars in the lottery.
It is so difficult to change the mind of people about this. They always believe that winning the jackpot will change their life completely but that is not true. This is because there are people who won it big but today, they still live in poverty. According to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America done in 2006, a few Americans think that hitting the jackpot is the best and most practical means of gathering huge savings. In 2019, a survey led by Investment App Stash discovered that 40% of respondents; including 59% of millennials believe that winning the lottery game is a better option to fund retirement.
A lot of lotteries in the state have allocated the revenue generated for important projects, and one of these projects is ‘Education’. In California, television and billboard spots have often publicized the benefits of playing the lottery for educational purposes. In Virginia, they usually print theirs on the back of their lottery tickets. When the North Carolina Education Lottery was introduced in 2005, Governor Mike Easley made a promise to them. He said, “we will be adding another half-billion-dollar annually for education”. For this, it is evidence that state lotteries benefit more when they render public services.
This sounds illogical but it is a fact. The more potential winnings, the more you want to spend your money to try your luck. Experts who have gambled their way to the top have postulated that each time a Powerball winnings get to a particular threshold, the value expected from the game (the probability of winning the game multiplied by the payout) is always higher than the price of the ticket.
There is a lot of media commentary that has discouraged those who want to buy a lottery ticket. And this frequently happens when there is a bigger opportunity to hit a jackpot and during this time, lottery tickets are more on sales. You could hear some say things like “It's an immoral diversion of money that could be better spent". At this moment, don’t listen to anyone including the media. There is never a good reason to play the lottery. If you must win, you need to play it notwithstanding the present status of the lotteries and the draws you see. Try to use our lottery strategy to guide yourself during these moments. It could your time to win it BIG!
Don't forget to read our article about the 7 best methods of choosing lottery numbers.