Felix Salmon Plays The Lottery, Do You?

Why Felix Salmon Is Buying A Lottery Ticket

Have you bought your lottery ticket yet? The jackpot’s up to $241 million!

An interesting thing happens, when the jackpot gets this big: if you actually believe the $241 million figure, the expected return on your dollar is positive. The mean player, it turns out, is going to get paid out to the tune of $1.553 for every ticket they buy. In reality, sadly, the cash option is $170 million, which brings the expected payout to $1.149 per dollar spent, which means that after taxes, you still have to expect to lose money.

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