What are the chances you’ll win?
Infinitesimally small. Ticket holders in the multistate Powerball lottery, for example, have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning the jackpot. That’s like putting into a hat the names of nearly everyone in the U.S. and hoping your name is pulled out. Yet the fantasy of getting rich quick is too tempting for many of us to resist.
About half of Americans have played the lottery at least once. With a growing array of prize draws, electronic games, and scratch cards available, sales in the 43 state lotteries totaled $70 billion in 2014.
So here’s the question.
Why would someone keep buying lottery tickets when they are losing?
Yep. It’s a good question.
The answer is dopamine!
Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter.
Your body makes it, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. That’s why it’s sometimes called a chemical messenger. Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure.
You get a “hit” of dopamine at 3 stages during the lottery ticket purchase:
- When you think about buying the ticket.
- When you decide to buy a ticket.
- When you do the transaction.
This combination of hope and joy reduces the sadness of actually losing.
So you keep buying lottery tickets over and over again!
Looking for a better approach to your income goals than lottery tickets?