Better chances than you think
Slow down on that math for a second. You are only using the chances of winning the lottery PER TICKET, and most people buy more than one ticket.
We get it, the chances of winning the lottery are horrible. But let's even the playing ground a little. You compare once-in-a-lifetime events with the chances of winning the lottery based on a one-chance-in-a-lifetime ticket.
Many people I know purchase $10 of lottery tickets per week. I'll use your statistics:
Chances of being killed by lightning: 2.65 Million to 1
Chances of winning the lottery: about 18 Million to 1 (for state lotteries) up to about 120 Million to 1
So, my friend who buys 10 tickets per week for 30 years buys 15,600 tickets in his lifetime. Waste of money? I suppose. But his chances of winning the state lottery IN HIS LIFETIME are just over 1 in a thousand (about 1 in 1154). In other words, he is more than 2000 times more likely to win the state lottery than get killed by lightning!
His chances of winning the multistate lottery are 1 in 7692. He is still over 300 times more likely to win the multistate lottery than die by lightning.
Math. How does it work?
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