Dream Tax ... Everything else is taxed .

Gotta be in it to win it! (And people actually do.)

The best explanation I ever heard was that it's not automatically about believing you can overcome the astoundingly absurd odds. It's more a matter of spending money on a fantasy and daydreaming about all the wondrous things that are supposed to follow a huge windfall. (Even so, I haven't bought a ticket in years, whether Super Lotto, Powerball, or scratchers, because it still feels a lot like tearing dollar bills into little pieces and letting the winds scatter them).

It's about the same odds that my government will use my tax dollars wisely but, I still pay them.

A small price to pay for the dreams to be had between buying and and getting to know the disappointing results!

Seriously though the odds are usually not a couple of billion to one but depending on country, game and what kind of win you are talking about a few millions to a few dozen millions.

For example with the UK lottery, you have to choose 6 numbers from 1 to 59. The odds to win the jackpot by guessing all 6 right are therefore 1 to 595857565554 divided by 6543*2 which amounts to 1 in 45,057,474.

The Euromillions odds are 1 in 116,531,800 but the odds to win any of the prices are one in 13.

'Cos I'm stupid!

They live in hope.

It's my retirement plan. lol