I once won over $600 the very first time I played the NYS lottery some years back, and for years after that have only won a few dollars up to $20 here and there, and one win of $100 once.
I have a rule that I never spend more than 1 or 2 dollars, and will only buy more tickets with whatever small winnings I might get and recycle once in a while.
My general experience in 3 or 4 years with that, is the same advice I follow from Buffet on the market, which is, don't spend what you can't afford to lose, and don't lose!
Whether it's the lottery or the stock market, the odds considering the players in the 'pot' are not like 100 to 1, but more like thousands or even millions, and possibly billions to one, so the odds of getting rich quick are extremely unlikely, although I can testify that one can win, sort of, and who knows when, and maybe never, and maybe once in a while, and again, who knows?
Since we're actually living and buoyed by the prosperity and standards of living of the American economy, the odds in the market are probably better than the odds of winning the lottery.
As far as the lottery is concerned and the odds there, the likelihood of winning with one dollar is not much better than if you bought 100 dollars worth of tickets, whereas I made considerable many times that since investing in the stock market.
As long as the country is still here, we've probably got a somewhat safer bet, though ups and downs in anything can pretty much be guaranteed.
One thing I do know for sure is, if I buy one or two lottery tix tomorrow and hit something big, I'll definitely reinvest it into stocks! That's for sure!
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