People buy lottery tickets for a variety of reasons. Some people feel they are doing their civic duty to help the state and others just like gambling. But the most common reason is that they think they have a chance to win. The truth is that you are much more likely to become the president of the United States, be struck by lightning or get killed by a vending machine than you are to win Powerball or Mega Millions.

Despite the odds, there are still plenty of people who believe they have a strategy that will give them a better chance of winning. Some have quote-unquote systems of picking numbers based on birthdays or other significant dates and some even choose the same number as family members to increase their chances of sharing the prize. While this is certainly an irrational way to approach the game, it is a popular one.

Lottery commissions hide behind the claim that playing the lottery is just a bit of fun and make it sound like everyone should play, which obscures the regressive nature of the lottery and how much money is spent on tickets. They also rely on the message that winning is so improbable that you have to be there to win, which makes it harder to see that lottery playing is a form of social class mobility.