My father has always taught me, since I was young, that the state lottery is simply a tax on people who have never been taught probability or statistics. He used that as a lesson when he was teaching me about probability and compound interest :)<p>Obviously if you win, you win big, but overall, I tend to strongly agree with him. It is a tax on those who don&#x27;t think about probability, except for the people who gamed the system and won: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slice.mit.edu&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;14&#x2F;winning-the-lottery&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;slice.mit.edu&#x2F;2012&#x2F;08&#x2F;14&#x2F;winning-the-lottery&#x2F;</a><p>Gaming it is pure genius.