It’s all in the odds

All of the lotteries are scams, some more so than others, in that they pay out one or a few gigantic sums while the vast majority of entries are worthless. The odds are just too great to pay off and many persons spend five dollars a day or more every week, year in, year out.

It would be more equitable if the distributions were smaller and allowed many more winners. The way they are now, it is a boom-or-bust situation

Eugene Forsyth

Flushing