Whether it’s the odds of winning, the total jackpot or the cost of a ticket, playing the lottery is, without a doubt, a numbers game.

The chances of matching the six numbers necessary to win tonight’s $500 million Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175 million. The cost of a ticket is $2. 

That sounds like a small price to pay for a chance at a lifetime of wealth, but playing the lottery is often viewed as a waste of money much like gambling in a casino. You may have been told in a dismissive voice that buying a lottery ticket is like throwing money down the drain because “you’re never gonna win.”

On the surface, buying a lottery ticket is an illogical exchange of hard-earned money for a piece of paper that represents a small chance at winning something real — money. In reality, though, you are buying so much more than a worthless piece of paper.

You’re buying a state of mind.

On my 18th birthday, I made sure to go to my local 7-11 and purchase a few lottery tickets. Because I have a June birthday and do not smoke, voting and buying cigarettes were out of the question, making lottery tickets the only other milestone-birthday-appropriate action I could engage in that day. 

I did not expect to hit the jackpot when purchasing those tickets. Instead, I sought to engage in the feelings of possibility and excitement that buying a lottery ticket can give.

From the time you buy a lottery ticket to the moment you realize your ticket isn’t a winner, you have the opportunity to let your mind wander to the places you would go if you actually won the jackpot. Typically this starts with answering the ever-important question of what you would buy first with your jackpot.

Some people might buy a Corvette. Some people might buy a mansion. Some people might quit their job and not buy anything. No matter what, though, everyone would do something they don’t normally do and just thinking about it is fun.

The next few stops in this hopeful day dream might include what your next crazy purchases would entail. Shortly after that, you start to think about the important, real-life expenses you could cover: a house for your parents, college loan repayments and a maybe a new car for each of your siblings.

Last, but certainly not least, you might consider which charities and organizations you would grace with large sums of money. This is the best part of the lottery mindset because even a money-fueled delusion allows you to hypothetically be generous and make a difference in the world. Hypothetically.

As with any daydream, reality eventually sets in once you lose. However, as with movie tickets, football tickets or concert tickets, purchasing one from the lotto can buy you a short reprieve from the grind of daily life and even take you places you will never be able to go in reality.

But there’s a contradiction. With the lottery, you are drawn in by the huge numbers — the millions in winnings flashing on the Powerball billboards along the highway — and you are led to the grand delusions that make purchasing the ticket so enticing. Gambling is different. You jet off to Vegas with dreams of going big, but once there, the visions of living the high life in Sin City subside.  

At the casino, you may have several wins outweighed by four- or five-digit losses. Your mind can barely wander to what you might do with your assumed winnings and how it would change your life. You are consumed instead by the numbers: how much you’re up, how much you’re down and how many weeks it might take to pay it all off.

Tonight’s Powerball, however, will likely result in a loss of no more than $2 — a small, controlled loss in exchange for an unrestrained imagination. If anything, you may not want to actually win. 

Several past lottery winners have seen their wildest dreams come true before quickly devolving into nightmares of drug abuse, bankruptcy and ruined relationships.

In any case, you might just win, and if you don’t, at least you had some harmless fun.

Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor.

John is a junior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected].