Many years ago a co-worker and gambling addict explained to me that it's all about the mindset. A "gambler" will walk up to a gaming table with $5 convinced he/she will turn that into $50, or $500, or $5,000. But a "non-gambler" would approach the same table with the same $5 convinced he/she is going to lose $5. We're simply in the latter group. This is a simplification, of course, and there are usually other issues involved, but having discussed the issue subsequently with gamblers and non-gamblers I believe it's essentially true.
Same theory in action. I have to laugh when the Lotto/Lottery payout gets so high that more people than usual run out to buy a ticket. It never seems to occur to them that more people buying tickets means a greatly reduced chance they'll win. Point this out to them, and the response is almost always the same: "Well, someone's going to win; it could be me. But you definitely won't win if you don't buy a ticket."When the $$$$$$ Lotto began in my hometown, I was working for the news media as a cameraman. One of my assignments that day was to go get video of the folks buying tickets. They were all convinced they had the winning ticket because they had spent most their paychecks buying dozens of tickets.
