No one plays the lottery if there are no winners

In terms of practical mathematics, whatever lottery you're playing (the marry a millionaire lottery, the get picked to be on Oprah lottery, the get found at Hollywood and Vine and win an Oscar lottery) has no winner.

In other words, your chance of winning is so vanishingly small it's as if, from an investment point of view, there are no winners.

Which means that you should play the game for the thrill of playing it, for the benefits of playing it to a normal conclusion, not because you think you have any shot at all of winning the grand prize.

Does that change things for you?

Does it change the way you run an event which most people are going to 'lose'? How about changing the way you think about the lotteries you enter every day?

[Worth noting: most people who play state lotteries aren't playing to win. They're playing for the endorphin rush they get when they buy a ticket. Many people who win the big prize keep playing.]