Why do people play the lottery? It's entertaining. Its fun say most of the people that I have interviewed over the last several years. Maybe so, but the main attraction is surely the large cash jackpots. Just about everybody could use a little, if not a lot of extra money and lotteries promise a lot of money. In today's uncertain economy in a world of escalating prices, stock market pandemonium and dead end jobs, millions upon millions of people truly believe that winning the lottery is one of the few ways imaginable for them to become financially secure; if not fabulously rich. Lottery is legally defined as any game of chance for which the player pays some consideration (money) for the opportunity to win cash or a prize of value. The outcome of the game must be determined solely by chance with no skill involvement. Adding to the appeal, lotteries are uncomplicated and easy to play. There are countless variations of lottery games (in which the odds vary) from 1 in 4 to 1 in 135 million, in addition to 38 lotteries operating in the United States. Every Canadian province has a lottery, Puerto Rico, Jamaica; the U.S. Virgin islands all operate lotteries. Elsewhere in the world publicly- operated lotteries exists in over 100 countries on every inhabited continent. In some cases, they are operated by national governments, in other cases by state and provincial governments, and in still others by cities or private companies. Most lotteries in the United States offer several types of lottery games. Two of the most popular game types are the states computerized lotto game in which the player selects a specified range of numbers (usually 6) from a specified range of numbers (between 1 and 49). The second and third most popular are instant tickets (scratch offs); whereby the player scratches off an opaque coating to determine immediately weather a prize is won. Finally there is The Pick Three Games; in every market that I have researched this game is so popular (because the odds of winning are a mere 1 in 1000); that many states have drawings twice daily and in numerous other states three times a day. Most states are members of a Multi State Lottery Association; like Power Ball, The Big Game (Mega Millions), The Tri-State Lottery and Big South. The odds are in a word astronomical; but these games offer significantly larger jackpots starting at 10 million dollars and have reached phenomenal amounts upwards of 1 Billion dollars
