Is It Worth It to Enter Lotteries and Sweepstakes?

It seems like there is no end to the number of lotteries, sweepstakes, and other contests that are offering a chance at a large payout just for entering. Most people are familiar with sweepstakes like the Publishers Clearing House and Readers Digest. Lotteries and other drawings also promise to pad your pocket with millions. So is it worth it to spend time entering these contests?

Since the statistical odds of winning a large sum of cash are very high, it’s best not to put too much time or money into these games. For instance, according to the New Jersey State Lottery Web site, the odds of winning a Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 175,711,536. Compare that with your odds of being struck by lightning during your lifetime, which are 1 in 5000, according to the National Weather Service.

Consider this, if you bought a $1 lottery ticket five days a week, that’s a total of $260 a year. Doesn’t sound like much? Well consider the fact that many people don’t cap their lottery purchases at just one ticket at a time, and the price of some games is well above $1. Also, people who are poorer tend to spend more than the $514 American annual average on lottery tickets, the Economist reports.

Of course many sweepstakes and contests don’t require you to spend anything more than a few minutes filling out an entry form. And there are all kinds of people out there who say they are “professional” contest winners and claim they frequently win prizes just because of the large number of contests they enter.

It’s a tough economy out there and you may be dreaming of winning your fortune in one of these games of chance. While there’s nothing wrong with winning a prize or entering a contest, it is a problem when the drive to gamble or enter sweepstakes takes over your life at the expense of other activities, your job, or personal relationships.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.