Dissecting some of the myths behind the lottery
Many myths about the lottery are based on simply on hearsay, word of mouth, and books written by players. Unfortunately, all these myths remain around and cause so much confusion for an untold number of players. Trying to dispel these myths is quite difficult, but by knowing the truth, you can save yourself worry, confusion, and lots of money.
Most of it just isn't true!
For instance, most people think that once someone wins a huge jackpot on the lottery, they will immediately quit their job. With the realization that having the financial freedom to do what one wants, it would be logical to think that a winner would not want to continue working and would rather live a more casual and unrestricted daily structure. However, that is not the case at all. Studies and surveys of jackpot winners have shown that almost fifty percent of those people continued to either work at the same job, transition to another job, or start their own business, rather than retire.
Another myth is that players only hear about the top jackpots being won, and not the smaller but still substantial lottery prizes. Many jurisdictions do have the retailers post signs at their location stating something like, “$50,000 Birthday Present Draw prize sold here,” or “$5000 bonus play prize won here.” It shows to the public that smaller prizes are actually won and is good advertising for the retailer to get players to purchase their tickets from them.
One of the most famous myths is that you have a better chance of being killed (not just hit) by lightning than you do winning the lottery. One study using data form the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a group that helps the gaming industry in the United States and Canada to access centralized information and create standards in the North American gaming industry, shows that in the year 1996, only 91 people were killed by lightning. Yet thousands of people won top prizes in lotteries for that year. Statistically, with those numbers, you as a player are fifty times more likely to win the lottery than die from a lightning strike. Great odds for sure.
Is it true that lucky people have better odds in winning the lottery? Absolutely not. Odds of winning any lottery prize is due to the mathematics of the number of available numbers to be drawn, calculated by the amount of numbers actually drawn and selected by players. Therefore, the odds of winning a lottery prize are exactly the same for every single player. Lucky people may win more often due to the simple fact that for whatever reason, luck just shines on them in their daily life. Why, who knows. The thing is that luck has nothing to do with odds.
One of the oddest myths is that lottery winnings are cursed. People refer to instances where lottery winners end up broke after spending all their winnings. This belief is similar to the myths that the New Coke failure was a deliberate marketing manoeuvre, to food companies being allowed to have no more than six mouse dropings in each product. Really, it’s not like every winner who has a last name longer than 10 letters vanishes without a trace or dies under bizarre circumstances, or that all winners of a jackpot who selected the number 13 as one of their ticket numbers gets robbed of all their money. Those could probably be considered curses. Why some lottery winners lose all their money is not from any curse at all. In most cases, it is from very bad money management, uncontrolled spending, and poor investing. No curse is involved. Just winner’s failure to control their money.
So don’t fear any “curse” to happen to you if you win the lottery. Simply ensure that your money is protected, you don’t go on any spending spree, and understand that you should not live off your winnings, but off the interest that your winnings bring you. That is the best way of heading off any “curse.”
Don’t believe the lottery myths. That is all they are. Not truths, but falsehoods. Play as much as you like with the confidence that you need to beat the odds to win, and you need to properly manage your money if you do.