In seemingly every statistics class, the topic of the lottery comes up eventually.

And almost inevitably, the teacher and the textbook agree that the lottery is fueled by irrational people who don’t understand how statistics work.

But I don’t think that’s the whole story.

I certainly agree that people who play the lottery as a means to make money are irrational. The system is rigged in the government’s favor, and the odds of a given person ever winning is essentially zero.

But that’s not the only reason people play.

The six digits on a lottery ticket represent freedom. Not the freedom that millions of dollars can bring, but the freedom to dream about what life would be like if that was our reality.

For some people, that’s well worth the cost of the ticket.

And in the moments before we learn whether our ticket is a winner, the tension can lead to a dopamine rush as if we had won already.

Again, for some people, well worth the cost.

So no, I won’t be rushing to the store anytime soon to play the lottery. But when we think about what really goes into buying a lottery ticket, we might realize that the players aren’t quite as irrational as they might seem.

-Brandon