Secondly, because everyone realizes the chances are small, the real product being sold is Hope. Even the advertisements for the lotteries address this. The thing you're buying is 30 seconds of daydreaming so you can comfortably tackle the rest of the day.

Maybe try shouldIplaythelottery.com

You don’t even have to sell them hope. Just sell them the sensation of hope.

See also: Simulation Clicker.

I know how my brain works these days.

It would be really interesting to watch the expected value play out over repeated plays!! I am imagining a running balance where you keep track of total spend versus total returns. Most of the time the balance steadily goes more negative, with occasional jumps back up when you hit a partial match, and very rare big spikes from a larger win.

Very cool project!

https://archive.org/download/HeliganSecretsOfTheLostGardens/...