For a shot at $290M, you bet they're irrational

Jul 2, 2004, 8:47 am (1 comment)

Mega Millions

Mega Millions ticket buyers pin hopes on defying astronomical odds of about 135 million to 1

George Frany Jr. hasn't bought his ticket yet. But have no doubts, he will.

A lottery skeptic, Frany knows better than anyone that his chances of winning $290 million in tonight's Mega Millions jackpot aren't good. Since the jackpot hit $200 million, he's seen hundreds of hopeful multimillionaires walk through his convenience store door to dish out as much as $50 on tickets and strategically fill in the little numbered boxes with parents' birthdays and children's ages.

"It's strange. At $3 million, people will say, 'I'm not going to bother,' " said Frany, owner of a Mobil gas station on Delaware Avenue. "But now their odds are five times worse because the tickets are so hot."

From behind his convenience store counter, it's easy for Frany to shake his head at the unlikely dreams of his customers.

But it's hard to ignore the scrolling marquee on his cash register that, in flashing multicolored figures, repeatedly reminds everyone who passes that they could win "$290 million" and encourages them to "Play Now!!"

So Frany's buying his Mega Millions ticket today. Though barely of legal age, 18-year-old George Frany III has already purchased $10 worth using the $7 he won when he matched three numbers in the $210 million jackpot.

With 400,000 Mega Millions tickets selling per hour in New York alone, the Franys are far from alone in their guilty pleasure. The odds of winning today's jackpot are 1 in 135,145,920.

Albany resident Jackie Marcamo walked out of Frany's store with an envelope full of lottery tickets, including $20 worth of Mega Millions tickets.

"I buy more when (the jackpot) is big," Marcamo said. "I know the chances are minimal. But like they say, you have to play to win."

According to Edelgard Wulfert, chairman of the University at Albany's Department of Psychology, lottery players don't grasp exactly how minimal their chances are, as evidenced by the common but illogical strategy of buying multiple tickets.

"This is like finding a needle in a haystack, a really, really, huge haystack," Wulfert said. "What difference does it make if you buy 1 ticket out of 135 million, or if you buy 20 or 100? It's totally irrational."

Wulfert said that people's logic can be suspended by big numbers behind a dollar sign. Ask a lottery player what they would do with $290 million, and many say they don't know.

Even Frany, a father of six, said barring his children's college tuitions, he couldn't think of what he would spend the remaining millions on if he won.

"I guess I'd give most of it away," he said. "We really wouldn't need all of that."

Tonight's jackpot started at $10 million May 11 and has been rolled 15 times. It is the largest lottery jackpot in New York state history.

Albany Times Union

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fxdwg's avatarfxdwg

Not playing this

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