Hacker News Reader

HNHacker News

Top New Best Ask Show Jobs

Comment by sokoloff | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

sokoloff·

> The information imbalance between the consumer and provider is massive

Some of the worst odds are offered by state-run lotteries and it's got nothing to do with information imbalance.

People literally line up to play MegaMillions/Powerball and all the information is readily available.

View on HN

You write as if you'd consider that a bug, but it's a feature: those lotteries exist to give citizens an outlet for their gambling desires that openly admits that participating is a bad idea. Gambling is a problem not because of the (usually tiny) cut of the house, it's a problem because it distracts addicts from seeking more productive solutions and because of the diminishing returns of money in terms of happiness. State run (or endorsed) lotteries are a damage mitigation strategy that has bad odds by design and they used to serve us pretty well, before sports betting somehow snuck in and took over (same thing happened in multiple European countries)

The odd's are stupidly long, but they aren't lining up to play when the prize is $50m. They're lining up to play when it's $1B+. $2 for a ticket and a chance to become a billionaire.

The decline of meritocracy makes the lottery a rational last-ditch source of hope for the impoverished working class. Without hope, they die. See: deaths of despair.

The apologists for this sort of thing are every bit as disgusting as those presiding over it.

>The apologists for this sort of thing are every bit as disgusting as those presiding over it.

Holier-than-thou much?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com