I used to buy one powerball ticket a week. About ten guys at work would pool together and buy ten tickets on the pretense of splitting it if we won.

We saw it pretty much exactly the way the article described. There'd almost always be an hour or two talking about what would be an interesting use of that much money, or talking about how stupid we were for playing the lottery, and it'd come back up over the work day.

We were paying for group amusement, and I still remember having a lot of fun with those conversations. I don't regret it any more than I regret spending money on a soda here or there during the same time period (long term health wise I regret the soda way more :) ).