Cool. Do you think the government should start advertising the negative APR like loan companies do to avoid the appearance of fraud? If this isn't a suckers bet, I don't know what is. IT IS TIME FOR UNCLE TO GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF DEFRAUDING FOLKS. Truth in advertising would be a good start.
It is a common fallacy to suppose that the value of a lottery ticket is the prize money times the odds of winning. Thus, if the prize is $1 Million and the chance of winning is one in 2 million, those who fall for the fallacy say that the ticket is "worth" 50 cents. And thus, they say, the person who pays a dollar for the ticket is being duped.
The fallacy lies in the totally arbitrary assumption that the "value" of the ticket can be computed in that way.
When people buy a lottery ticket, they are buying the opportunity to fantasize for the days or weeks between the time of the purchase and the drawing.
Other people may wish to sneer at this form of "entertainment." They are free to do so, but they should do so without engaging in the fallacious claim that they can prove "objectively" that lottery tickets are a "bad investment" or that those who buy them are being defrauded.