“the lottery is a tax on stupid people”
Actually, as wolf said its entertainment and more than that, when the numbers are this high, it’s a good bet. The reason. If you have a 1/3 chance of winning something, and each ticket is one dollar, it’s a good bet if you win more than 3 dollars since odds are if you play three times, you will win once. The same applies to a jackpot like this. Powerball odds are one in 175 million so a 900 million jackpot is a smart bet even though odds are you wont win it. Also, I realize due to taxes and the lump sum deduction and the possibility of two ore more winners it’s not so simple, but when it gets this high, others have built the jackpot up to where it makes mathematical sense to dream.