As Mega Millions Lottery Reaches $180 Million, Is Buying A Ticket Now A Good Investment?

As the Mega Millions lottery jackpot hit $180 million for Friday’s drawing, after Tuesday saw the streak of Mega Millions drawings without a big winner stretch to 15 in a row, even people who rarely if ever buy lottery tickets have probably started to wonder — when does gambling a buck or two on a lottery ticket become a good investment?

According to experts, the answer is — it depends. There are several ways to judge whether playing the Mega Millions, or any, lottery is a “good” investment, and none of them can be definitively judged “right” or “wrong.”

Objectively, with the chances of winning a Mega Millions jackpot just one in 258,890,000, you are almost certain to lose whatever money you put into lottery tickets — and no sure-fire loser can be called a “good” investment. So far in 2014, there have been almost 1.9 billion Mega Millions tickets sold — and only nine of those have hit the jackpot.

But looking at it another way, a $1 investment — or even a $5 or $10 investment — with a chance to pay back $180 million is pretty much the definition of “low risk, high reward.” The chances are incredibly remote that your “investment” will pay off. But if you win, you change your life. And even when you lose, you don’t lose much at all.

“The simple reality is that the lottery is a terrible investment,” says the popular financial advice site The Motley Fool. “However, the alternative, which is having all of one more dollar in your pocket, isn’t really a great thing either.”

In today’s economy, an extra buck, or even five bucks, doesn’t improve your overall financial position by very much. But if you win the Mega Millions jackpot, well, you have the world at your feet.

“Suppose you had a choice between playing the lottery five times a year, or saving the money for retirement,” says Motley Fool. “Even after 50 years of compounding, and probably unrealistic 10 percent annual returns, you’d have $5,819.54 saved as a result of avoiding the lottery, or about $20 per month in extra retirement income.”

As The Fool points out, the best way to look at “investing” in lottery tickets is as “pure entertainment value.” For many of us, the hope that our lives could change overnight by hitting the Mega Millions jackpot for $180 million — or more if no one wins on Friday — is well worth the buck or three we “invest.”

Of course, we’re talking only about the jackpot. There are still other ways to win smaller prizes in Mega Millions. You can see them all at this link, courtesy of USA Mega.

Now check your October 14 Mega Millions ticket against these numbers, drawn at 10:59 in Atlanta, Georgia, to see if your investment paid you back anything.

1 — 37 — 46 — 64 — 68 Mega Ball 15

The cash value of Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot, to a winner who takes the prize in a single payment, is estimated at $110.2 million.