I'm often mocked for putting two dollars on each lottery drawing that I remember when in a convenience store (I live in California, so that's two Superlottos and two Megamillions a week, eight dollars a week) once its found out that I do as such.
People tell me "Mike, you are not a Dumb Person. You have a degree from a college that is not made-up. You have read many books. Clearly, you know that you will not win the lottery. The odds are millions to one every time and they are not cumulative. You will not build up luck in the lottery by involving yourself many times. Every time, it is millions to one again you. Every lottery will always be won by a nurse's assistant in one of the poorer parts of Orange County. This is how it works."
It takes a while to explain to people that I don't really think I'll win, you know, or at least that I understand how nearly-impossible it is for me to win. What I'm doing is... renting the fantasy. For two dollars, I can rent that fantasy for three or four days, the fantasy that everything will be okay. That every problem that money caused can disappear and that every problem that money can fix can be fixed in the blink of an eye.
It is not such a high cost for a fantasy of those heights, eight dollars a week.