I do not play the powerball game every week and when I do play I never buy more than a single ticket. I only play when the powerball jackpot reaches some number like over 100 million or something like that. I have always considered these lottery games as a tax on people that are not that bright. When the jackpot exceeds over a 100 million I usually break down and pay the tax. The way I look at it, I get at least $2 of enjoyment from sitting around with my wife and thinking about what we will do if we hit the jackpot. Of course I could do this without buying the ticket but my wife claims to not enjoy that at all. I thought that the odds of winning the jackpot and finding something valuable in my backyard from digging a random hole with a shovel would be about the same so I tried to play this game with my wife. I thought that a random shovel hole has a very slight chance of revealing a huge gold nugget or valuable meteorite but she just flatly refused to play that game. Since it is no fun digging random holes in your backyard by yourself I usually just go to the gas station and pick up a powerball ticket instead. At least this way my wife will join me in dreaming about what it will be like to be filthy rich.