https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/15fmkk0/tonights_mega_millions_jackpot_is_11_billion_ive/
created by trevintexas on 01/08/2023 at 19:41 UTC
2027 upvotes, 87 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hi! I’m Trevor Ford (proof[1]), founding team member at Yotta[2], a company that pays out cash prizes on savings via a lottery-like system (based on a concept called prize-linked savings).
1: https://imgur.com/a/drOoV4v
I used to be a regular lottery player, buying tickets weekly, sometimes daily. Scratch tickets were my vice, I loved the instant gratification of winning.
I heard a Freakonomics podcast “Is America Ready for a “No-Lose Lottery”[3]? And was immediately shocked that I had never heard of the concept of prize-linked savings accounts despite being popular in countries across the globe. It sounded too good to be true but also very financially responsible.
3: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/is-america-ready-for-a-no-lose-lottery-update/
I’ve been studying lotteries like Powerball, Mega Millions, and scratch-off tickets for the past several years and was so appalled by what I learned I decided to help start a company to crush the lottery and decided using prize-linked savings accounts were the way to do it.
I’ve studied countless data sets and spoken firsthand with people inside the lottery industry, from the marketers who create advertising to the government officials who lobby for its existence, to the convenience store owners who sell lottery tickets, to consumers standing in line buying tickets.
There are some wild lottery stats out there. In 2021, Americans spent $105 billion on lottery tickets. That is more than the total spending on music, books, sports teams, movies, and video games, combined! 40% of Americans can’t come up with $400 for an emergency while the average household spends over $640 every year on the lottery, and you’re more likely to be crushed by a meteorite than win the Powerball jackpot.
Ask me anything about lottery odds, lottery psychology, the business of the lottery, how it all works behind the scenes, and why the lottery is so destructive to society.
Comment by EatMoarToads at 02/08/2023 at 02:21 UTC
187 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Yotta was fun when bank savings rates were essentially zero. Now that it's fairly easy to earn >3% in a savings account, does Yotta have any plans to increase their payouts?
Comment by excaligirltoo at 02/08/2023 at 01:49 UTC
1033 upvotes, 8 direct replies
Is this an ad?
Comment by 1FrostySlime at 01/08/2023 at 23:07 UTC
427 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Why won't Yotta release the odds for their boxes?
Comment by michaelpiji at 01/08/2023 at 22:50 UTC
438 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why did Yotta go to shit? Why stop being transparent. Why lie about the credit card coming soon for a year? Why replace lucky swipes with boxes and not disclose odds? Why respond to tons of people showing that you monitor this sub, but choose to ignore obvious issues posted and cherry pick who you respond to?
Comment by tequilablackout at 01/08/2023 at 21:33 UTC
247 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I've got a question: if you think the lottery is destructive to society, why are you running one?
Comment by faewi at 02/08/2023 at 00:20 UTC
105 upvotes, 1 direct replies
why won't you release odds for boxes? why do you ignore this question? how much of your userbase have you lost because of this?
Comment by [deleted] at 02/08/2023 at 02:55 UTC
98 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by peetar at 01/08/2023 at 20:04 UTC
113 upvotes, 5 direct replies
The average household spends 640$? Maybe because I'm upper-middle class, but I don't know anybody who regularly buys tickets (or at least admits/talks about it). What's the average spending in households that spend at least 1$ on tickets?
Lotto is run by state governments, and I believe a lot of the proceeds go to fund those governments. Isn't this better than gambling corporations making the profit? If we shut down all the lotteries, wouldn't people looking to get rich quick start throwing their money at for profit gambling businesses instead?
Comment by Raliator at 01/08/2023 at 19:47 UTC
115 upvotes, 2 direct replies
What are the actual odds of winning various lotteries?
Comment by daddyslittleharem at 02/08/2023 at 07:49 UTC*
57 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This clown again?
"instead of that lottery, come play our lottery where you won't win anything but if you do it will suck"
Comment by possumzRuleAmirite at 01/08/2023 at 20:26 UTC
55 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Do you really think these prize savings accounts will crush the lottery?
Comment by [deleted] at 02/08/2023 at 07:49 UTC
41 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by DylanHate at 02/08/2023 at 02:57 UTC*
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Americans can’t come up with $400 for an emergency while the average household spends over $640 every year on the lottery.
Does this statistic exclude people / households who’ve never purchased a lottery ticket? Because it sounds very misleading. If you’re just taking the number of money spent on lotto / number of people over 18 to get your “average”, that’s not an accurate statistic.
Gambling is addictive. Presumably a larger portion of that lottery money comes from a smaller number of people. If you separate out people who never buy lottery tickets and people who buy tickets occasionally (maybe when the powerball gets big), how many people are left doing the real spending?
Putting those two statistics together implies Americans *do* have extra cash — but they’re just blowing it all on lottery tickets. That’s not true and it’s a disingenuous implication.
It’s like counting how many cigarettes sold in a state then saying, “On average Nevada citizens smoke 4 cigarettes per day”. It’s not accurate because it assumes all people smoke.
Unless the real statistic is “average repeated lottery purchasers” or something like that — not all households. In which case you should update the post or just edit it out. I’m not sure why you mentioned it to begin with. The total dollar amount spent is sufficient to make your point.
Comment by mybadselves at 02/08/2023 at 06:06 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Why have you turned a once promising concept into complete dogshit?
Comment by grameno at 02/08/2023 at 04:12 UTC
29 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How did you or pr team think this was a good idea?
Comment by jointheredditarmy at 02/08/2023 at 14:07 UTC
13 upvotes, 1 direct replies
So basically you thought standard lotteries weren’t exploitative enough, and decided to obfuscate the entry fee as well so you can make net margin on that?
Comment by KnowHowIKnowYoureGay at 01/08/2023 at 23:13 UTC
44 upvotes, 7 direct replies
Can you check my logic on this:
Odds to win Mega Millions is 1:302M
Cost of a Mega Millions ticket is $2
Doesn't that mean that it actually makes sense for us to buy tickets as long as the payout is over $604M? Mind you, this logic doesn't even include the likelihood of a lower payout. If you incorporate the odds to get a lower payout, I imagine that the actual grand prize number to make it worthwhile to buy a ticket is even lower.
Thoughts?
Comment by dkl415 at 01/08/2023 at 21:24 UTC
17 upvotes, 1 direct replies
How does the return on these accounts compare to interest rates on savings accounts?
Comment by Malphos101 at 02/08/2023 at 03:58 UTC
29 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is your daily reminder that state sponsored lotteries are nothing more than regressive taxation with shiny bells and whistles. Not to mention some states simply reduce their education taxes on businesses and the wealthy to match the increased income from lotteries.
You know what would fund state education budgets even better than ripping off mathematically illiterate desperate people? Making corporations and billionaires pay their fair share. The American people are losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year in taxation by letting billionaires escape their fair share.
Stop voting for people who say things like "taxation is theft", the corporations and oligarchs are hoarding wealth which is causing inflation and depressing wages and social benefits.
Comment by imcguyver at 02/08/2023 at 13:16 UTC
17 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What’s your compensation package?
Comment by IndianaTheShepherd at 01/08/2023 at 20:02 UTC
25 upvotes, 3 direct replies
A couple of questions from someone who never plays the lottery...
1. What is a "No-lose lottery"?
2. What is a "Prize-linked Savings account"?
My grandmother was addicted to gambling, whether that be Bingo night, Lotto, or Scratch-offs... It drove me crazy to see someone on a fixed income with zero savings wasting money on something with such horrible odds... Seemed so illogical. I understand that lotteries are beneficial to governments as a form of raising revenue, but it raises that revenue from the people who can least afford to pay it, rather than just taxing the wealthy...
Comment by dumbypants at 02/08/2023 at 11:35 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Am I really more likely to be crushed by a meteorite than win the Powerball jackpot? google says that only one person has died by meteorite in recorded history.
Comment by mitharas at 02/08/2023 at 13:37 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A fintec company founded by a gaming addict? Wonderful idea, what could go wrong.
Comment by [deleted] at 02/08/2023 at 11:28 UTC
9 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why not make a thousand millionaires rather than one billionaire?
Comment by TripleSingleHOF at 02/08/2023 at 13:00 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I read somewhere that a few years ago, Mega Millions and Powerball astronomically increased the odds that it takes to win the jackpot, and that's why these jackpots keep getting bigger and bigger - because it's even harder to win now than it has been in the past.
Any truth to this?