According to Smithsonian, the first recorded lottery was held back in 1446. But there’s evidence that it’s far from the actual first lottery which might date back to Caesar. Independent of when it actually started, there are a number of myths surrounding lotteries.
Odds of getting hit by lightning are higher than winning a jackpot
While it sounds good, and to be honest, even quite reasonable if we think about huge lotteries with tens of millions of people playing them, it might actually just be a myth. Iowa Lottery Commissioner Ed Stanek mathematically debunked that claim. Based on statistics, in 1996 1136 people won $1 million dollars or more plus another 4500 won $100 000 or more in North America Lotteries. And only 91 people were killed by lightning the same year. Then again…91 people were killed, but how many people were actually hit by lighting? I’ve heard of people who have been hit by lightning twice in one evening and lived to tell the story. So I guess, if we would actually only talk about huge Jackpots, not just big enough wins, and keep in mind that the number of people being hit by lightning is way higher than number of people killed by lightning, the myth still might hold some water.
Lottery is mainly being played by low income people
According to a Washington Post survey, it’s far from truth. It’s actually the middle income Americans who play the lottery the most.
Millions of dollars every year go unclaimed
Obviously this is true. Reasons vary, but sometimes people forget to check their tickets, or forgot they bought the ticket in the first place, sometimes people simply lose their tickets or end forgetting their tickets in their pockets before washing their clothes. If you want to be on the safe side, you better be smarter and play the powerball lottery online – that’s the only way to make sure that if you do manage to beat the odds, you’ll actually be able to benefit from it. According to CNN roughly $2 BILLION in lottery prizes go unclaimed every year, including more than 100 prizes worth $1 million or more.