You can’t go anywhere without hearing about the Powerball lottery draw Wednesday night. Seriously, it just seems to be all anyone is talking about. “Lottery this,” and “lottery that”. It’s as if people think that they actually have a chance at winning.

It seems as if no one really understands the odds. One in 292.2 million, people! One in 292.2 million! That’s almost the population of the United States!

Besides the odds of winning, there are other reasons why the Powerball should be avoided, and that is the reward. 1.5 billion. Yes, that’s right. Some average Joe off the street can win over a billion dollars by doing absolutely nothing. Why? Why should someone be able to make that much money that fast for doing nothing? What about all those hard working people out there who have worked hard for what they have? It’s just not fair for them that someone can get more than they have worked for in twenty years in an instant by sitting on their couch and waiting for the winning numbers to be drawn.

It’s not all lotteries that are a problem, however. The smaller local ones where you can win anywhere from one dollar to ten thousand dollars are fine. Not only are the odds greater of winning, but you can’t win such an absurd amount of money. The small ones are fair to everybody.

Think about it. Someone thought that the lottery was a good idea. Someone somewhere at some time thought that this was a good idea, another someone somewhere at some time approved it, and yet another someone somewhere at some time decided to endorse it. Why this happened was beyond me. 

I don’t mean to look down upon whoever is the winner of the lottery. If you win the lottery, then congratulations. Good for you. I just don’t understand why it’s such a big deal.