Lotteries are popular because people can't count.
It's easy for us to calculate probability when something can happen 30% of a time or 10% of a time, our brain gets that, but when you go below 0.1% it really doesn't matter. Human brain sees it as very very low possibility, but existent. Then you can decrease it to 0.0001% and the person will still say that the possibility is very low, but it's there. So the lottery creators make sure you have a very very low chance, like 1 to a few million, and tell you that the entry fee is extremely low, like $1 and you go for it because your brain tells you "what if?"
This is true because on most cases, People is not looking on the probability of winning but rather on the potential prize size they think that they just betting small amount for a chance to win a money that will change their life. I never puchased a national lottery ticket because It’s hopeless for me to think that I will win a lottery with low win rate but I don’t blame other people for pursuing lottery bets since most of the lottery winners are common person that is a dreamer.
For me, Lottery is popular not because people can’t count since lotteries winning percentage is very popular as it is always being use as fun fact as the chance of being hit by a lightning twice is high probability than winning a lottery. Lottery is popular because of the huge jackpot prize in an exchange for a small bet same as slot games.
And that means, small time players can afford to buy lottery ticket, this is why a lot are buying such dream.
Many people are engage on this type of game because they have such belief that one day they may hit that jackpot.
So they keep on placing their bets, even it will cost a lil bit from their daily expenses, they will allocate such small fund.
And you will be surprised, a lot of them have numbers that they are taking care of for years, and use those to place bet.
There's no wrong about such belief, so long you are not using your money to buy your food, and it is your choice anyway.