It's rational. Sometimes. If the expected value is more than a dollar, and the ticket costs a dollar, you should buy a ticket : See: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2001/08/is_powerball_a_mugs_game.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/life/do_the_math/2001/08/is_po...</a><p>If you limit it to about two dollars a year it's also a cheap entertainment to fantasize about hitting the numbers.<p>Otherwise it's a tax on people who can't do math.
The math is quite simple:<p>The probability of winning millions from a lottery is greater than the probability of making millions from working (for most people).
It's not the NY lottery, but a multistate lottery called "MegaMillions". And people buy tickets for many reasons. Neverminding "being rich seems awesome," I imagine the two chief reasons are:<p>-They can afford to throw away a few bucks every now and then.<p>-They know they have no opportunity to be so wealthy otherwise.