Lottery vs. Investment Calculator
What if you invested your lottery ticket money in index funds instead? The math might change your perspective.
Invested over 30 years
$52,865.41
Total spent on lottery
$15,600
Expected lottery return (~46% of spend)
$7,176
Investment advantage
$45,689.41
Updates instantly · formula shown below
How to use this lottery vs. investment calculator
- Enter tickets bought per week and price per ticket.
- Set years to compare.
- 7% mirrors historical S&P 500 returns.
- Lottery expected value is ~46% of spend — the average $2 ticket returns ~$0.92.
Formula
Investment FV = monthly spend × ((1+r)^n − 1) ÷ r. Lottery EV ≈ 46% of spend (state average).
About the Lottery vs. Investment Calculator
5 lottery tickets/week at $2 = $520/year. Over 30 years: $15,600 spent with ~$7,200 expected lottery return. Invested at 7%, that same $520/year grows to $52,000. The lottery's true price is the foregone investment — not just the ticket cost.
Frequently asked questions
+Isn't the lottery fun though?
Absolutely — entertainment value is real. This shows the financial cost of that entertainment, not whether to stop. If $10/week of tickets brings genuine joy and fits your budget, that's valid.
+What about big jackpots?
Even at $1B jackpots, expected value rarely exceeds $0.80 per $2 ticket after taxes and lump-sum discount.
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