What is the lottery, and how does it work?
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Hey, Bazillionaires! Welcome back to a new season of Million Bazillion. Bridget and Ryan are at it again, tackling intriguing topics and answering interesting questions from listeners. This season is presented in partnership with Greenlight, the debit card and money app for kids and teens. With Greenlight, kids can set savings goals, learn to invest, or make their savings work hard for them. Build their money skills the smart way with Greenlight.

Sign up for Greenlight today at greenlight.com slash million. That's greenlight.com slash million. Hey, Bridget, I'm bored out of my mind. Let's play the game. Guess what number I'm thinking of. If you guess it correctly, you win a dollar. Okay. Okay.

Uh, five. Nope. Higher? Seven? Higher? I'll give you a hint. It's not between one and ten. Think higher, bigger. Okay, um, 32. Not quite. Think, um, perkier than that. Perkier? How can a number be perky? Uh, how about like 55? Closer, but not quite so perky. More like a strong, muscular number. Hmm, strong. Okay. 88. No, no, that's too strong. Uh, this number has a sensitive side, too. Um...

87. No, Bridget, come on! I'm being so obvious! Think of a strong, perky number with confidence and flair, but also gentle. Oh, and it's between 1 and 1,000. Ugh, Ryan! 344? No, that number doesn't have enough originality. 607? Alright, that's it. I'm not giving any more hints. 92? Welcome to Million Bazillion. I'm Ryan. And I'm Bridget, and we help dollars make more sense. Alright, let's end this impossible numbers guessing game.

What was the number, Ryan? 876. So obvious. How was I supposed to know that? Let's just take a question.

Hi, Million Bazillion. My name is Oscar and I'm from Decatur, Georgia. And my question is, what is a lottery and how does it work? Thanks. Wait, wait, Oscar, how did you come up with this question? Well, I saw it at the grocery store and I wondered what it is. So my dad bought it and we did it. It's really fun to scratch it out. But I still don't really understand the purpose of the lottery and why it exists.

Well, this is a great question. It sounds like Oscar is talking about scratchers or scratch card lottery tickets. Those are one of the many kinds of lottery games you can play. Ooh, it sounds like you're explaining something. I'll cue up the explaining music. Let's back it up.

The lottery is a game of chance where you pay a little bit of money and if you're lucky, you might win big. But you could also win nothing and not get anything for that money you spent. With scratch-off lottery tickets, you buy a game card and right away you can scratch off the shiny coating, just like Oscar said, to see if that card is a winner. The lottery can also be games like Powerball and Mega Millions where players pick their own random set of numbers. If they pick the right set of random numbers, they could win a lot of money.

But I think that's really rare. Most people don't win huge amounts of money in the lottery. But like Oscar said, it's kind of fun to play sometimes, even if you don't win. All this lottery talk is giving me the scratch-off itch. Makes me want to buy a lottery ticket. Sure, why not? Maybe we'll get lucky. Yes, this is it. Finally, the episode where we win the lottery. What are you talking about? Well, the subject of today's episode is the lottery, which means...

I think we're going to win the lottery. Easy street, here we come. Why would we win the lottery? Haven't you ever noticed whenever we get a question, the plot of the episode sort of unfolds in a way that involves the question we were asked? Like, if we were doing an episode about taxes, we would probably meet the tax monster or somebody like that, and the whole show would be like, don't tax this tax monster, and then we'd learn that the tax monster is actually useful for society or something like that. Yeah, that sounds like something that would happen on this show.

Except this episode isn't about taxes. It's about the lottery. It makes sense that we'll win the lottery, dramaturgically speaking. So I say we go down to the bodega, that's City Talk for 7-Eleven kids, buy a ticket, win the lottery, obviously, and spend all the winnings on an expensive new lifestyle, and through the process of getting rich with minimal effort, we'll teach a wonderfully educational lesson to all the money who are listening.

You mean all the kids who are listening, right? Oh, yeah. All the kids who are money. I mean, all the cash who are listening. I mean, all the kids who are Lamborghini. You know what I mean. Okay. I think you're a little too convinced of us winning the lottery, but your theory has me intrigued, which is not true of all your theories. So let's take a quick break, and we're going to learn more about the lottery when we come back.

And now it's time for asking random kids not-so-random questions. Today's question is, if you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? If I won the lottery, I would get a virtual reality headset. I would give half of it to shelters and keep the rest for myself. Put it in a bank for college or I would invest it.

I would give it to a library. Invest in stocks. I would buy a house and a car and maybe a few other fun things. I would use the money to buy a mountain.

That was Riel in Edmonton, Cecilia in Colorado, Joshua in California, Willa in Nebraska, Ada in Georgia, William in Maryland, and Alder in Oregon. This has been asking random kids not-so-random questions. Welcome back. Today on Million Bazillion, we're answering Oscar's question, what is the lottery and how does it work?

And we've come down to our local bodega, Mickey's, to buy a winning lottery ticket, because that's the kind of thing that happens in these episodes. Hello, Mickey. Hiya, Ryan. You here for your daily gallon jug of chocolate milk? Not today, Mickey. Today I'm here to purchase one scratch-off lottery ticket, please. You sure that's all you want? Have you seen the Mega Millions numbers? The jackpot's getting pretty high.

I bet a handsome guy like you would pick the right numbers. Oh, well, I did put pomade in my hair today. Come on. If you pick the right numbers, you could win $400 million. What do you say, good-looking? You've convinced me for the low price of two compliments. Let's go for it. So, for our numbers, let's go with one, because, let's face it, it's number one. Eight...

Five, sixteen. That's Skimbleshanks' birthday. Forty-eight, because that's how many monster trucks I'm going to buy when I'm rich. And, Bridget, I'll let you pick the last number. Oh, I don't really care. What about, like, thirteen? No! Never go with thirteen. It's bad luck. How about thirty-one? That's the opposite of bad luck, because the numbers are reversed. Can't argue with that logic. Sure, fine. Thirty-one. The lady will have thirty-one.

Okay, here's your ticket. That'll be two dollars. Thanks, Mickey. Gosh, the anticipation, the exhilaration. Bridget, if the lottery is basically a game of chance, does that make it gambling? Oh, great question. Yeah, I guess it is a form of gambling. That explains it. Even here in the cramped, dust-covered aisles of Mickey's Bodega, it feels like we're on a hypnotically carpet-patterned casino floor.

Speaking of which, if the lottery is basically gambling, how come you can get a lottery ticket at just about any corner store, gas station, or grocery store? Aren't there usually rules around gambling that make it harder to do? Hmm, maybe it's the- I'll answer that one. See, every lottery has a big winner, but that winner doesn't take home all the money that comes in from ticket sales.

Some of the ticket money goes to the government. So we're not going to get all the money we win? We have to split it with the government? Well, yeah. Some state governments let the lottery exist under certain conditions, and that's all because they take their share of the ticket sales and spend it on good stuff that people like. You know, parks, schools, veterans. That's smart of them. Who's going to argue about funding parks and schools and veterans?

The type of lottery you're playing today is kinda new in the grand scheme of things. Before state governments legalized the lottery business for themselves, there was a thriving underground lottery in a lot of big cities, sometimes called the numbers game. And the history goes back even further than that. Like way back in 200 BC, during China's Han Dynasty, rulers were using the lottery to build the Great Wall of China.

In fact, lotteries have funded things all through history, like the roads to Rome and even some things in the first American colonies. Well, when we win the jackpot, I'll request the excess money go to cat shelters because I love all cats. Oh, it's a black cat. Black cats are unlucky. Oh, don't mind him. That's just the bodega cat, Oddsball. You're not going to win that jackpot. What? Did the cat just talk?

Yes, and I've studied the possibilities, probabilities, and permutations of many games of chance, and you're not taking home a penny today. Guessing just one number out of 50 is hard enough. Guessing six, unfathomable.

You're just a cat. How would you know anything about lottery possibilities? Don't let the fact he's a cat fool you. Oddsball is pretty smart at calculating the odds. That's because as a master of statistics, I've studied how numbers and data can be used to make predictions. And as a black cat, I've learned there's no such thing as bad luck. There are only human brains too feeble-minded to realize the lottery is a hopeless pipe dream, a castle in the sky.

And never ending me in the iron ball. But what makes you say that? How hard is it really to win the lottery? Let me show you. Here, try to flip that coin. There's a 50-50 chance it'll be heads or tails, right? Yeah...

And I just got heads. Great. Now do that 28 times in a row. I mean, that seems unlikely. It's going to be tails at some point. Exactly. The chances of winning the grand prize in the Mega Millions or Powerball is one in 300 million. The same odds as flipping heads on a coin 28 times in a row. Ooh, okay, let me try again.

Heads! I'm on a hot streak. Now that I've done it twice, I bet it's way more likely I hit it a third time. Ha! That's what you think. But there's no such thing as a hot streak. Every time you flip that coin, it's the exact same odds you started with. Fifty and fifty. Okay, let me try again. Darn it! Tails!

Oh, well. Really? What happened?

I don't want to talk about it. Okay, so Oddball. Yeah, my name is not Oddball. It's Oddsball. There's nothing odd about me. I just like rubbing my face against this potted plant. It's not weird. Now excuse me while I lick my own fur clean. Okay, Oddsball. Is there any way to game the system and increase your chances of winning? No. There is no way to game the system, for there is no system but Q.

But, gosh. Whoa, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I once played the lottery and I won $5. So I know for a fact it can happen. No, you won $5 once. Congratulations. You fell for the oldest trick in the book. Letting a much smaller, easier to win lottery prize give you hope that it was possible to win a humongous lottery prize. But the lottery does this little trick on purpose to make you think you could keep

So, you're saying there is a chance?

They're about to announce the winning lottery numbers. Quiet down, Oddball. My name isn't Oddball. I'm not odd. I'm a totally normal cat who is an expert at studying odds. Why aren't you getting that? Now excuse me while I lick my own fur clean. Everybody, everybody quiet, quiet. And now tonight's winning lottery numbers, chosen at random from a big machine that blows around numbers printed on ping pong balls,

Tonight's winning numbers are 15, 34, 38, 12, 25, and 41. Okay, let me check our ticket.

No, no, no, no, no, and no. I don't like being the cat who says, told you so, but pretty sure I told you so. I don't understand. Today's question set us up perfectly to win the lottery. That's what should happen in this episode, dramaturgically. I know. You had me believing it would happen, too.

Let's just get out of this bodega and regroup and figure out a different plan of attack for this episode. You're right. We need a break. We'll learn more about the lottery right after this. Hey, bazillionaires. This episode of Million Bazillion is presented in partnership with Greenlight, the debit card and money app for kids and teens. Today, we've been talking all about the lottery, those big jackpots, wild odds, and why people keep buying tickets anyway.

Not to get your hopes up, but while it sounds great, we should be honest. Winning is super, super, super duper unlikely. That's why Greenlight is here to help you build money smarts the real way. Not by luck, but by learning. Greenlight teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely, and even invest in a

all with real life tools. So while the jackpot might be a long shot, learning good lifelong money habits, that's something you can definitely place your bets on. Build your money skills the smart way with Greenlight. Sign up today at greenlight.com slash million. Once again, that's greenlight.com slash million.

Welcome back to Million Bazillion. Today's show is all about the lottery. Yesterday, we tried to win the lottery and met this really odd cat who told us the probability of winning the lottery is incredibly low. But still, there's no way this episode can end without us winning it, right? I mean, that has to happen, right? Which is why we're going to try playing again today, but with some help. We're heading to my grandma's house to get some advice.

Grammy Gracie has played the lottery for the last 40 years. So if anyone has a system down, it's probably her. Your Grammy Gracie plays the lottery? Yep, she is one of the one in eight Americans who buys a lotto ticket every week. And we're here. Bridget Ryan! What an unexpected surprise! Hi, Grammy, how are you? Hi, Gracie, smells good in here. You look terrific. Can you help us win the lottery, please? The lottery? The lottery?

Why, you're just in time. I got a few friends over, and we're working on just that. Whoa, who are all these people? This is my pickleball club from the YMCA. We're buying up a couple of hundred tickets for tomorrow's huge jackpot. If one of us wins, we'll split the money amongst us. Bridget!

Oh, it's Grammy's friend Bianca. Hi, Bianca. And Ryan, you tall, dranker water. It's about time you came back around these parts. Bianca, I promised I'd return to you, and I'm a man of my word. You won't in on our lottery pool. Yes, we definitely want in on this. I've heard about this kind of thing. Big groups buying tickets together, winning, and splitting the jackpot evenly. More tickets means better chances. Yes! This must be what this episode is about. Sharing! Sharing!

To win, we have to be willing to split the money with others because, you know, sharing is caring. This is what we should have done from the beginning. It makes more sense dramaturgically. Bianca, what's the buy-in? Well, we're all buying 20 tickets. That should get us around 500 tickets, which increases our chances of winning from a mere $1,300 million to a less daunting $1,600,000.

Wow, from one in 300 million to one in 600,000. Those are still pretty tough odds. Oh, but this jackpot is up to $500 million. We have to try. Even split between 25 or so people, it's still a pretty big payday. It's up to 500 million? Milli bazilli, when we played yesterday, it was only 400 million. Well, no one won yesterday.

If no one wins, the big jackpot of money just rolls over from day to day, getting bigger and bigger, and no one has won in a while. Wow. So millions of people are playing, but no one is winning. Hmm.

Hmm, that kind of makes it seem like winning is really unlikely and we're not going to win probably, but oh well, I hope we win. Well, be careful what you wish for, that's all I'd say. Oh hey, it's Grammy's other friend Violet. Are you here to enter the lottery pool too? No, I won the lottery a long time ago and it was, um, it was not all it's cracked up to be, let me just say that. In fact, I'm a victim of the lottery curse. Curse.

The lottery c-c-c-c-curse? What do you mean by lottery curse, Violet? Oh, hi, by the way. Oh, the lottery curse isn't a real curse. Phew. But rather a series of very real-life complications which can befall lottery winners, like me. Almost 30 years ago, I won a million-dollar jackpot.

So you're a millionaire? Well, I was a millionaire, but not for very long. Almost a quarter of the jackpot went to taxes before I ever even saw a penny. When I finally did get my lottery money, I quit my day job, thinking the money would just, you know, last forever. So instead of saving for a retirement fund, I put money into other things, like a pizza oven in my kitchen. It had a chimney and everything. I

I only made pizza in it one time. It was good though. Then all these long lost relatives came out of the woodwork asking for loans. A friend of a cousin of a boyfriend of a husband had a portfolio to invest in, dot coms and startups and Beanie Babies. And everyone was just asking for a piece. And if I said yes, it meant losing my money bit by bit. And if I said no, sometimes I'd lose a friend.

I thought money would be the answer to all my problems, but in some ways it just created more problems. We didn't have a show like Million Bazillion to teach me wise saving habits, so I blew through that lottery money in just a few years. Found myself lonelier at the end, wishing I could have my old life back. Wow, Violet. I'm sorry that happened to you. Yeah, Violet. It would still be pretty cool to win the lottery, though. I mean, come on.

Oh, Violet loves to tell her rags to riches to rags tale. But we're not going to fall into those same traps when we win. Okie dokie, but don't say I didn't warn you. On that note, we better get down to Mickey's Bodega and buy our tickets. They're going to announce the winning numbers soon. Yeah, let's go win that lottery.

Hey, what are you all doing in my store? We're here as a group to buy 500 lottery tickets. That includes us, Mickey. We're part of the group. Here are the numbers we want. You're cutting it pretty close. They're announcing the numbers in a few minutes. Well, you better get printing those tickets fast, Mickey. Okay, okay.

Too bad you're all gonna lose. Where did you come from? So unlucky. Oddball, what are you doing here? I never left. I wanted to be here to see your faces when the second part of your pathetic plan fails. What is this black cat doing? Trying to ruin our luck? No, this cat isn't bad luck. It's just Oddball. My name is...

There's nothing odd about me. I'm just a very well-educated cat who can't currently find work in the world of statistical analysis. So I mostly hang around this bodega. Sure, once I dragged a dead mouse into the store and that upset some customers, but that's not really that odd when you think about it. Okay, your tickets are all printed up. And a good thing. They're about to announce the winning numbers. Quiet, everyone. Quiet.

And now it's time for the winning numbers of tonight's $500 million lottery jackpot. I have a spreadsheet here with every configuration of numbers we've guessed. If there's a winner in our batch of 500 tickets, I'll be the first to know. Oh man, I'm so excited. I think I'm going to be sick. The first number is 35. Still two of our tickets have that number. We're off to a good start. 28.

43. We're down to only five tickets with all three of those numbers, but we're halfway through. You're not gonna make it. Shh. 3, 41. Guys, we have one ticket with all five of those numbers. And just one winning number left to announce, guys. And the final winning number is... Something we'll reveal right after this break. Oh. I knew they were gonna do that.

Hi, I'm Lincoln from Bentonville, Arkansas. I'm nine years old. Would you rather get $10 right now or take a chance and try to win $100? This is a tough choice, but I'd rather take the $10. That way I would at least have a little bit of money. It's hard because $100 is a lot more than $10, but I would still take the guaranteed $10. Thank you. Bye.

Welcome back. The final winning lottery number for tonight's $500 million jackpot is 13. Bianca, is 13 the final number on that ticket? No, it's 31. We were supposed to win.

That was the ending that made sense drama-wise. Now we're not rich, and this episode is dramaturgically unsound. Look, I don't like being the cat who says, told you so, but... No! You clearly do like being the cat who says, told you so. You've said it like 50 times. It's like your catchphrase, cat. Dang, we were so close. Oh, well.

I guess we'll just have to try it again next week. What do you mean next week? What about today? Why aren't you more upset...

We knew we weren't gonna win. The lottery is just something we do to have fun together. Yeah, it's about as much fun as flushing money down the toilet. Not now, Oddsball. Okay, I'll just go to my little corner of the store and say no more. But just remember, I was right. The lottery is very hard to win. And also, I'm not odd. I'm just a regular non-bad luck-bringing black cat, okay?

Well, what did we learn about the lottery from all this? Nothing. Episode over. The end. Let's do the credits with a...

No, no, no, no, no. We learned. The lottery is a game of chance that people can play in some states, so you've got to be a grown-up to buy a ticket. For players, it's the chance to hopefully win big for just a few dollars. But you also might win nothing at all and have nothing to show for the money you spent. When it comes to the math of it all, you're really unlikely to win a big jackpot. And also remember, money won't solve all your problems.

that doesn't stop some people from dreaming that a big win could change their lives, no matter how small that chance of winning is. So if you're grown up, say it's okay. Have fun scratching every once in a while. But to all the million bazillionaires listening,

Make sure you've got another plan to grow your money, okay? Yeah, and at least some of the money goes to things like schools and veterans and all that. Okay, good point. So maybe it's okay to play the lottery as long as you don't spend too much of your hard-earned money on it. Hey, I got an idea. Instead of buying lottery tickets for the rest of the week, how about we all go get some slushies today? Okay.

Yeah! I could go for a delicious cup of flavored ice sludge to ease the disappointment. If you drink it that fast, odds are you'll get a brain freeze. Go away, Oswald! Ow, my head. I didn't want to say I choked you so...

All right, that's it for this episode of Million Bazillion. Thanks for listening. And if you got a money question you want us to answer, send it to us at our website. That's marketplace.org slash million. Oh, hey, I just found my scratchers ticket from the other morning in my pocket. Oh, here's a penny. Here, give it a scratch and see if you won.

And listeners, while you're at our website, maybe sign up for our newsletter too. Because when you do, we send you tip sheets for each episode and they have really great conversation starters for kids and parents who want to keep talking about the topic of our episode. Bridget, I won $5. This episode now does make sense, dramaturgically speaking. Ugh.

Yes, I knew we could do it. Million Bazillion is brought to you by Marketplace from American Public Media. This episode was written and hosted by me, Ryan Perez, and Bridget Bodner. Our lucky numbers, by the way, are 32 and 4. And you heard some very special performances from Drew Jostad, Kamisha Duncan, Mary Brancaccio, Sabree Beneshore, and Jay Seabold. No idea what their lucky numbers are, but Million Bazillion's editor is Jasmine Romero. Her lucky number is 13.

Turns out four is also Courtney Bergseeker's lucky number. She is our producer. We also had production help from Minju Park and Zoha Mullick. Their lucky numbers are 12 and 27. And Marissa Cabrera is our senior producer. Lucky number eight. Sam Baer sound designed this episode. He says his lucky number is six. With mixing by Becca Wyman, her lucky number is 093. And our theme music was created by Wonderly.

Bridget Bodner is the director of podcasts at Marketplace. Francesca Levy is the executive director of digital. Her lucky number is 23, or so she claims. Neil Scarborough, lucky number 29, is the VP and general manager. Million Bazillion is funded in part by the Cy Sims Foundation, partnering with organizations and people working for a better and more just future since 1985.

And special thanks to the Ranzetta Family Charitable Fund and NextGen Personal Finance for providing the startup funding for this podcast and continuing to support Marketplace and our work to make younger audiences smarter about the economy. If Million Bazillion is helping your family have important conversations about money, consider making a one-time donation today at marketplace.org slash givemillion. And thanks for your support. Hey, bazillionaires. Thanks for listening to today's episode.

We talked a lot about lotteries, what they are and how they work, and how difficult they can be to actually win. Luckily, with Greenlight, kids and teens can build real money skills over time, like saving, learning to invest, and setting goals, instead of just hoping to win the jackpot. Build money skills the smart way with Greenlight. Sign up today at greenlight.com slash million.