It is an almost absolute certainty that after Saturday night's lotto draw most of us will be a few dollars poorer and not $30 million richer.
After all, there are 38,383,799 ways not to win the "must be won" powerball jackpot and just one way to win.
Yet, Otago Lotto outlets are expecting a repeat of last Saturday, when there were queues of people buying tickets for the biggest prize in New Zealand's gambling history.
With so little chance of winning, why do we bother?
"A licence to dream" is how Victoria University anthropologist Dr Peter Howland describes a Lotto ticket.
"Buying a ticket, especially when there is this huge prize, and a massive hubbub about it, legitimises your right to dream about winning.
''If you don't have a ticket, it is a delusional statement.
''If you have a ticket, then it's a legitimate dream."
Dr Howland is in the process of updating his 2004 publication Lotto, Long-drops & Lolly-scrambles: The Extraordinary Anthropology of Middle New Zealand.
In it he argues that New Zealanders treat Lotto differently to other forms of gambling and accept it in the way it is promoted, as a "gaming" activity.
"Therefore, it is relatively benign and not subject to that sort of moral outrage that horse racing and casino gambling is associated with."
And because Lotto profits are distributed to community causes, ticket buyers also regard a Lotto ticket as similar to a local school raffle.
"With all these altruistic aspects... you become a member of a community and you demonstrate that you are a good Kiwi and you are willing to contribute."
The New Zealand Lotteries Commission will not say how much New Zealanders "contributed" last weekend when the jackpot was at $25 million but in the 2006-07 year it sold $700,047,000 worth of tickets and returned $408,563,000, or 56%, to winning punters.
Dr Howland says New Zealanders are generally "very humble" in the way they deal with good fortune.
"I'm going to buy a Toyota Corolla . . .
''I'll carry on working.
''I'll pay off the mortgage.
''So it fits into this sort of humble Kiwiness that we have."
In contrast, he says, Americans exhibited far more "rampant" greed and sought big changes in their lives, desiring such things as limousines and big houses.
Otago and Southland's luckiest outlet, the Pak 'N Save supermarket in South Dunedin, is "reasonably busy" in the run up to the weekend.
Spokeswoman Sue Sneddon said most of the ticket purchases ranged from $13.15 to $22.50.
She had not seen a great deal of syndicate activity.
Last weekend, at the Mosgiel New World supermarket, a woman was seen by an ODT staff member buying $1200 of tickets for a syndicate explaining that she had "forgotten" to make the purchase the previous week.
• Dr Howland says he has bought a ticket and an anonymous source in the communications office of the Lotteries Commission says they have an approved staff syndicate. If it wins, the media can expect there will be no reply from their office on Monday.
