I've usually bought a single lottery ticket every week or so ever since I turned 18. Now that I'm 40 I can tell you that I've never won more than $7 dollars at a time, and I would have been much better off using my college scholarships on an engineering degree if I actually wanted to be wealthy (or even have middle class income for that matter). Lottery tickets are voluntary taxes and you're more likely to get rich actually applying yourself and working hard, rather than spending $2 bucks at a gas station every Friday. Unless you have an art degree, then working hard is only going to leave you with about $2 extra bucks every week and a very well developed imagination.