Gambling Will (Most Likely) Get You Nowhere by Stacia

Gambling Will (Most Likely) Get You Nowhere by Stacia - August 2013 Scholarship Essay

In the Spring 2013 semester at KSU, I took a class called Problem Solving and Decision Making.  Going into this class I though that we would learn how to solve problems in a social setting, or learn strategies to better help us work together in a professional setting.  After just the first class however, I realized that this was not the case.I have never been much of a gambler.  I was not the kind of person to go out on my 18th birthday and get a lottery ticket, or buy a handful of scratch tickets with the hopes of winning it big.  This being said, that does not mean that I was not interested in why gambling draws so many people in.  In my Problem Solving and Decision Making class, there was one day that really stood out in my mind.  After the bell had rung signaling the start of class, my professor proceeded to pass out two lottery tickets to each member of the class.  It's not very often you find an instructor who would do such a thing so of course we were a little skeptical.  The professor started class by assuring us that we did indeed hold authentic lottery tickets.  We went into a lesson on how the odds of winning the lottery are not in your favor.  I knew that it was very unlikely that you would win the lottery but I never knew just how unlikley it was.  According to the lottery we played, out of the 41 students in our class, the odds of someone winning $1 was 1/41... We we not even that lucky.  The lesson progressed into how a person was more likely to play the lottery if they had "just missed" a win, meaning they were off by only one or two numbers.  We also talked about how a person more desperate for money is more likely to play the lottery on the hopes that they will win and be released from their current financial situation.Even though most people can got their entire life without winning the lottery, there are those few who do end up winning millions.  When you go to buy your lottery ticket just keep in mind how rare this truly is and enjoy the rush of the possibilitites!