Winning The Lottery vs. Getting Struck By Lightning

Last updated on January 26, 2024

Winning the lottery vs getting struck by lightning is a popular line used by people who try to discourage others from playing the lottery. For me, I ask this instead: Do you want to be killed by lightning, or do you want to win the lottery?

It’s all about your choice.

If you want to be hit by lightning, go outside and find shelter under the only tree in the field. It’s your choice. Therefore, the probability of getting hit by electricity will surely be in your favor.

But you don’t want to do that because it’s not fun. Right?

Instead, you’ll try to avoid it by getting inside the house, golfing some other day, or living where you are least likely to get struck by lightning. So then the probability becomes zero or impossible.

Similarly, a couple of things are more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery. And like the lightning versus lottery, people try to put the lottery in a bad light. Let’s discuss those scenarios and see if the lottery is as bad as some people would like you to believe.

If you stick around to the end, I’ll provide the links to relevant pages to help increase your odds of winning the lottery so that you have probability and math on your side.¹

Winning the Lottery Vs. Lightning, Sharks, Etc

The odds of winning the Euromillions are one in 139.8 million.² For the UK Lotto, the odds are one in 45 million.³ The odds are much worse when you play the US Mega Millions with one to 302.5 million chances.⁴

Sadly, getting struck by lightning is much more probable than winning the lottery.

The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.

Flash Facts About Lightning, National Geographic

In the “winning the lottery vs getting struck by lightning” scenario, the odds remain firmly in electricity’s favor.

The anti-lottery groups use other arguments to discourage you from playing a lottery game.

There are a couple of other events that are more likely to happen than you ever winning the lottery. These seemingly random events vary from dating supermodels to becoming a movie star or saint.⁵

And the list goes on:

• Alan Harris, an astronomer, states that a meteorite could cause enough damage to take out a big chunk of the Earth. The odds are 1 in 700,000.⁶
• Our Jaws nightmares may not be far off compared to winning the lottery. Worldanimalfoundation.org states that the odds of being killed in a shark attack are 1 in 4,332,817.⁷ So be careful when you’re out in the ocean – remember that just one lucky shark is all it takes.
• Gregory Baer, author of Life: The Odds, states that your chances of becoming a saint are around 1 in 20 million. This is taken from the fact that out of the 100 billion people who have ever existed, only 5,000 or so have been declared saints. Still, 1 in 20 million is better than 1 in 300 million.

How to Play Your Odds (be wrong less)

Face it. You’ll never win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.

Similarly, it’s unlikely that you get hit by lightning when you stay indoors during thunderstorms.

Do you want the shark to kill you? Go and swim in the ocean. You probably wouldn’t want to do that. Would you? The truth is, the odds that you will die from a shark are zero when you don’t swim in the ocean.

Wanted to be a saint? Don’t ask me, but you can ask your priest. If you don’t follow, it’s not going to happen.

Do you want to date a supermodel? Well, I can suggest a thing or two but if you don’t ask a supermodel, it won’t happen.

How about a meteorite disaster? You can do something to prevent it. Lobby the government to support a program that can prevent asteroid impacts from ever happening.

From the words of Alan Haris:

We spend billions on terrorist attacks, but hardly anything on preventing asteroid impacts. Yet, of all the ways we can die from astronomical events, asteroid impacts are both the highest probability event and the only ones we can prevent.

Astronomer Alan Harris, Discover Magazine

You can do stupid things and get the things you wish never to happen to you. As they say, don’t drink when you drive.

Indeed, it’s your choice that dictates your fate. As a human with common sense, you can act on things sensibly and be wrong less.

People are Winning the Lottery

Fortunately, winning the lottery is not the worst odds in this world. You have a better chance at the lottery game than anyone has at picking a perfect NCAA tournament bracket, according to Jonathan Mattingly, a Duke math professor.⁸

I know. It’s not easy to win the lottery. But with one in 300 million chances, people still win the lottery. What gives?

Will you play the lottery? Or should you just give up and wait for lightning to strike?

That’s up to you. It’s your choice that matters.

If you play the lottery, you might ask, “Is there a way to improve your odds?”

Yes. You can use mathematics to know all your possible choices and make an intelligent choice. Using a Lotterycodex calculator will surely help you become an intelligent lotto player.

You can follow our lottery tips and use a mathematical strategy that can help you make an intelligent choice.⁹ And lucky for you, that includes special birthdates as your magical number.¹⁰

You don’t need to avoid the number 13 because it’s unlucky.¹¹ And no need to waste money on hundreds of useless lottery tickets.¹²

So, what’s the trick to winning the lottery? The trick lies in the power of combinatorial mathematics and probability theory.¹³

Unless you start strategizing and using math to your advantage, winning the lottery vs. getting stuck by lightning remains at very uneven odds.

Although most of us dreaded math in high school, the reality is that it’s your best friend when it comes to improving your game strategy.

There are a few ways to turn the lottery odds in your favor and try to win the lottery mathematically, which include picking a lottery that’s easier to win (meaning, it has better overall odds for you as a player), using probability instead of statistics, and implementing a solid lottery game plan.¹⁴

The truth is there’s no trick. You can calculate all the possible choices and make an intelligent decision. It’s not easy to win. Still, you can follow our free guide and use a Lottery calculator to see all the options and make the right choice.

Who knows? It might help you strike gold instead of lightning and win the lottery! Just don’t forget – the point behind gambling and playing the lottery is to have fun!

One Ticket Can Go Far

Surely, the odds of winning the lottery are astronomical, but winning is just a byproduct of being in it to win it.

You play the lottery to have fun. And part of the entertainment is that the lion’s share of the proceeds goes to government programs for education and public health.

You are right if you don’t play the lottery because getting struck by lightning is more likely than winning the jackpot.

But if you look at it from a bigger perspective, you may realize that playing the lottery is not evil. And you’re not going to die from playing the lottery anyway.

What if you’re lucky? It’s unlikely. But think about the hours of fantasizing about what you can do with that “what-if-you-win.” Isn’t that fun?

On a higher level, think about the less fortunate people in society. Then ask yourself, what if everyone stops playing the lottery just because lightning strikes better?

Check out my other articles about lottery strategies:

A Mathematical Lottery Hack That Works

The Winning Equation for Lottery Success

A Lottery Number Generator That Works

Play the lottery for fun, and thank you for reading.

Questions and Answers

Additional Resources

1. How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery    [↩]
2. How to Win Euromillions According to Math    [↩]
3. How to Win the UK Lotto According to Math    [↩]
4. How to Win Mega Millions According To Math    [↩]
5. 17 things more likely to happen to you than winning the lottery    [↩]
6. Death by meteorite    [↩]
7. Shark Attack Statistics & Interesting Facts That You May Not Know!    [↩]
8. Duke math professor says odds of a perfect bracket are one in 2.4 trillion    [↩]
9. Lottery Tips – What Works and What Doesn’t    [↩]
10. Using Birth Dates in Playing the Lottery? Here’s What Math Says    [↩]
11. 10 Lottery Strategy Myths Debunked    [↩]
12. Why Buying Hundreds of Lotto Tickets Can Be Useless    [↩]
13. The Trick to Winning the Lottery    [↩]
14. How to Win the Lottery According to Math    [↩]