When the lotto was at a really high amount (when the aforementioned single mom won) recently, our office's highly eccentric receptionist/secretary came around collecting money for a lotto ticket pool. I initially passed, as I share the same mindset that many of the others in this thread have expressed: lotteries are a tax on people who don't understand statistics. However, in thinking about it more, I decided "What the heck, $2 for the amusement of seeing everyone's reactions via the emails would be worth it'.
One of my friends who sits nearby had also initially passed up on joining the pool but later in the day told us that he had changed his mind- not for the entertainment value like I had, but because of a conversation that he had with another of our co-workers who pointed out that a near majority of the office was in on the pool, and he was only putting in enough for a share so on the miniscule chance that they won the jackpot that he wouldn't be one of the people 'left behind' after everyone who had won had quit and left. As my friend put it, "If the rest of these assholes won, I'd probably have to kill myself from their smugness if I hadn't won as well..."
Out of quite a lot of money collected, the office pool won like $100- which was then put back into getting more tickets for the heck of it.