The dishonesty lies in obfuscating the actual odds of winning, making the honesty about the payout a moot point as it's not particularly applicable for most entrants.
For it to be clear how unrealistic the odds are. They're not exactly broadcasting "you're 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the jackpot", instead their site screams "Millions Could Be Yours!". That is the dishonesty and obfuscation. Millions _could_ be yours, but they are very unlikely to be yours, in fact realistically approaching zero. While advance fee scams say "millions will definitely be yours", with the odds being absolutely zero. But neither are meaningful odds.
Though regardless, my original point wasn't about odds but about the lure and the appeal of both of these things: the potential for getting a lot of money for doing virtually nothing (other than spending a bit of money up front).
You made it look more prominent by linking directly to the tab that details the odds.
On mobile that tab isn't even visible when you load the page, you have to know that it's possible to scroll to the right in the tab bar. Otherwise what you see is the tag line "Imagine Winning $48 Million", details about when drawing happens, and a button that says "claim a prize" with an ecstatic man on a phone.
I will say that the government-sponsored lotteries tend to be less blatantly abusive than casinos, but I'm still very comfortable saying that they do actively work to inflate people's sense of the odds.
nradov|1 year ago
https://www.calottery.com/draw-games/superlotto-plus#section...
Algemarin|1 year ago
For it to be clear how unrealistic the odds are. They're not exactly broadcasting "you're 40 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the jackpot", instead their site screams "Millions Could Be Yours!". That is the dishonesty and obfuscation. Millions _could_ be yours, but they are very unlikely to be yours, in fact realistically approaching zero. While advance fee scams say "millions will definitely be yours", with the odds being absolutely zero. But neither are meaningful odds.
Though regardless, my original point wasn't about odds but about the lure and the appeal of both of these things: the potential for getting a lot of money for doing virtually nothing (other than spending a bit of money up front).
lolinder|1 year ago
On mobile that tab isn't even visible when you load the page, you have to know that it's possible to scroll to the right in the tab bar. Otherwise what you see is the tag line "Imagine Winning $48 Million", details about when drawing happens, and a button that says "claim a prize" with an ecstatic man on a phone.
I will say that the government-sponsored lotteries tend to be less blatantly abusive than casinos, but I'm still very comfortable saying that they do actively work to inflate people's sense of the odds.