End-of-year mentality leads to Lotto fever

OUR SAY: THE PSYCHOLOGY of Lotto is tricky business.

Tonight the $30 Million Lotto Megadraw will be drawn.

Meghan Harris in today's edition reports that the December 2016 Megadraw went to 23 division one entries, who each took home $1.37million.

According to The Lott spokeswoman Elissa Lewis, "Last year, more than 6.4 million tickets were sold into the draw, including more than 1.6 million tickets sold on the day of the draw. That's over 20 entries per second."

More than 20 entries per second.

What prompts people who don't usually take part in a Lotto draw to get their only ticket of the year?

Perhaps fear of missing out and a shot at entering 2018 up several million dollars - even if that shot is infinitesimally small.

The Atlantic published a piece last year about the work of researchers who looked into two questions whose answers lottery players assume to be in the affirmative: Does winning the lottery make people rich in the long run? And does an influx of tons of cash make people happier?

Their results suggest that the answers are complicated.

Still, most people figure a win would add to New Year's Eve celebrations.

And someone's got to win, right?