I was out driving around one day and took a notion to buy a $1 scratch ticket. It paid off $200. On the way home, my car broke down and needed $500 in repairs. So, no.
Come now, we can recognize that they’re addicts and scorn them. There’s no need to limit ourselves.
As I understand it, when you buy a lottery ticket you’re not buying a chance to win so much as the excitement and energy rush of thinking that you’re about to win powerball money. It’s an endorphin rush derived from your subconscious being bad at math - you might be well aware that your chance of winning is functionally zero, but your brain isn’t on the same page and still gives you an exciting rush.
And that, theoretically, is worth money. Or to put it like the kids say nowadays, it’s buying an experience rather than an object. When you go to a movie, you walk out of the theater with nothing more than popcorn butter on your chin, but despite gaining nothing many would say that’s not a waste of money. Depending on the price of the movie ticket, of course.
So it comes down to how much you’re spending versus the value of your experience. Now, while I don’t buy lotto tickets I spend a hell of a lot of money on frivolous entertainments, and am not in a good position to mock people over burning their wad on transitory entertainment. But I need to mock somebody, so instead I focus on the people who are spending more on entertainment than they can afford. Doesn’t matter if they’re lotto tickets or legos or lamborghinis, if your budget is straining under the weight of your entertainments then I consider you messed up and mockworthy. Me being a shining example of maturity and good taste, and all.
I also consider it mockworthy if you worry about your actual win rate while buying lotto tickets, because being cognitively unaware that the odds aren’t in your favor is to lack the most basic information about the games you’re playing. That’s just me punching down like an ass, though.
I used to buy a scratcher (or two) when I would buy gas for my car. Now with “Pay at the pump”, I seldom go into a gas station, unless for a beverage or comfort break.
I was at an Army military occupational specialty school at Camp Grafton in North Dakota in 1997. Due to the Red River Flood, we had to be done with training and through the mess hall by 16:30, so the kitchen could be used to feed evacuees. This meant us travelling soldiers, staying in base housing, were usually in the enlisted club by 1700 every night for two weeks, drinking fifty cent beers and buying pull tabs, which I don’t believe I’d ever seen before my trip to ND. I had flown in from Maine with another guy, and got to hanging around with two guys from the NY National Guard. Between the three of them, every night there would be a pile of pulled tabs on the table about a foot high. I think they were a dollar apiece. Someone would get a little win every once in a while. I never bought a single one, just watched them with mild amusement as they threw away money.
On the last night we were there, I broke down and bought 5 tickets at once. Three of them were winners, $100, $25 and $1. You’d have thought they’d have been happy for me, but I’ve never seen three grown men get irate so fast. 
I think it was Hugh Jackman who’s been buying the crew of his movies scratch off tickets for years. He’s spend hundreds of thousands on them, and no one has ever won more than a few thousand.
I’ve had about a 50% payback on $20 scratchers. On $2 scratchers, it’s been 0% payback. Not even a free ticket. 
Never bought a scratch-off. I don’t find gambling exciting in a pleasurable sense. If one of the three lotteries we can “invest” in here in California has a big enough pot, I’ll throw a buck at it. Maybe. It’s been maybe a couple of years since I even did that.
I remember years ago when Powerball (I think) was really high, and a small group of Australians bought a million dollars worth of tickets. They didn’t win anything. I laughed.
A friend in school told of the time he and some friends pooled money for scratch off tickets. Five or six of them put in $20 each, for 100 to 120 tickets. They then spent some time scratching them off, having a rather good time. They took their winning (either money or free ticket) tickets in to get more tickets. They kept this up for most of an afternoon, until they ran out of money and new tickets. They seemed to enjoy themselves for a long time for only $20. He said that it was worth it.
Nope.
That kind of money sounds like a car payment on a pretty decent car, so I personally can’t imagine it…there are a lot of things I’d rather spend that kind of money on. Once every couple of years when the Powerball/MegaMillions jackpot is absolutely huge I’ll drop maybe $5 on tickets. I commonly see very working-class people dropping $20 or $40 on scratch-off tickets at the gas station at 8am on a Tuesday and it’s really foreign to me.
I’ll buy one here and there when the mood strikes but not that much.