You are more likely to have conjoined twins than you are to win the lottery. So why do millions of Americans continue to buy $58 billion worth of tickets annually?

Viewing the glass half-full, Americans say they play because there is always a chance that they might win, and the absurd amount of money they might win would help their families tremendously. Others who are pessimistic and view the glass half-empty say they play the lottery because their lives are awful and they have nothing left to live for. But the realistic people, like me, believe it is a waste of money any position the glass is viewed from.

With real lottery winners proving that you usually lose your privacy, true friends, and sanity, the lottery seems like a bad idea. Many winners are also more likely to turn to alcohol and drugs as a place of comfort.

Aside from all the temptations of having more money, perhaps the aspect that freaks me out the most is the lack of privacy. As an official rule of lottery games, the winner must publicly accept their money, making their name accessible to all crazy people looking for their next scam. People that win $100,000 or $350 million report strangers coming to their house asking for money. I could accept friends expecting me to pay for our dinners in the city, but I could never handle creeps knocking on my door, already knowing my name and my checking account number.

Many people who have won some sort of lottery have written books about the best ways to carefully use the money won. The television network TLC also came out with a TV show over the summer, “The Lottery Changed My Life.” With all the available media expressing the side effects of winning the lottery, I would think people would learn by now how to use their money wisely.

I also find lotteries of any sort a waste of money. Those glass half-full people spend hundreds of dollars on tickets. Even when they don’t win, they continue doing the same for the next Megaball. With rumor of a $550 million jackpot lottery in the New York area, that money will probably not be claimed by anyone insanely lucky person, and would be used for the next round. However if Americans don’t buy into the lottery they would overall have more money in their own pockets, instead of giving it up to their states.

Although America is not the only country to have a lottery, we are the only country to have become a culture obsessed with not just winning, but winning off of other people’s winnings. Though I would rather win the lottery than have conjoined twins, with all the awful side affects of receiving incomprehensible amounts of money, I might rethink those twins.