I've seen a guy asking for advice about lotteries and it got me thinking. I don't understand why people even like lotteries. You don't do much, most likely lose and have to wait for the outcome for a long time. Perhaps, people are interested in the possibility of winning, but that would mean they are not really into gambling as the process. So what is it for you, do you play only for the sake of winning or do you care about the process of playing/researching/anticipating the outcome? I think that the process is that is attractive in gambling, and while the outcome surely matters, I would not like to wait for a long while to learn it.
It is not really a mystery why people love lotteries, you invest a small amount of money and the return on investment can be enough to change your life forever, as you have observed those people do not really enjoy the process of gambling they only want to get a positive outcome out of this unlike those that gamble a more engaging game in which you need to put your full attention like poker, in my case I prefer a more engaging game because all what I want out of gambling is to be entertained.
To add to this point, I believe that people play lotteries because its an easy way to gamble with a small amount of money and not have to do anything except pick a few numbers and hope to win big. The same thing is with slots, its an easy way to gamble on something that doesn't really require any skill or have to doing anything for a chance to win something. Its still all gambling but in a different form as you are still hoping to win something from the outcome of the lottery.