Sounds bizarre, right? It is! Here are the details on this stat:

• Based on playing Cash WinFall, a game run by the Massachusetts state lottery
• Costs $2 to play, and, players pick six numbers • The jackpot prize starts at$500K, and tops out at about $2.5 million • Chances of winning the jackpot are 1 in 9.36 million • If the jackpot reaches$2.5 million without a winner, the money is “rolled down” into lower tier prizes — i.e. matching 5 out of 6 numbers, which usually only carries a prize of about $4K, increases to$20K+ during “roll down” periods

So, if you gamble during a roll down period, are you guaranteed a win? NO.

In fact, Professor Kon said someone “investing” $10K during a roll down period would run the risk of a significant loss. With all investments, there is some degree of risk. Here’s what makes “investing” in this particular lottery game so scary — if someone wins the “jackpot”, the value of all of the other smaller wins (i.e. matching 3, 4, or 5 balls) suddenly decreases drastically in value… meaning you could very well invest$100K and walk away with … a few dollars and a lot of worthless pieces of paper.