jackpots in 2025 averaged 2.06 billion won ($1.41 million), which falls to 1.4 billion won once taxes are deducted.
That after-tax amount is below the average price of an apartment in Seoul, which was 1.5 billion won in December 2025, according to separate data compiled by KB Land, the property data tracker of KB Kookmin Bank.
The issue isn’t pleasure, it’s expectation. Buying a coffee or a movie ticket reliably delivers the thing you’re paying for; a lottery ticket is designed to almost certainly deliver nothing. Calling that “financially inconsequential pleasure” glosses over the fact that the pleasure is mostly manufactured hope, not the product itself.
Enjoyment isn’t immune from criticism just because it’s cheap, and pointing that out doesn’t require living like a monk. You can acknowledge that people do it for fun while still recognizing it as a statistically bad trade-off compared to most other small indulgences
Or you can accept divergence in opinions and not be an ass about it. Go touch some grass…
Same goes for you. Except the latter part, I’m not that petty.