Hmmm - the need for entertainment is inherent in humans. There is nothing wrong in indulging responsible, legal activities. I'd rather waste $4 a month on lottery tickets vs. $50+/month on cable TV, alcohol, cigarettes, etc...
Remember, "wasteful" is a term that is greatly affected by personal preferences and biases. Heck, some would consider posting on a message board wasteful!

Everyone has some vice. As slim as a chance that you might win, its better odds than smoking or drinking. Someone playing the lottery isn't hurting me so I say leave them alone. If its not your thing that's fine but don't try to force your values on others.

i hope all the fools continue to gamble in state run lotteries, etc. In fact, I wish they would expand all such schemes.
Mostly poor play these lotteries under the dilusion they can actually win and now become rich. Good for them. Keep playing. After all, since these poor misguided fools pay virtually no state or federal income taxes, it is nice to see them actually pony up some money that goes to the state treasury.
Of course the state always trotts out the mega-winner showing a car sized check with the gross "winnings" on it. Unfortunately the state also grossly overstates the "winnings". After reducing to present value the series of payments and paying the real tax liability (as opposed to what is minimally required to be withheld), the dollars available to the lucky winner is cut to a fraction of what shows on the gross check. And the poor sap now is hounded and bombarded from thousands of friends he never heard of and every charity under the sun is holding out their hat seeking a cut.
Given Clark's message, you would be far better off buying a large term life insurance policy on yourself and standing on the roof of your house, holding your trusty nine iron high in the air during a lightening storm.
Oh, and the promises by the states that lottery winnings go to education or other such heart-tugging causes, the state really does put the profits to these causes...and at the same time reduces the normal funding from other tax sources by the same amount.

Simple - You can't win if you don't play. A $1 ticket is all you need. I think it's worth it - you never know when Lady Luck will strike.

In NC the top administrator of the lottery earns over $300K; 50% of funds were supposed to be for reducing public school class sizes to 18 pupils per teacher, last year I had 22 K students. Our state cannot afford PreK/public daydare.