Yikes!!!!
You 'math wizzes' are comparing apples and oranges!
The Foundation lotteries (Cancer, Hospital etc) are 'closed' lotteries: there is only a pre-determined number of tickets available, and after each ticket is drawn for a prize, it is returned to the 'barrel' to keep the 'odds' the same for everyone.
The Lotteries are 'open' ... there is no limit on the number of tickets sold and the odds of winning change with each ticket sold. As well, you do NOT get an exclusive 'number' but there may be multiple 'winners' so your odds of winning and how much you win will change with every ticket sold.
And typically the higher the jackpot in a lottery, the more tickets are sold, which decreases the odds of you winning and increases the probability that there may be muliple prize winners who have to share the money.
So, should you compare the odds of one against the other? Nope, because the way to look at it is like this:
One $100 ticket in X number of prizes in the Foundation -- you get as many chances to win as there are prizes, so if there are 50 prizes then you have 50 chances to win.
For a $100 you get 50 chances to win by buying one $2 a week for about a year.
In both cases, you have to calculate the odds not only of winning the Grand Prize, but all the smaller prizes as well ... and the Lottery does have lots of smaller prizes!
Finally (yes, this does have an ending), what is the payback per prize against the cost of the ticket? you have worse odds of winning the lottery, but more chances of winning something worth more than $2 for the $2 ticket than you do with $100 ticket where many of the later prizes are not even worth $100.
Just remember that just because you know the odds of someone winning, you can NEVER predict who will win!
