Re:Mega Millions ticket wins $1.34B lottery jackpot
by dredmorbius on Saturday July 30, 2022 @06:43PM
(#32291113)
Now in the way of Lottery men do also tax themselves in the general, though out of hopes of Advantage in particular: A Lottery therefore is properly a Tax upon unfortunate self-conceited fools; men that have good opinion of their own luckiness, or that have believed some Fortune-teller or Astrologer, who had promised them great success about the time and place of the Lottery, lying Southwest perhaps from the place where the destiny was read.
-- Sir William Petty, 1662
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/10/21/lottery/
Sir William was apparently a very early Reddit adopter.
(Numerous other versions and observations at the QI link, for those with substantive interests in the history of the observation.)