Pfft, who cares? It's 2k. You make that in a map or so.
Yeah, that's what I thought. I don't even care if the prize is 5,000g and I have a 1:100 chance of winning. It's 2,000 gold, what kind of scrubby scrooge are you if you can't afford to lose that?
What if the prize increased when tickets are bought, but on an exponential curve where the payout gives a worse investment:prize ratio? Like if you were the first person to buy a ticket for 100g the prize would be 1,000g. But if you were the 10th person to buy a ticket, the prize would be 6,800g. Just throwing numbers out there, but does that make sense?
Even if the rates made it so you had terrible chances of winning by the time the prize was big, wouldn't you be tempted to buy a ticket as you watched the numbers rise over the week? I know I would.
Also I made back my 2,000g while I typed this post.