Playing the Lottery Likely Won't Make You Rich -- But Amazon Just Might

Key Points

• About half of Americans play the lottery -- but most players end up losing.

• The S&P 500 and many individual stocks offer a much better track record.

• 10 stocks we like better than Amazon ›

As potential lottery winnings climb, and when you see a Powerball player strike the jackpot, you may imagine yourself selecting the next batch of winning numbers. Could the lottery make you rich? The data shows us it's very unlikely. Though 50% of Americans play the lottery, and spend more than $100 billion on it a year, most players end up winning nothing, according to Motley Fool Money Research. And the odds of winning Powerball are staggeringly low at 1 in 292 million.

But before you give up on the idea of getting rich, hold on -- there's a much better way to grow wealth. This one is safer and more likely to produce positive results. I'm talking about investing. About 162 million American adults today invest in stocks, an activity that has demonstrated its wealth-building powers. The S&P 500 has delivered a 10% average annual return over the long term, and many individual stocks have offered investors outstanding returns. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia has soared 1,200% over the past five years.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

So, which stock should you choose right now to supercharge your portfolio? A tech giant that's proven itself over time and today is leading in the high-growth area of AI. I'm talking about Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). The lottery probably won't pave the road to riches for you -- but Amazon might.

Image source: Getty Images.

An e-commerce leader

Most of us know Amazon well for its e-commerce business. The company is a leader there, offering us everything from essentials to mass merchandise at low prices -- and Amazon has kept shoppers loyal through its Prime subscription program. Through Prime, customers get fast and free delivery, access to books and movies, and even prescription drug services.

Amazon holds "Prime Day" events annually, and they not only boost revenue -- the latest brought in record sales -- but they also attract more shoppers to join the Prime program.

But Amazon isn't just an e-commerce player, and in fact, the company's biggest profit driver is its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services. AWS is the world's leading cloud provider, offering everything from data storage to a wide range of AI products and services. The company serves every budget within the AI space as it gives customers access to the latest Nvidia chips, or for the budget-conscious customer, provides the Trainium chip -- designed by Amazon. Amazon also offers a fully managed service, Amazon Bedrock, that allows customers to tailor a variety of large language models to their needs.

All of this has helped AWS to reach a $123 billion annual revenue run rate in the recent quarter, with revenue surging more than 17% during the period.

A positive move for earnings growth

Amazon also is applying its investment in AI to the e-commerce business, with robotics and other tools that are helping it gain in efficiency across its fulfillment and delivery network. When Amazon does this, it decreases its cost to serve, and that's positive for earnings growth over time.

Speaking of earnings, Amazon has delivered a long track record of gains in the past years -- with the only interruption being a couple of years ago as it struggled with higher inflation. But Amazon used that time to improve its cost structure, and this effort has been paying off.

After that one annual loss in 2022, Amazon returned to profit a year later. And today, in the recent quarter, both revenue and net income climbed in the double digits to more than $167 billion and $18 billion, respectively.

Making wise investments

Another point I like is Amazon has a good track record of growing its return on invested capital, meaning the company has invested wisely over time.

AMZN Return on Invested Capital data by YCharts

All of this has worked out well for investors, with Amazon stock climbing 80% over the past three years. And the great news is even after that performance, Amazon shares still have plenty of room to run, considering they trade for 34 times forward earnings estimates -- a reasonable level for a growth stock -- and the fact that we're still in the early days of the AI boom. Analysts expect the AI market to reach beyond $2 trillion in a few years, and Amazon is well positioned to benefit.

This means that today, if you're looking to build wealth, you should consider fleeing the lottery and instead placing your bets on Amazon.

Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $651,599!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,067,639!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 25, 2025

Adria Cimino has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.