The main point is that people evaluate probabilities of events subjectively (in the brain) in a way that is different from their actual value. In particular, small probabilities (like 1/1000) are massively overweighed, so people make decisions as if they were many times bigger. For this reason, they tend to pay 3$ for a lottery where there is a 1/1000000 chance to win a 1000000$ jackpot even if that's totally irrational (the expected value of such prize is 1$ which is much less than 3$ ticket price). Similarly, many of you folks will probably bet for this hole-in-one thing, massively overestimating the actual probability of making it. Got it? :)
Btw, IMO this (prospect theory and a few related behavioral economics topics) is one of the most important things every consumer should learn if s/he wants to avoid falling prey to modern marketing tricks. If I had the power, I would push for teaching it in high school... That would save many average Joes lots of money (of course at a cost of corporate profits :))