Ive done both. Won and lost. Last week was a decent win week. So I let $20 ride on a contest
A lot more people lose than win. The contest I am in now has spots for 286,250 contestants. The total prize pool is $5,000,000. $1,000,000 to first.
The top 63,000 places pay.
In this structure 200,000+ are going to lose money.