Yes, presumably it should be more efficient because this company is not taking a cut.

Saving less and using the remainder to buy tickets is another possibility. No need to wait until the tickets are interest financed.

I think we would be the better option on an EV basis than going that route. The lottery takes an absurd cut since they are a monopoly. It's pretty much the worst EV gamble you can make. If you factor in taxes, annuity present values, odds of splitting prizes, The lottery takes around 50% as their cut.

The EV is overwhelmingly driven by savings and interest. The variance is from the lottery. Remember, the "product" is the variance people experience.

Buy enough lotto tickets to match the (appropriately normalized) variance Yotta provides. Then calculate whether full-amount-in-Yotta or lotto+residual-savings has higher EV.

The lottery takes an incredibly high cut