First place winners generally get too big of a prize in lotteries and most other types of competition, especially in comparison with what second, third and other successively placed winners receive. The mere fact of placing first should be a far more significant part of the prize. Prizes and financial rewards for first placed winners could still be the most valuable, however second placed winners should generally receive between 50-90% of the value of the first placed prize. Third placed winners could generally receive between 25-50% of first placed winnings. All these numbers would depend heavily on the size of the total prize giveaway and the number of people participating in the event. The larger that either number is, the more equivalent the winning prizes should be. In groups where 20 or more people compete against each other, second place winners are just about as good as first place winners and third placed winners deserve far more attention and/or prizes than they are getting now, especially when it comes to lottery winnings.