Tweaking incentives for lottery with a twist

Question

I have been developing a game which is a lottery where your chance of winning is proportional to the square of your bet.

To prevent people from overbetting the pot (optimal strategy shouldn't just be to bet as much as possible, I think), and to make subsequent jackpots appealing, I've made it so the winner gets (current round bets + past round leftovers) / 2. 48% of the jackpot goes forward, and 2% of the jackpot goes to the house.

This is generally working, but when there are not many people on the site, one person will sit there and drain the pot every round with the minimum bet.

Though I think the concept is pretty cool, I have the feeling that some small tweaks could make a big difference.

Any ideas how to get the pot to grow as big as possible?

Apologies if this is not the right place to post.

Answer 1

I feel this question is more marketing related instead dev. You seem to have figured out a nice setup but are lacking players.

get your community growing, and dont allow games with to few people i guess.

Answer 2

1. Set a minimum number of players

   The more players in any game, the bigger the prize for that and subsequent games

2. Raise the minimum stakes

   That one should speak for itself (you wanted a bigger jackpot)