Poll: Would you play this?

This would be in essence a side bet and cost another dollar.

It would have to be for a Pick 5 or only the top matrix of Powerball or Mega Millions, as it has to be an odd number to make a prepnderance.

Not sure what the payoff would be, nothing spectacular, maybe a litle beter than even money, maybe even money (or even less?), but the bet would be more evens or odds.

Another possible side bet would be predicting the exact swequence of evens and odds. Of course that would pay a lot better.

And for states like Illinois that use different colored balls, how about betting on the colors in sequence?

How would the state make any money with a 50-50 game?  There would probably also be a spoiler, like the green zero/double zero on a roulette table.   (don't know if spoiler is the correct word)

spoiler sounds like a good name for me.

"Spoiler" is probably not the name you'd call it, when it happened.

Since it's not a case of one odd, one even, both odd, both even, it wouldn't be a 50-50 game as there is a series of five.

The house would still make money on this. 

By the way, European roulette wheels only have one 0, American roulette has 00.

I don't think I would waste another dollar playing something like that, because I still wouldn't be able to pick the right sequence of odd/even...lol, but it does sound like it would be interesting.

I don't know how the payoff could be more than even money (betting $1 and collecting $2) so I doubt many people would bet another buck only win a buck. The Florida Fantasy 5 has an added bet called EZ Play that has pretty nice payoffs.

Pick-3 games have side bets that allow betting on more than one combination for a $1 like the box (3 or 6 straight bets for $1), front (10 straight bets for $1), back, outside pairs, or sums (between 1 and 75 straight bets for $1) in pick-3 games. Lotteries could use the same "win percentage" they get on pick-3 and pick-4 games (50%) and allow players to choose 10 numbers or get 10 QP numbers and they would get 252 combinations for $1. The payoffs could be $1000 for matching all 5 numbers, maybe $100 for matching 4, and get your buck back for matching 3.

Just how much do you think something like that would pay?

The number of total patterns is 2^N where N is the number of balls drawn.  So for a pick 5 game there would be 2^5 or 32 different even and odd patterns

2^1 = 2  half even and half odd or

E

O

2^2 = 4 Half even and half odd or

E E

E O

O E

O O

2^3 = 8 or

E E E

E E O

E O E

E O O

O E E

O E O

O O E

O O O

you get the idea 2^4 =16 with 8 evens followed by 8 odds in the left column and then 2^5= 32 with 16 Evens followed by 16 odds in the left column.  So you get the Idea...basically an e/o pattern for a pick 5 would be 1 out of 32.

A pick 6 would have 64 patterns and a pick 7 would have 128

Since the true odds on the pick 5 swould be 31 to 1 (by your example above) I figure "the house" being a lottery it  would pay somewhere in the range of 8 to 15 to 1.

Note that 2^N would also apply to Up and Down so maybe on the Pick 3 and Pick 4 you could get your state to offer a "One Off" Option on Pick 3 and Pick 4.

It could either be a $1 option with 1/8 the normal prize on pick 3 and 1/16 the normal prize on

pick 4 or they could implement it as an $8 option on Pick 3 and a $16 option on pick 4.

Michigan offers Straight, Box, 2-Way, and Wheel bets on these games and maybe if enough people wrote them they would offer a "One Off" option also.

Eg if your number was 1 2 3 you could  get paid when any or all of your numbers were one away from the number drawn