Buying More Tickets Does Not Increase Your Odds.

If that were true and you played 5,000 tickets then the ods would be 35,000 to one.

The whole concept is a fairy tale.

Thrifty is right, each individual ticket (one line of numbers) is up against the very same odds, 175,000,000 to one.

The theory above would only work if more than one winning set of numbers were drawn.

What's your take on the people posting here? I think they mirror the general population. Most people are near the middle of the curve, and a few are a bit closer to one end or the other.

I made it as simple as the choice between odd an even, but some people still disagree that buying 2 tickets makes you twice as likely to win as buying 1 ticket.  It's not a matter of opinion, and it's not advanced math. 1*2 =2., and 2 in 175 million simplifies to 1 in 87.5 million. The numbers are bigger, but it's literally grade school arithmetic.

I think an inability to grasp that demonstrates a substantial defect in the ability to reason and understand simple concepts. If I'm wrong, perhaps you can explain why.

You understand that it was simply an exerecise in math, used to demonstrate the odds, right?

Thank you very much. Todd did you read that?

because the odds of you winning the game would be %100. not%50. ie increased buy buying more tickets

this is an argument over what question is being asked. you could go for ever buying tails and heads always coming up, i could go for ever buying heads and tails and always  breaking even.

you are just arguing semantics,  " why buy anything but the winning 6 numbers " is your real point.

You seem to leave out the cases. If you play a simple pick 6, you get 7 possible results,
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 correct numbers. For each case there is a probability.

Normally it is expressed like 0.000,001 for example. Now they make 1:1,000,000 of it.

The total of all the chances is 1, but your payout is lower than 1.

The house always wins.

If you want to be with the lucky ones, you need to pick the right numbers and win more than you spend.

"Thrifty is right, each individual ticket (one line of numbers) is up against the very same odds, 175,000,000 to one."

Thrifty - you think because one other person agreed with you, that you are correct?

I bet you were just sitting back waiting for that day to come huh?  Did you take a picture of that post, and hang it on your wall to stare at during the night?

I choose to stop responding to such posts, because the writer of such posts defy the constraints of mathematics, and will argue against the facts almost like they are having a religious debate.

If you want to say that your odds of winning are the same whether you buy one ticket or a thousand tickets, then enjoy your dream land.

I think you have the right idea Todd, there's confused and there's obtuse.   Thrifty... I'll just ask you this.   If there are 175 million combinations and you buy 175 million different combinations - yes each indivitual ticket has a 1 in 175 million chance at winning.   But what are your chances of winning for that drawing of hitting the jackpot????  If you have every combination there is no way for you not to hit the jackpot - so collectively with all those tickets how have your odds of winning not changed????  They went from 1 in 175 million to an absolute hit... I'd take those ODDS!!

hehehe ACP

a magic fairy  visits lottery post land and hands out dreams,

for you ACP every ticket in powerball, for  thrifty., 1 ticket,

after all the odds are the same,

Right.

Odds are express by a ratio of losing chances to winning chances so for every extra ticket you buy, the chances of losing becomes slightly less and the chances of winning slightly increases. In the example Floyd gave buying 46 tickets each with a different mega number, the odds of each ticket are 3,819,815 to 1. If an extra ticket was bought the odds for the 2 tickets with the same mega number would be 3,819,814 (chances of losing decreasing by 1) to 2 (chances of winning increasing by 1). These odds can be expressed as 1,909,907 to 1.

You're saying if you bought 10 tickets the odds of any one of those tickets winning the jackpot is still 175,711,535 to 1 and that is correct, but because you bought 9 extra tickets your chances of losing decreases by 9 and the chances of winning increases by 9.

175,711,526 to 10 or 17,571,153.5 to 1.

@ Thrifty - No one is arguing that an individual ticket's odds increase when purchasing additional tickets. But it is a fact that overall your chances do increase period. I don't even understand what spurred you to create such a post. I will not resort to insults or questions about your intelligence as others have. I will however tell you that you are wrong wrong wrong.

 As long as there is a finite number of combinations, In this case 175million then buying more tickets absolutely increase your odds so long as your playing different combinations. Using your logic, the amount of possible combinations would have to increase by 1 with each ticket purchased. This does not happen. I dont know how else I can put it except that with each combination you play you knocking off a potential winner.

 A simple experiment-  Take a deck of cards and remove 3 of the 4 aces leaving on ace in 49 cards. You and a friend take turns pulling for the ace and shuffling in between turns. Fan the deck and allow him to draw 5 at a time an you draw 1. I can garantee he pulls the ace more than you over a 100 attempts. Your chance of getting the ace would be 2.04 % while his would be 10.2 % Granted each individual attempt he makes is still 2.04 % but overall having 5 pulls instead of 1., his chance of winning increase to 10.2%.

 Obviously we're talking much larger numbers with the lotto which in turn means a much smaller increase in raising your odds but the principle remains the same as long as there are a finite number of combinations.

Einstein once said " learning the sum of 1 and 1 is not good enough " and he went on to develop e=mc2.
Our math professor once said that " love math, 1 and 1 is not two but 11 " and he grouped us into two groups to debate about it. At the end of the session, 1 and 1= 2.

Who is the Genius? Who is the nerd? Your guess is as good as mine.