For those who put too much money into the lottery...

Reply #9

NightStalker — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:43:06 GMT

I just want to play enough that will fit on my 4 acres.

Reply #8

stribman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:26:12 GMT

Here is a perspective to consider when playing powerball or other million dollar games, unlike with the pick 3 or pick 4 you can sit down at a table and look at all the possible numbers that will fall.

With the powerball , if you had all combinations written down on 1 inch squares it would take about 17 acres to lay them out. Now most of you live on less than an acre, where would you like to start picking

Reply #7

savagegoose — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:43:58 GMT

yeah i can never remember the formula , so had to scour the net for it. the weid thing is no matter what the odds. when repeats are played so that you think its %100 certain to get a win, ie a 1/10 chance, repeated 10 times , the actually answer is 66%. or indeed 1 in 1million lotto, replayed 1 million times, is 66%

tHATS how i knew my formula was wrong, doing the dice example,

Reply #6

FARAHSAN — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:09:25 GMT

Yes it's confusing, is it not?

Actually, that's why I stressed two things:

1. that I played the same numbers

2. that we assume the same numbers never get drawn twice.

To go back to your dice example if I keep backing number 1 and the same number never comes up more than once I have a 100% chance of hitting it after 6 throws. You are probably talking about the version which takes multiple identical draws into account but that will be an estimate and it's way more complicated to unders... [ More ]

Reply #5

savagegoose — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:14:18 GMT

this is going to bust my brain, and i will prob get the math wrong. but

there will be 2600 repeats of 5 in 116m odds.

if we type in the numbers to the formula i stole.

115 999 995 / 116 000 000 = 0.99999995689655172413793103448276

then that is to the power of the number of draws repeated, ie 2600

so 0.99999995689655172413793103448276^2600 = 0.99988793731155968492461570214709

then 1 subtract that.

1.1206268844031507538429785291391e-4

or .000112062688440315075384... [ More ]

Reply #4

savagegoose — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:51:15 GMT

you math is a little off. unfortunately i cant remember how to do it correctly.

i will use the example of a 6 sided dice.

say you backed the number 1 coming up for a roll, theres a 1 in 6 chance. if you backed 1 or 2 theres 2 in 6 chances. but if you back the number 1 for two tosses In a row, the chance is not 2 in 6. it is 1 in 6 , twice.

lets say you covered the numbers 1-6, the chance would be 100%, but if you backed the number one 6 times it would not be 100% it would be 1 in6,... [ More ]

Reply #3

rcbbuckeye — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:21:09 GMT

Very good conclusion. Same conclusion I arrived at this year. It's so hard to win a jackpot game that cost control is a big part of playing. I usually play one line on each game. If I win a few bucks, then I'll play 2 lines on Texas Lotto and Texas 2 Step. I always only play one line on PB and MM. If Texas 2 Step rolls over 500k, then I divert money from the other games to play heavy on it, because it has the lowest odds of all the jackpot games.

I just realized at the end of 2011 that I was... [ More ]

Reply #2

rdgrnr — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:19:32 GMT

I agree with your conclusion, Farahsan.

You're always better off to play as an individual.

Lotto groups can be nothing but a headache to be in and a nightmare to collect if you win.

There are too many horror stories of people losing everything they invested to unscrupulous pool operators who also stole the winnings.

Especially if they are in a different country than your own.

Good luck to you

Reply #1

NightStalker — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:35:25 GMT

But sometimes you just have to buy that extra ticket. I know it doesn't increase my odds, but it makes me feel better. I see the odds, but I don't care. It's like that second piece of pie, sometimes you just have to eat it.

For those who put too much money into the lottery...

FARAHSAN — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:01:26 GMT

A question that I woke up with this morning was, what are my odds of winning the Euromillion jackpot over my lifetime and not just one draw?

It's certainly not as bad as for one draw... so I did a bit of math...

odds of winning the jackpot: 1 in 116 000 000

number of draws per week: 2

number of tickets I buy per draw: 5

now let's assume I play for 25 years.

5 (number of tickets) * 2 (number of draws per week) * 52 (number of weeks in a year) * 25 (number of years I play... [ More ]