Why does it have to be so impossible to win the lottery?

Reply #28

Stack47 — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 03:21:42 GMT

I too was in was in a Super Lotto pool and drove to WVA to get tickets for The Big Game when that jackpot was huge. Back in those days, Ohio Super Lotto and the pick-3 were very popular and the televised live ball drawings were well watched. Times have changed and scratch-offs, MM, and PB are the new games of choice and probably why some state lotteries are considering going to RNG drawings.

PB will be one of the few lottery games I've won more than I wagered and that's because I hardly playe... [ More ]

Reply #27

RJOh — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 16:25:15 GMT

That's true for any lottery game. At least for OCL(6/49) and Super Lotto(6/49+1) before it. Before I retired I was in a work pool that played SL+ regularly and we matched 5/6 four times and I even matched 5/6 on my own after retiring. When OCL replaced LotoPlay I started playing again and matched 5/6 once in 2013 but since have had only an occassional 3/6.

I still follow the game and play it when the jackpot is decent but this week with PB at $300M+ I'll play it instead before its matrix chan... [ More ]

Reply #26

darthfury78 — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 07:05:09 GMT

Imagine if you spent $100(100 tickets) on The Daily 3 with the same one set of 3 numbers on all the tickets? That's $50,000 right there if your numbers are drawn. From there, if you put in $2K(2000 tickets) into the daily 3 with the same number set? That's $1 Million, provided that your state's lottery has a liability limit of $10 Million.. The Daily 3 is the only way to win $1 Million with better odds than the regular Pick-6 State Lotto...

Reply #25

Stack47 — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 05:16:20 GMT

I've predicted 160 Texas All or Nothing combos, 40 each drawing 6 days a week for almost two years and very seldom won more than I wagered for even one day. That being said it's still a fun game, but don't expect to win over the long run.

Reply #24

RJOh — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:37:54 GMT

Yes, OCL is a 6/49 game with a starting jackpot of $1M that increases at least $100K after each drawing. The cash option is fixed at 50% of the JP.

Reply #23

haymaker — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:31:24 GMT

I see the odds of the OCL are the same as the Jersey Pic6 so I guess that is a 6/49 game ?

What is the starting JP

Reply #22

RJOh — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:20:16 GMT

And I wish Ohio had a game like Texas's All or Nothing with overall odds of 1:4.5 of winning something, the closest we have to that is Rolling Cash5 with overall odds of 1:8.7. The grass always look greener some where else.

Reply #21

GoogilyMoogily — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:59:32 GMT

What conversations (and promises) were made between lawmakers and lotto officials? Let's play devil's advocate and assume there were promises made about how much cash the state would receive. And, let's also say that those promises aren't holding. I can easily imagine lawmakers applying pressure to get the cash flow going again. (State budget wrangling aside.

Reply #20

olplugger — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:53:48 GMT

Thanks for posting! I agree.

Reply #19

olplugger — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:51:54 GMT

I agree! Play for fun.....you might win a considerable sum on the smaller prizes offered.

Reply #18

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:46:24 GMT

I wish that was the case in Tx. Our Lotto is 6/54. I really wish it was 6/49.

Reply #17

RJOh — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 13:11:49 GMT

The odds of winning a million dollars playing MM are 1:18,499,208 and the odds of winning the Ohio Classic Lotto jackpot are 1:13,983,816 and it's $11.7M or $5.8M cash.

Players who claim they play MM in hopes of winning the second prize of a million dollars aren't fooling anyone except maybe themselves because most state lotteries have jackpots that size with better odds of winning them.

Reply #16

noise-gate — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 05:00:24 GMT

Why does it have to be so impossible to win the lottery?.. because...

Reply #15

KY Floyd — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 04:55:57 GMT

why can't the odds be better for more people to have a chance to win the 2nd prize

You need a course in basic probability. And therapy. Lots and lots of therapy.

Reply #14

KY Floyd — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 04:55:01 GMT

Here. I fixed your data.

United Arab Emirates $540 per person

UK gave $279 per person

Canada gave $141 per person

United States of America gave a total of $96 per person

I also showed it by GDP, but that doesn't change the order.

United Arab Emirates gave 1.27% of GDP

UK gave 0.66% of GDP

Canada gave 0.27% of GDP

United States of America gave 0.18% of GDP

On the bright side, what we lack in greed we make up for in stupidity.

Reply #13

Stack47 — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 04:14:15 GMT

The last time I looked the odds of winning a Ohio Classic Lotto jackpot is much better than winning $1 million playing MM. Complaining about it must be some type of a personal reverse psychology thing.

Reply #12

RJOh — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:42:56 GMT

It always looks easier for winners but before they won it was just as hard for them to win as the losers.

Reply #11

CDanaT — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:07:31 GMT

Perhaps he's just ....just....how does Obama put that ? Oh yeah, now I remember....Misspoke

That's it, he misspoke.

Reply #10

rcbbuckeye — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 20:41:29 GMT

Lol. Hey Dana youre letting facts get in the way of his bs.

Reply #9

jjtheprince — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:21:46 GMT

They have to make it harder to keep the games from going bankrupt. It's way too easy for winners to win.

Reply #8

CDanaT — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 18:26:40 GMT

The USA and its greed ??? hmmmm Interesting, gotta look this up. So I went to the global humanitarian assistance dot org site and found these statistics;

In 2013

United States of America gave a total of $30.9 Billion in assistance

UK gave $17. 7 Billion Assistance

United Arab Emerates gave 5.1 Billion

China GAVE RECIEVED 6.6 Billion

Russia gave $543 Million-----WITH AN M not a B

Well crap, lets go to our neighbors to the north and the south shall we ?

Canada gave $5... [ More ]

Reply #7

bigbear29 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 16:25:15 GMT

The Pope might as well go home instead of changing the greed mentality in the United States. The United States grow on greed and it will fail on greed.

Reply #6

Raven62 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 16:21:12 GMT

An avid desire for the gain of wealth!

At the U.N.: Pope Condemns Greed

Reply #5

bigbear29 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 16:17:49 GMT

Hi shyguitar, the lottery is a business to make money and tax money for the state. It is not design to put money into the pockets of the people. And yes, it is an extremely unfair game. Do you remember for your state when they was promoting the lottery, the big seller was, schools will benefit from the lottery. And in most places the schools are not benefiting from the lottery. Unless you live in a rich area where the schools do not need the money.

Reply #4

GoogilyMoogily — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 14:29:25 GMT

Excitement at 9 digit jackpots has faded.

The daily pick 3 typically pays 500 on odds of 1:1000 (000-999). Depends on where you play, legal or otherwise I suppose. We all know this and it's awesome odds if you ask me. Theoretically, over time you can only win back half of what you play. Whoops, forgot taxes. Yikes. I'm not going to make a living or retire playing the daily. It's like a Toyota, in that it's common, dependable and predictable. I'm not saying predictable in what the numbers will... [ More ]

Reply #3

zephbe — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 13:13:56 GMT

Your question should be why do people like to play games they think are impossible to win when there are plenty of local games with better odds and smaller prizes.

Reply #2

rcbbuckeye — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 13:13:34 GMT

There's plenty of games to play that are easier to win. The jackpots or payouts may not be millions, but if you want millions, then naturally it's going to be harder to win.

Reply #1

RJOh — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 12:28:16 GMT

Your question should be why do people like to play games they think are impossible to win when there are plenty of local games with better odds and smaller prizes.

States join MM and PB because they know their large jackpots will attract players and hope those players will also play the local games. If MM and PB were easier to win then they couldn't generate those large jackpots and without large jackpots there would be no reason for them to exist.

Why does it have to be so impossible to win the lottery?

shyguitar — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 11:43:17 GMT

Hi everyone,

i have been coming to this site for a long time and appreciate all of Todd's hard work in creating a site like this and how hard it must be to maintain this site daily. Why does the lottery need to continue to change the matrix on games like MM and soon PB? It was already impossible to win the jackpot and even impossible to win the second prize. Before the matrix change I played MM more but having to get 5 numbers out of 75 numbers makes it truly impossible to get a second place... [ More ]