Buy In Bulk Or Buy A couple?

Reply #81

Turbolag — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 20:31:21 GMT

I have a question about choosing your own numbers. How do you choose them? Is there some kind of system for powerball or megamillions?

I think I am gonna focus more on scratch tickets and the Texas Two Step. Its $1 a row. I still wanna try the pb and mm, and the lottery extra.

I don't want to spend 200 on tickets again, unless its scratch tickets.

I'm gonna try to take everyone's advice, and instead of buying one thing only, buy a bunch of different things.

Reply #80

gatorsrok — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 17:38:19 GMT

We only payout the winnings if they are more than $100. Anything less is put into the next drawing. I'd gladly split $1M or $310M with 30 people. The math works nicely.

Reply #79

MoneyMike$ — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 02:58:10 GMT

That is by chance.. just as it's chance picking your own numbers and winning.. If anything just shows the laziness of people to buy qp's expecting to win instead of crunching the numbers as they give u the option of either or.. but that is no secret

Reply #78

Redd55 — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 02:54:03 GMT

If slightly more than half of jackpot winners were from quick picks, how can you say they do nothing for a player

Reply #77

MoneyMike$ — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 02:24:14 GMT

Take matters in your own hands wheel your combinations random quick picks do nothing for a player

Reply #76

RJOh — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 07:24:24 GMT

Even though we typically buy about $60-80 worth of tickets for an individual drawing, we usually end up with about $8-12 back which is disappointing.

You are doing twice as well as the odds would lead one to believe.

Reply #75

NeedyNotGreedy — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 06:16:37 GMT

Lol, I never thought of that. How in the world do you split that with 30 people? .25 cent gum balls? Pizza day? A 1.5L bottle of Vodka? Cause I would sure treat myself to one lol.

Regarding games with lower odds: IDK. that's where I start to feel the odds are controlled . Not to sound like woe, but I just can't understand the deeper deeper connection. If every number has the same odds of winning, why can't 10 or 15 number combinations hit? Yeah I know...its 200,000 to 1. Or 292 million to 1 c... [ More ]

Reply #74

gatorsrok — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 02:55:49 GMT

I agree with the PB and MM pools. I lost a lot of interest in PB and MM when they made the second place prize much harder to win - in truth, that is about the only prize you can really hope to get even if you are super lucky. Now I play as part of a 30 person office pool. We only buy tickets when the jackpot for a game is greater than $250MM. Even though we typically buy about $60-80 worth of tickets for an individual drawing, we usually end up with about $8-12 back which is disappointing.

Reply #73

RJOh — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 01:52:40 GMT

More and more it feels like PowerBall and Mega games are for lottery pools at work and such. If the 300 or so active members here all chipped in $2, it would make it much easier to grab a spot at the table.

I doubt if even ten active LP members would be willing to chip in $2 to any LP member running a lottery pool twice a week and responsible members wouldn't run one.

Reply #72

Redd55 — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 22:43:40 GMT

I forgot when they changed the PB odds. It was October of 2014 or 2015. I think it was 2015. I rarely bought PB tickets bc of the price but that year I noticed people were winning PB all the time. It seemed like once or twice a month someone was hitting the jackpot. So, I started buying PB tickets. Good to remind myself that the odds are horrendous, tho. But, when I buy the Calif Super Lotto which has much better odd - we dont get a winner for 6 months and then 8 months.

Reply #71

NeedyNotGreedy — Fri, 10 Feb 2017 22:12:50 GMT

I think I started to post this last night but didn't finish. So, powerball is the worst bet. It increased $2 and then they also increased the balls. Which makes it more expensive plus less likely to win. The reason it got to 1.5 billion last year is part of that reason.

Id play hand at megamillions before powerball. Which I do. I think I bought less than 10 powerballs last year but way more megamillions than I should of.

I was feeling suicidal when I lost $38 at megamillions the other mont... [ More ]

Reply #70

RJOh — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 22:15:10 GMT

Even if you match five for $1,000,000.00 with $2,000,000.00 worth of tickets you end up $1,000,000.00 short.

Reply #69

Stack47 — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 08:48:00 GMT

And after that there is still only a 0.34% chance of winning the jackpot. Matching 5 numbers is worse because while there is a 8.5% chance, it's still a $1 million loss.

Reply #68

RJOh — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 23:55:31 GMT

For me, even if I had the $2,000,000.00 to waste, time would be a bigger problem since I pick combinations to play based on the most recent drawing which means I would only have 3-4 days to come up with one million combinations, fill out 200,000 play-slips and play them.

Reply #67

mypiemaster — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 23:17:01 GMT

If you have the money, knock yourself out. You only live once.

Reply #66

JADELottery — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 22:10:29 GMT

At 5 lines a play slip, with no error ticket printing, no breaks, non-stop printing,

it would take 4 days 15 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds to cover all 1,000,000 lines.

Assuming an average ticket length of about 6 (15.24 cm) and 12 (30.48 cm) for play slips,

you'd need 18 miles 4,960 feet (30.48 km) of ticket paper to print them all,

and about 37 miles 4,640 feet (60.96 km) of play slip paper to play them all.

You're going to need about 134 reams of play slip paper to play 1,000,000... [ More ]

Reply #65

RJOh — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:42:29 GMT

If he really wanted to buy a million PB tickets he could get a copy of CoverMaster from BobP's website to create the wheel and use a lottery probability program to figure out he could expect to have at least 40,213 winning tickets paying $229,517.00 or 11% of his cost.

Reply #64

Sunglasses — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 20:28:08 GMT

You plan to buy a million tickets. Ask Bobp to make a wheel with a million lines. Write your tickets and validate them.

Your p = 0.0034 ? Well look at the results after the drawing and stop that probability mumbo jumbo in lp style.

Reply #63

BobP — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:27:29 GMT

It's a rounding thing. Would it make more sense to say, less then one percent? Your odds are between 1 and 0 leaning way way toward the zero side. OK, your odds are virtually zero. I'm sure my schoolmarm would take your side . . .

BobP

Reply #62

RJOh — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:48:54 GMT

Any positive number is greater than zero, if it was less than zero it would be negative with a minus sign in front of it.

Reply #61

KY Floyd — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 08:02:14 GMT

If you buy a million tickets your probability of winning is only 0.0034. That's still 2 decimal places less than just 0.

Reply #60

RJOh — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 04:25:05 GMT

Whether you buy one ticket or one hundred tickets, chances of winning are below zero.

If that's true, how many tickets do you have to buy before your chances work their way up to zero

Reply #59

BobP — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:48:22 GMT

Whether you buy one ticket or one hundred tickets, chances of winning are below zero. However, like many things this is the purchase of a dream, an intangible shinny object you can carry untarnished until the next draw.

BobP

Reply #58

BobP — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:34:02 GMT

Optimal strategy would be to purchase tickets from a location that will not have a problem paying if you win a decent lower tier prize, unless you don't mind accepting a money order in lue of cash. Picture collecting on a Pick-3 straight win from a place with a timer security safe that spits out a preset limited amount on request once every hour, or whatever it's set to. Supermarkets are the best if you want to collect a prize in cash.

BobP

Reply #57

Coin Toss — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 01:25:49 GMT

Nothing for me to figure out, you need to rethink what a win is.

Reply #56

KY Floyd — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 22:53:10 GMT

The advantage of buying a few tickets at each of several places is you'll have a better chance of buying a ticket in a place that has one with a worthwhile prize. Unfortunately there isn't an easy strategy for buying that particular ticket.

Reply #55

KY Floyd — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 22:50:59 GMT

If you can find a dictionary you might be able to figure it out.

Reply #54

Stack47 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:17:29 GMT

I'm not knocking players that buy two PB tickets every week, just saying with over a 90% chance of winning nothing, it's not a very good win expectation .

Reply #53

Stack47 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:04:46 GMT

Less than 25 million tickets were sold for Saturday's $229 million PB jackpot so the chances of one of those tickets winning the jackpot was under 10%. If I was to compare, I'd say each ticket in every drawing has a fair chance of winning the jackpot but highly unlikely. So the true comparison is having a highly unlikely chance or no chance at all.

Reply #52

bigbear29 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 19:32:11 GMT

That is a hard question Turbolag, but my first thought would be multiple gas stations or find a gas station that you like and stick with that gas station. I don't think the size of the gas station is going to make a difference. Spread your spending out, and be patient. I play pb and mm at one or two stores all the time. For me, it does not matter because most of my number are my own numbers so it does not matter where I play my numbers.

Reply #51

Turbolag — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 18:40:07 GMT

Really? I was trying to think of a large gas station in houston to go to and buy a large amount of scratch tickets. Not sure where I should get them.

Or, would it be better to make smaller buys and multiple gas stations in Houston?

I'm about 80 miles from Houston.

Reply #50

RJOh — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 10:30:23 GMT

..... so unless something changes in the future, players won't have anything to look forward to in probably 97 of the 2017 drawings

They can always look forward to getting smarter at picking the combinations they play.

Reply #49

BobP — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 08:38:53 GMT

Ah, but which draws? IMO having a live lottery ticket in your pocket lightens your load, helps you get through the week. When it doesn't win and you tear it up in bitter disappointment, you buy another and hope begins again.

BobP

Reply #48

RJOh — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 07:18:22 GMT

The overall odds of having a ticket that wins something don't change, so win expectation should be based on the odds unless players are gambling totally on getting lucky. In that case players only a ticket to be in the game.

Reply #47

Stack47 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 06:00:18 GMT

The problem with both MM and PB is the win expectation that greatly varies between the jackpot, second and third prizes, and and all the other smaller prizes. The overall chances of cashing a ticket is about 4%.

Reply #46

Stack47 — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 05:43:17 GMT

In 2016 only seven drawings produced a jackpot winner so unless something changes in the future, players won't have anything to look forward to in probably 97 of the 2017 drawings either. Granted there are $1 million and $50,000 secondary prizes, but in some states those prizes are few and far between too.

Reply #45

rcbbuckeye — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 03:45:03 GMT

I see a lot of winning scratchoffs sold in Houston.

Reply #44

Turbolag — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 01:46:06 GMT

Thanks for the info. I think I'll buy a ticket for the two step tomorrow. Quick picks. And maybe the lottery on Tuesday.

I have some scratch tickets I wanna work on also.

Yea the reason I posted another thread about location is because I was thinking the winning tickets would be in Houston. I purposely went there to buy tickets.

After posting the thread, one thing I started trying to do is getting tickets from a busy gas station.

Reply #43

Coin Toss — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 22:47:44 GMT

KY Floyd,

How is buying 1000 tickets for a Pick 3 a 'guaranteed chance of sinning' when the payoff is $500 or $600?

Anyone who would consider that winning is what's known as a perfect player for the house.

Reply #42

rcbbuckeye — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 15:24:40 GMT

For me, the only etiquette breach would be asking someone for money after they won a jackpot. LOL.

Well, I typically buy one ticket for each draw. MM, PB, Tx Lotto, and 2 Step. I also dabble in Daily 4, and sometimes All or Nothing and Triple Chance. I like to spread my money around. Last year, I spent like a drunken sailor, and I'm really working at cutting back. Like I said, if 2 Step gets up there a little I'll drop extra dollars on it because the odds are somewhat reasonable compared to t... [ More ]

Reply #41

Turbolag — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 15:02:47 GMT

Thanks. The drawing for the Two Step I think is tomorrow. Maybe I'll go pick up a couple quick tickets for it.

I think I'm going to try spreading the spending on multiple games like it was suggested in the thread.

Appreciate the input.

Do you mind me asking what your schedule for the lottery looks like on a normal week? How many tickets you buy, what tickets, and so on?

Etiquette wise, is it ok to ask someone a question like that? Still new to all of this.

Reply #40

rcbbuckeye — Sun, 05 Feb 2017 03:28:59 GMT

At 200K, I usually buy just one tic. When it gets over 500K, I'll buy anywhere from 2 tix to 5 tix. For the last draw I bought 10 tix.

I play all 4 jackpot games so I never buy $20 worth on any one game.

Reply #39

RJOh — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 22:17:06 GMT

I guess one has to decide if it's better to have a 1:2,787,270 chance once a year or 1:292,201,338 chance one hundred and five times a year. A difference of expecting to win at least $16 once a year compared to expecting to win nothing 105 times a year.

Reply #38

JADELottery — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 21:43:57 GMT

As stated as is, with the limited resource per the topic of this discussion, there is no difference.

The probability of winning the Jackpot is exactly the same.

Reply #37

KY Floyd — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 20:33:58 GMT

It should be obvious if you consider what can happen if you buy 1000 pick 3 tickets. You can buy all 1000 possibilities for a single game and you'll have a 100% chance of winning. Play 500 for each of two drawings and there's a 25% chance you'll lose both times, but there's also a 25% chance you'll win both times. Buy 1 ticket for each of 1000 drawings and there's a 36.79% chance you'll lose every time, but you've got almost a 1 in 5 chance of winning twice and a 1 in 16 chance of winning 3 time... [ More ]

Reply #36

Turbolag — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 16:50:23 GMT

Apologies RC. I did see your post , that's what made me look for it. I should have written the post better.

So now it's back to 200,000 would it be a good idea to play it now? How many tickets would you buy? $20 worth

Reply #35

Artist77 — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 12:26:13 GMT

I agree

Reply #34

BobP — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 08:43:19 GMT

No difference, except there will be nothing to look forward to over the following 104 draws.

BobP

Reply #33

rcbbuckeye — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 04:34:39 GMT

Did you not see my response yesterday about Tx 2 Step???

It was 1.45 million dollars.

I got hit in Killeen last night, so it's back to 200,000.

Much better odds at 1 in 1,832,600. Still a bugger to win.

Reply #32

Turbolag — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 04:28:41 GMT

Thanks for the response man. I'll just play around with it. I think I'll try $20 next time.

Reply #31

Turbolag — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 04:27:23 GMT

I just checked the Texas Lotto website. There is a game called the Texas Two Step and the jackpot is $200,000. Maybe that would be better?

What about pick three and pick four

Reply #30

Kola — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 01:37:42 GMT

Have to mention that in your specific case Turbolag with regards to spending hundreds of dollars, the philosophy above only applies if you truly have the money to burn.

Good luck

Reply #29

Kola — Sat, 04 Feb 2017 00:54:02 GMT

I know it is said that every draw has an equal chance of winning, but in my humble opinion there exists at the margins more of a yes, no, maybe... .

In essence, it depends...but in reference to your specific example Turbolag, playing one line of numbers over a span of 10 draws while playing a different line each time, is not the same as playing the 10 different lines for one draw. Some may say that both events give you the same chances of winning, but I think it's better to play these 10 diff... [ More ]

Reply #28

LottoYear — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 21:59:52 GMT

Reading RJOh s comment, I need to clarify that I am not talking about self-picks based on a system. I am a quick-pick player so that didn t even occur to me. I am talking about personal self-picks based on birthdays, anniversaries, dreams, cute patterns/sequences, etc., numbers that people play for years on end, like the woman from Idaho who won $390,000 in 2016 after playing the same numbers, one line, since 1989.

A personal self-pick has to be played every draw. If you don t play and those

Reply #27

Sunglasses — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 21:35:47 GMT

Some different answers coming up without detailed specifications.

1) You can loose what you bet.

2) Depending of how you play, your loss ratio is less.

I have explained it several times, I won't do it again.

And, yes, pick yourself and you have control over your picks. If you are lazy or scared, you can ask for quickpicks or watch tv instead.

Reply #26

RJOh — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:59:14 GMT

With self-picks you can control the mix of numbers and avoid combinations that have already won a jackpot since no winning combination has ever won twice.

Reply #25

Stack47 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:50:50 GMT

As for the best money management jackpot strategy, ideally it would be to only play a jackpot winning drawing. IF someone knew when the jackpot will be won, the odds against their ticket winning are compared to all the tickets sold; not all the possible combos.

Reply #24

Stack47 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:45:49 GMT

What's the difference using self-picks

Reply #23

Stack47 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:44:54 GMT

I was thinking about your thread when some of the posters were talking about cost without understanding overtime it's the same.

Reply #22

Dd2160 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:26:47 GMT

This is a good idea my job has a pool and thats how they do it! Monthly

Reply #21

RJOh — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:14:16 GMT

If anyone knew for sure it would effect their strategy for playing.

Reply #20

JADELottery — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 17:01:04 GMT

this was a similar topic before in If you had 10 bucks to bet...

in the overall scheme of playing, it does not matter if you play it all at once or over many draws.

in our opinion, make the lottery work for their money and spread the play dollars out over many draws.

Reply #19

Coin Toss — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 16:29:38 GMT

There's a saying, Everybody bets the same amount - not the same monetary amount, but whatever amount it takes to give them a thrill.

Reply #18

bigbear29 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 14:25:59 GMT

For me, I play mostly my own numbers, one or two plays are quick picks, that way, if I want to change the powerball I can and still keep my original 5 balls.

Reply #17

Dracos — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 13:17:53 GMT

What other draw games does your state offer? Any time you go from the millions to the thousands, your chances of winning are infinitely better.

For example, the odds of winning the Powerball is 1 in 292 million. The odds of winning the Fantasy 5 game with a jackpot of $200k+ in Florida is about 1 in 377k. There are people in Florida who have won the Fantasy 5 jackpot multiple times over the years. They have prize rolldowns if the jackpot isn't won, and you win a free ticket if you match... [ More ]

Reply #16

gregs241 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 07:24:33 GMT

Look up silverlotto on Google and then see what you think. Some good ideas there.

Reply #15

LottoYear — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 07:03:29 GMT

There is no difference, if using quick picks.

All a player needs to do is wait until the jackpot is high enough for them and then bet their entire year s lottery budget in that one draw. Psychologically, I like participating in the bi-weekly draws.

Reply #14

Stack47 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 03:28:56 GMT

What's the difference between buying one PB ticket every draw for a year and buying 105 tickets for one drawing

Reply #13

Turbolag — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 02:25:51 GMT

Yea I don't wanna spend that much each time. I think I like $20-40 better.

I kinda like scratch cards the most right now. They seem to have a nice return. But I'm really new and still learning.

I did set a budget for each month.

I'm open to any advice though.

Reply #12

Turbolag — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 02:21:50 GMT

I bought the power play. From what I've been reading the best strategy for Powerball is quick picks and get the powerplay.

I'm really new at this. Still trying to learn more. Do you have a system you would suggest for Powerball

Reply #11

Artist77 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 01:00:48 GMT

Lol lol. I agree with Big bear also. I might faint. It is a miracle! Salut Marie

Reply #10

sully16 — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:55:16 GMT

Very Conservative advice.

Reply #9

RJOh — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:44:05 GMT

If a player is going to buy more than 26 lines of PB tickets then a more detailed analogy should be made. For example buying all 26 bonus numbers could offer a minimum win plus other advantages depending how the lines are picked. Playing a bunch of lines with no strategy is like a bunch of individuals buying quick picks.

Reply #8

Sunglasses — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:19:56 GMT

Bulk has more of it while couple has less.

Reply #7

zephbe — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:44:42 GMT

You could buy 10 PB tickets for 10 draws for $200 and be covered for the month.

Reply #6

lucky1day — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:43:43 GMT

I hope you have a decent system spending that amount of cash. At least play all the bonus balls. I wish I could afford to play that much because I'm working with a pool of about 32,000 ticket with the Jackpot.

Lucky1day

Reply #5

Raven62 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:32:58 GMT

You Tell Me If It's Inaccurate or Not!: You Lost More Than You Won

Reply #4

rcbbuckeye — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 21:03:42 GMT

If I was gonna drop $210 on lottery tix, I would drop it on tonight's 2 Step draw. Yeah....it's only $1,450,000. But the odds are only 1 in 1,832,600.

Reply #3

amber123 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:57:12 GMT

If you bought 146 million tickets, you'd still have about a 50/50 chance of winning.

99.9999% of people who play will not win the JP in any JP game in their lifetime. Here in Florida, the lightning capitol of the world, depending where you are standing outside in the summer rainy months, there's an average chance of about 1 in 7 million of being struck by lightning. The Florida lottery is around 1 in 26 million.

Do the math...

People always tell me about someone winning some of t... [ More ]

Reply #2

Redd55 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 19:55:02 GMT

The odds are so high that the difference between buying 1 ticket and 105 tickets is negligible at best. However, you can only win if you have at least 1 ticket, so I think it is better to spread it out over many games. Good luck

Reply #1

bigbear29 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 18:14:11 GMT

First, are you comfortable spending that kind of money every month? I think it is a bad idea. but if you are comfortable with it, that's cool. I still think it's a bad idea, spread your money out, there is no guarantee that you will win by spending more money. Do you have a 401K saving plan? try spliting the 210 and putting half on lottery and half on a savings plan.

Buy In Bulk Or Buy A couple?

Turbolag — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 17:42:39 GMT

So for Texas Powerball yestersay, I bought $210 worth of tickets. I got back $32. It made me wonder, should I just buy $20 worth a couple times a month, or save a little and buy $200-500 once a month or two months? Or does it not matter?

I was thinking the more you buy at one, the better off you are for winning. Is that inaccurate