How does Powerball calculate their odds?

Reply #5

Lotto Czar — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 12:47:08 GMT

Also, isn't that question on the MUSL's site FAQ? That's where I first learned it.

Reply #4

Lotto Czar — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 12:38:05 GMT

Excellent site refered to by Johnph77.Also any text book on probability mentions the Bernoulli theory which will explain another phenominom of how one (such as my self can buy 5 scratch tickets with a 1 in 4 chance of winning and not get any winners. The odds of success myst be tempered by t6he odds of failure. Actually the odds of not getting a match or winner are substantial in themselves. That's why some states pay for not having any matches in Keno.

Reply #3

johnph77 — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:51:12 GMT

http://www.johnph77.com/math/stlot.html#multipb

Reply #2

golotto — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:32:54 GMT

It took me a while to understand that because I always thought it was 1 in 42 also, but it's not; it's 1 in 70 just as RJOh has clearly shown above:The chances of winning are confusing because even getting the Powerball only, people think that should be 1 in 42. But we're not just playing that one drawing machine; we're playing two machines at the same drawing. In order to say you only matched the Powerball means you have to have simultaneously missed all five of white balls that were drawn from... [ More ]

Reply #1

RJOh — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:19:08 GMT

There are 120,526,770 possible combinations and of the 3,442,046 winning combinations 1,712,304 will have the PowerBall and none of the other winning numbers.1,712,304 /120,526,770 = 1/70 odds of hitting only PowerBall3,442,046/120,526,770 = 1/36 the overall odds of having a ticket that wins something.only one jackpot winning combination = 1/120,526,770 = odds of winning jackpot.RJOh

How does Powerball calculate their odds?

lite1up — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:00:28 GMT

On their website, they have the odds of picking the Power Ball alone ($3 prize) listed as 1:70.39.I have no idea how they arrived at this as there are 42 Power Balls total. Wouldn't the odds of picking the Power Ball be 1:42? Unless there is some hidden variable I'm not considering.I have a strong feeling that I am going to win the Power Ball sometime in the near future...it's just a matter of time. It's difficult to explain but I dream about winning the Power Ball on almost a nightly basis.... [ More ]