Stack47,
You said, "Do you really need to see a years worth of Challenge statistics to know that had players individually or collectively spent $3168 per drawing playing only 12 wps with only 4 bonus numbers they would have lost lots of money?" This rhetorical question implies that you believe that had players been able to use their $3168 to buy 3168 Powerball tickets twice a week without the constraints of MadDog's Powerball Challenge, they would have lost less money, or maybe even come out ahead over the year's play. Inasmuch as the 137 players pretty much won/lost what is to be expected theoretically by chance, I'm sure I am not the only one who would be fascinated to read just how YOU would spend $3168 on one Powerball draw. Of course, I don't expect you to give up any trade secrets; just impress us by estimating how much better you would do.
Let me do some of the mundane calculating for you. 3168 tickets/draw times 52 weeks times 2 draws/week results in an "investment" of $329,472 over a year. Assuming you don't hit the Jackpot (A fairly reasonable assumption, don't you think?), the table below tells ME that your expected winnings for the year would be 0.174 times $329,472 or $57,328. I would say that your expected losses of (329472-57328) $272,144 should not necessarily be considered losses, but the price you would have to pay for 329,472 chances to win the Jackpot. Come on, at least give us a ballpark hint as to how much better you would do with all that money to bet.
--Jimmy4164
P.S. Some related and interesting reading:
http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~sj361/p1369.pdf
http://catlin.casinocitytimes.com/article/lottery-nonsense-8694
MadDog's Powerball Challenge
2010/12/29
01/02/2010 Thru 12/29/2010
All Draws for 2010
137 Participants
Total Ticket Costs $8,271,258
Total Winnings $1,772,590
Overall Gain/Loss -$6,498,668
Expected Actual
Category #Wins ROI* #Wins ROI*
0 WB + PB 133991 0.049 124791 0.045
1 WB + PB 66990 0.032 64153 0.031
2 WB + PB 10508 0.009 9275 0.008
3 WB 23037 0.019 27240 0.023
3 WB + PB 606 0.007 432 0.005
4 WB 435 0.005 428 0.005
4 WB + PB 11.438 0.014 0 0.000
5 WB 1.610 0.039 4 0.097
----- -----
Total (Excl Jackpot) 0.174 0.214
JACKPOT 0.042 0.325 0 0.000
* ROI is The Amount Won Per Dollar Spent on Tickets.