Denver, Co United States
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December 29, 2010
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Quote: Originally posted by JosephusMinimus on Apr 3, 2011
When my life flashes before my eyes just before they shut down for the last time I hope a flash of enlightenment will allow me to know what was a waste of time and what wasn't.
Meanwhile I don't find the prediction board a waste of time. Evidently a lot of members also don't.
I like it as well. It's another fun and interesting feature here at LP.
Fort Worth, TX United States
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February 11, 2011
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Well any number you didn't generate yourself might as well be a QP. And if most of these are QPs to begin with, personaly, I wouldn't bother. I like generating my own numbers.
United States
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January 29, 2011
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Quote: Originally posted by mayhem on Apr 3, 2011
Well any number you didn't generate yourself might as well be a QP. And if most of these are QPs to begin with, personaly, I wouldn't bother. I like generating my own numbers.
All the money the Prediction Page generates in ticket sales goes for education. But there's no rule forbidding you picking your own numbers.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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To update and go over the history of any game that has a 5 year history or more with a couple of matrix changes and calculate the average range,sum and gaps for each combination and the frequencies of the numbers during the range of just the latest matrix takes time, maybe 40 minutes. And then if you review the strategy you've used to pick combinations for past drawings just to make any small adjustments that needed takes even more time. Add another 10 minutes to pick 10-20 combinations using all that updated data to play or post and you could have an hour in each time for each game. Who has that much time to spend on more than a couple of games, certainly not those members posting 8,000+ predictions a day.
Even using a RNG to pick combinations and rejecting the ones you don't like takes time.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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Quote: Originally posted by JosephusMinimus on Apr 3, 2011
All the money the Prediction Page generates in ticket sales goes for education. But there's no rule forbidding you picking your own numbers.
I've never thought of the Prediction Board as a generator of tickets sales or money for the lotteries but just something for the entertainment and amusement of LP members. Since most posters never win much anyway, you would probably be better off just buying some QPs.
I have been watching the predictions for the Ohio Classic Lotto since its jackpot has been above $25M and I've noticed that as a group the LP predictors seldom match the odds of getting a match 3 which is 1/57 and often do worst than the odds of having a winning ticket. Maybe QPs actually do just as bad but I doubt it, if it's a choice between the Prediction Board predictors, QPs and just picking my own numbers, I'm betting on ME.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
United States
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January 29, 2011
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Apr 3, 2011
I've never thought of the Prediction Board as a generator of tickets sales or money for the lotteries but just something for the entertainment and amusement of LP members. Since most posters never win much anyway, you would probably be better off just buying some QPs.
I have been watching the predictions for the Ohio Classic Lotto since its jackpot has been above $25M and I've noticed that as a group the LP predictors seldom match the odds of getting a match 3 which is 1/57 and often do worst than the odds of having a winning ticket. Maybe QPs actually do just as bad but I doubt it, if it's a choice between the Prediction Board predictors, QPs and just picking my own numbers, I'm betting on ME.
RJOH: I'd be surprised to learn anyone buys tickets based on the prediction board predictions. Probably not one ticket for a real lottery is sold that way. But the prediction page is educational, so all those dollars not spent on buying tickets to post predictions are the same currency spent on education of a sort for the posters and anyone watching the board.
I count it as education for myself everytime I post a prediction there. Money well spent.
United States
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March 13, 2008
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Apr 3, 2011
I've never thought of the Prediction Board as a generator of tickets sales or money for the lotteries but just something for the entertainment and amusement of LP members. Since most posters never win much anyway, you would probably be better off just buying some QPs.
I have been watching the predictions for the Ohio Classic Lotto since its jackpot has been above $25M and I've noticed that as a group the LP predictors seldom match the odds of getting a match 3 which is 1/57 and often do worst than the odds of having a winning ticket. Maybe QPs actually do just as bad but I doubt it, if it's a choice between the Prediction Board predictors, QPs and just picking my own numbers, I'm betting on ME.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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Quote: Originally posted by JosephusMinimus on Apr 3, 2011
RJOH: I'd be surprised to learn anyone buys tickets based on the prediction board predictions. Probably not one ticket for a real lottery is sold that way. But the prediction page is educational, so all those dollars not spent on buying tickets to post predictions are the same currency spent on education of a sort for the posters and anyone watching the board.
I count it as education for myself everytime I post a prediction there. Money well spent.
Since I have a free membership, it's only time well spent for me, but it does educate me about my potentials to win a jackpot using my system.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
United States
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January 29, 2011
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Apr 3, 2011
Since I have a free membership, it's only time well spent for me, but it does educate me about my potentials to win a jackpot using my system.
RJOH: It's a 40 mile drive from here to buy the nearest lottery ticket. I'd have to hit a lot better than I've been doing on the predictions page to break even on gasoline. Maybe if I ever get so I'm as good a predictor as you I'll buy the gas. But for now I'll settle for lotteries just costing the price of membership here.
When my paid membership runs out I'll be breaking even on the lotteries unless I improve at predicting and decide I need to buy tickets and lose for the school children of Texas rather than by learning what I can learn here.
United States
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July 10, 2010
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Quote: Originally posted by JosephusMinimus on Apr 3, 2011
RL: From the outside looking in most of what other people are doing might appear as lottery posts that defy math. Probably a lot qualify whether they're posting 8000 predictions per day or merely posting a few, or on threads.
But it might be over-reaching to suggest that because a lot of them aren't using the same logical approaches you've chosen or aren't grounding their work on the same foundations you are grounding yours they won't end up with systems as effective as yours. Or that theirs don't involve math.
You appear to have come a long way with what you are doing. But you haven't come so far as to own all the math approaches to lotteries and there's probably still some room for others to approach it differently and still find their way in the direction they want to go.
(Since I posted the comment below, posts about the Prediction Boards have been forlorn. I think they're fun and informative, but I still would like to hear a response to this.)
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I'm afraid you are being misled by viewing only the right hand tails of the various prediction distributions at LP. It is EXPECTED that there will be big winners on a random basis. It would be SUSPECT if there were NOT! I just looked, and I can't find any way to see what the AVERAGE predictor accomplished, or what the "Bottom Ten" LOST.
I think we would get a much better idea of how people are doing with their predictions here if we had a view showing the means AND standard deviations of the Prize Ratios, preferably accompanied by bar charts of the distributions.
If this information is available here and I've missed it, please point me to it.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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Quote: Originally posted by JosephusMinimus on Apr 3, 2011
RJOH: It's a 40 mile drive from here to buy the nearest lottery ticket. I'd have to hit a lot better than I've been doing on the predictions page to break even on gasoline. Maybe if I ever get so I'm as good a predictor as you I'll buy the gas. But for now I'll settle for lotteries just costing the price of membership here.
When my paid membership runs out I'll be breaking even on the lotteries unless I improve at predicting and decide I need to buy tickets and lose for the school children of Texas rather than by learning what I can learn here.
40 miles isn't that much if you're playing for a $200M+ jackpot. Before BigGame(now MegaMillions) and PowerBall came to Ohio, if the jackpots were that large and the weather was nice I looked forward to a 90 mile plus drive up to Michigan or over to Indiana to buy tickets. I've heard that in some parts of Texas, students ride the buses to school farther than that every day.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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Quote: Originally posted by jimmy4164 on Apr 3, 2011
(Since I posted the comment below, posts about the Prediction Boards have been forlorn. I think they're fun and informative, but I still would like to hear a response to this.)
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I'm afraid you are being misled by viewing only the right hand tails of the various prediction distributions at LP. It is EXPECTED that there will be big winners on a random basis. It would be SUSPECT if there were NOT! I just looked, and I can't find any way to see what the AVERAGE predictor accomplished, or what the "Bottom Ten" LOST.
I think we would get a much better idea of how people are doing with their predictions here if we had a view showing the means AND standard deviations of the Prize Ratios, preferably accompanied by bar charts of the distributions.
If this information is available here and I've missed it, please point me to it.
I see the prediction board as a source of entertainment and amusement for LP members, there's nothing to accomplish by posting on it except maybe bragging rights if you predict a jackpot winner and testing a system openly.
For those interested in keeping score, Todd has broken down the active predictors by state and game types with their wins and number of predictions by lifetime history and last 30 days, that should be enough information for anyone to evaluate their performances.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
United States
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Apr 4, 2011
40 miles isn't that much if you're playing for a $200M+ jackpot. Before BigGame(now MegaMillions) and PowerBall came to Ohio, if the jackpots were that large and the weather was nice I looked forward to a 90 mile plus drive up to Michigan or over to Indiana to buy tickets. I've heard that in some parts of Texas, students ride the buses to school farther than that every day.
RJOH: Just getting to the pavement from where I'm located feels like 40 miles and I don't relish it. I go to town when I have to for chicken feed, groceries and necessaries. My needs don't include zillions of dollars. A $10 million dollar jackpot or a 100 million aren't among the things I think about.
Texas United States
Member #4,549
May 2, 2004
4,228 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by jimmy4164 on Apr 3, 2011
(Since I posted the comment below, posts about the Prediction Boards have been forlorn. I think they're fun and informative, but I still would like to hear a response to this.)
----------------------
I'm afraid you are being misled by viewing only the right hand tails of the various prediction distributions at LP. It is EXPECTED that there will be big winners on a random basis. It would be SUSPECT if there were NOT! I just looked, and I can't find any way to see what the AVERAGE predictor accomplished, or what the "Bottom Ten" LOST.
I think we would get a much better idea of how people are doing with their predictions here if we had a view showing the means AND standard deviations of the Prize Ratios, preferably accompanied by bar charts of the distributions.
If this information is available here and I've missed it, please point me to it.
Jimboo-boo!!!!!!!
As a member in good standing of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Internet Dead Horses I am compelled to ask, "What useful purpose would it serve, other than having someone else do your homework, to have a "Bottom Ten" list?"
Are you exercising some sadist tendency to embarrass someone or cause them hurt feeling for your own gratification? Or do you need fodder to further your agenda? (Well, scratch that. Obviously you do. I mean, there are people still paying lotteries. Not to mention your four prime arguments have begun failing more often.)
But if you must have a Bottom Ten, I want to be NUMBER 1. Over the lifetime I've been here, I'm made 10 predictions and not one has come true. My winning ration is 0%. I deserve to be NUMBER 1!
Jimboo-boo!!!!! Why would YOU need a much better idea of how anyone is doing with their predictions? Are you considering starting a World Series of Lottery Players and need to recruit stars? Maybe you are starting a World Lottery Player Leaderboard. Want help designing your baseball-like trading cards?
Most people here seem to be interested in who is doing well, not who is doing not so good.
Have you really thought about this? Even the slightest? You would have to set up some minimum standards. And the people doing poorly would eventually quit posting, never improving their stats. And if they did, no one would know it.
What about the slights people would get across the board for having an opinion and yet not being a good predictor? So now you have created more dissension and more tension. For what?
Not a good idea at all for a discussion forum. Members are not going to remain members if they are being held up as the ten worst predictors on the entire board. They'll quit predicting.
But hey! Did you notice under Lottery Post Administration? There is a forum for SUGGESTIONS. That might be a good place to make SUGGESTIONS like this. Of course, I'm merely SUGGESTING it.