Lottery logic
Nick Sayer
Lottery logic is simple: Play lotto long enough and you will end up with
exactly half your money: The average ticket costs a dollar and returns
50 cents.
The average roulette spin (presuming 0 and 00) returns 36/38 of your
money.
Pack your bags, Margret, we're goin' ta Reno!
--
Nick Sayer <nsa...@quack.kfu.com> | They said: "Vote for Bush and the
N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NORCAL.CA.USA.NOAM | deficit will go up." They were
+1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' | right. I did vote for Bush and sure
URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ | enough, the deficit is going up.
SHA...@vm.cc.purdue.edu
nsa...@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) writes:
>
>[note: presuming California lottery]
>
>Lottery logic is simple: Play lotto long enough and you will end up with
>exactly half your money: The average ticket costs a dollar and returns
>50 cents.
get back 1/2 the money you've put into them. (Slight distinction)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Quite easy (and quite common) for people to end up with no money at all.
Mike Sharkey
Mathew Englander
>[note: presuming California lottery]
>
>Lottery logic is simple: Play lotto long enough and you will end up with
>exactly half your money: The average ticket costs a dollar and returns
>50 cents.
But, what if the game has the possibility of a rolling jackpot, and you
play only when the jackpot exceeds a certain amount. For example, suppose
it's a $1 game with the chance of winning the grand prize 1 in 14-million,
and you decide to play only when the estimated jackpot for the week is
$12-million or more. Taking into account the subsidiary prizes, and also
the chance of having to split the jackpot with someone else picking the
same numbers as you, this tactic will be profitable in the long run.
(Although "the long run" is probably about 100,000 years.)
Normand Veilleux
>From: mat...@io.org (Mathew Englander)
Exactly! There are millions of people out there that will play
the Lotto all there life and never win the jackpot even once.
For those who never win a jackpot the average return is more
like 30% to 35% since they never win the portion the 15% or 20%
portion reserved for the jackpot.
Martin Wefald
: In article <gys...@quack.kfu.com>, Nick Sayer <nsa...@quack.kfu.com> wrote:
: >[note: presuming California lottery]
: >
: >Lottery logic is simple: Play lotto long enough and you will end up with
: >exactly half your money: The average ticket costs a dollar and returns
: >50 cents.
: But, what if the game has the possibility of a rolling jackpot, and you
: play only when the jackpot exceeds a certain amount. For example, suppose
: it's a $1 game with the chance of winning the grand prize 1 in 14-million,
: and you decide to play only when the estimated jackpot for the week is
: $12-million or more. Taking into account the subsidiary prizes, and also
: the chance of having to split the jackpot with someone else picking the
: same numbers as you, this tactic will be profitable in the long run.
: (Although "the long run" is probably about 100,000 years.)
Another thing to remember is that when they advertise the jackpot as 12
million it is actually about half that. They take the 6 million and shop
for an annunity that is paid out over 20 years.
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