I just spent 11 dollars on a losing lotto ticket

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2003-02-19 11:15pm

Oh well, I rarely buy them anyway...

Anyone here play?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2003-02-19 11:16pm

Superman wrote:Oh well, I rarely buy them anyway...

Anyone here play?

I occasionlly buy the 1$ ones.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-19 11:17pm

<NELSON>Ha ha!!</NELSON>

Actually, I don't play the lottery too often, although I've always contributed toward the office pool in every company I've worked for. I recognize that the odds are infinitesimal (and no, the "number picking" schemes don't work), but even if it's only a small chance, I would hate to be the poor bastard who shows up to work on Monday surrounded by hooting, laughing nouveau-rich coworkers.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-02-19 11:17pm

I don't buy them, but my dad occasionally does. Not the $2 scratch offs either, he usually play the Big Game. Especially when the winnings have inflated to something like 20 million. I'd love to be the lucky bastard to win that.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-02-19 11:19pm

Can't lose if you don't play.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-02-19 11:19pm

Supposedly, there's around 400,000 possible lottery combos, so if you buy them all, you're guarenteed to make a profit.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2003-02-19 11:20pm

Right, I am sure that I would get hit by lightning twice before I win the 10 million. Oh well...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-19 11:25pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:Supposedly, there's around 400,000 possible lottery combos, so if you buy them all, you're guarenteed to make a profit.

Actually, you can figure out the odds for a typical number-pick lottery through simple P&C math. Let's say you have to pick 6 numbers from 1 to 49. The total number of combinations would be 49!/(49-6)! (note that the exclamation point is a factorial symbol), and if the sequence doesn't matter (which it usually doesn't), then you divide by 6! to get the total odds (roughly 1 in 14 million in this case).

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-02-19 11:27pm

True, but I was never any good at statistics, with it being slightly better than my ability to handle conic sections.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-02-19 11:28pm

Ever heard the story of how a bunch of people got together and bought like all 23 million lotto tickets or something? The prize was something like 27 million so those people made a profit of ~4 million dollars.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-02-19 11:29pm

Shinova wrote:Ever heard the story of how a bunch of people got together and bought like all 23 million lotto tickets or something? The prize was something like 27 million so those people made a profit of ~4 million dollars.

Sounds like you got a plan...And I just happen to have $1.50 in my pocket. Where do I sign?

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2003-02-19 11:30pm

ROFLAMO. Poor bastards. Probably so many of um that they each got about 50 cents profit.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-19 11:31pm

Shinova wrote:Ever heard the story of how a bunch of people got together and bought like all 23 million lotto tickets or something? The prize was something like 27 million so those people made a profit of ~4 million dollars.

I would think they'd lose 9 million overall to taxes.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-02-19 11:33pm

Alferd Packer wrote:
Shinova wrote:Ever heard the story of how a bunch of people got together and bought like all 23 million lotto tickets or something? The prize was something like 27 million so those people made a profit of ~4 million dollars.
I would think they'd lose 9 million overall to taxes.

Well those numbers are from the back of my brain somewhere so it's inaccurate.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-19 11:38pm

It's worse than that. What if somebody else has a winning ticket? Then they have to share the winnings with that person, and they end up LOSING money on the deal even without taxes.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2003-02-19 11:38pm

Oh, OK. Still, that's not a bad idea, as long as no one else has the winning combination. Imagine THAT conversation after the news broke that yours wasn't the only group with the winning numbers.

EDIT: It seems like great minds think alike, Lord Wong.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-20 02:23am

I never play the lottery. Even the office ones. However, because the economy is so bad in California, Im wishing I would win some money.

Sienthal · Post by **Sienthal** » 2003-02-20 02:38am

Hell...One million and I'd be set for life...Set that stuff up a 10% interest bank compounded monthly...Mmm, over 100k a year to spend. Save some, increase next year's earnings,

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-02-20 02:39am

Don't play the lottery, but I lost a dollar to my OT professor betting that a fellow student would show up to class. Should've known better than to bet in favor of the lazy bum

.

XPViking · Post by **XPViking** » 2003-02-20 02:51am

Don't feel so bad, Superman. There is a new lottery in South Korea called Lotto 645. One fellow recently spend 40 000 000 won on tickets. He basically blew his life savings and, get this, borrowed the rest hoping to win the jackpot.

XPViking

XPViking · Post by **XPViking** » 2003-02-20 02:56am

Darth Wong,

I realize the odds are stacked against a person but do you think there is any truth to the rumor about imperfections in the lottery machines themselves "favoring" certain numbers over others? That is, one engineer concluded that roulette tables in Vegas can't be balanced perfectly and after a long period of observation placed some bets and walked out with heaps. I believe he was banned from the casinos for life. I'll try to dig up more information and see if this is just another urban legend.

XPViking

Thunderfire · Post by **Thunderfire** » 2003-02-20 03:08am

Lottery has one of the lowest win% chance of all games. Roulette has
one of the highest AFAIK.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-20 03:18am

Thunderfire wrote:Lottery has one of the lowest win% chance of all games. Roulette has
one of the highest AFAIK.

I thought Blackjack had the highest % of winning? Or are you refering to just games of chance like lotto, slots, etc?

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-02-20 04:43am

XPViking wrote:Darth Wong,

I realize the odds are stacked against a person but do you think there is any truth to the rumor about imperfections in the lottery machines themselves "favoring" certain numbers over others? That is, one engineer concluded that roulette tables in Vegas can't be balanced perfectly and after a long period of observation placed some bets and walked out with heaps. I believe he was banned from the casinos for life. I'll try to dig up more information and see if this is just another urban legend.

XPViking

If the roulette tables are improperly balanced wouldn't the difference be so small as to be not worth counting?

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-02-20 07:15am

I guess this is a good place to mention this: A while ago, two years maybe, the Texas lottery was changed so that instead of picking 6 numbers from 50, you would pick 6 numbers from 54. The local news stations were out interviewing people to see what they thought of it. Most thought it would increase their chances of winning the jackpot.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I just spent 11 dollars on a losing lotto ticket

I just spent 11 dollars on a losing lotto ticket

Re: I just spent 11 dollars on a losing lotto ticket