Lottery Question

[sr71blackbird]

<p>I am talking statistically here..<br />I started a lottery pool at work, and we started getting people to put $20 each in a pool to buy tickets for the Mega Millions game coming up.<br />I collected a few hundred bucks from people and some people I ask if they want to get involved say that they are less likely to win if they are going in with a lot of people.<br />Is there any truth to this?<br />I figure if I buy one ticket, I am only getting a certian number of numbers. But I figure if I buy many tickets, I am increasing my odds because I have many tickets.&nbsp; Am I right?<br />I know it sounds silly, but I am trying to figure the logic behind why some people think it is less likely they will win if they are part of a pool.<br />I equate it to fishing with a net.&nbsp; I figure having many tickets is like having a bigger net.&nbsp; Having the bigger net will likely catch more fish, right?&nbsp; They swear it is the same or only microscopically better odds being in a pool, and they figure they wouldnt have to share with anyone else.&nbsp; Am I wrong or are they?</p>

[mdr55]

<p>Maybe $20 a piece is too much for them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>How are you doing it? $20 bucks for each drawing? There are 2 drawings per week. Or $20 bucks each over several drawings?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I
do a pool too and get 9 tix for each drawing (there are 9 of us). It's
easier to get money from them in smaller amounts or installments.<br />
</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br />
</p>

[mdr55]

Back when Powerball was over $200 million I collected almost $200 bucks at my old job. Out of all our chances, we won like $11! <img border="0" src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/sad.gif" /><br />

[mikeyboy]

<p>Your odds are better the more tickets you buy (your odds still suck).&nbsp; By going in with a large group, you increase your odds of winning, but your potential winnings go down because you have to divide your prize among multiple people.</p><p>The people who say they are less likely to win by buying with a large group might not be the sharpest tools in the shed.</p>

[Hottub]

<p>Mikey, why are you even allowing a lottery thread?</p><p>It's gonna come back in google and bite us in the ass!</p><p>LOCK IT NOW!!!</p>

[mikeyboy]

Anyone have the Scratch n' Match numbers?

[mdr55]

<p>&nbsp;</p><strong>mikeyboy</strong> wrote:<br />Anyone have the Scratch n' Match numbers?<p>&nbsp;</p><p>LOL. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So you got today's numbers? The game is running again.&nbsp;</p><blockquote /><p>&nbsp;</p>

[sr71blackbird]

I am just looking for serious answers as to why they think the odds are that they wouldnt win.&nbsp; It baffles me

[flavopop]

<p>I run a little lotto pool at my work too.&nbsp; Not for the Mega Millions, those odds are astronomical.(although I do play&nbsp; a few dollars when it is huge like now)&nbsp; What I do is get about 50-100 people to put in $20 beans each and choose 6 numbers from the pick six numbers in NJ (1-49), then pick a starting date, and whoever gets all 6 of their numbers called first is the winner.&nbsp; Sort of like Bingo, sometimes were done in 2 drawings sometimes it goes 10 drawings.&nbsp; I find it keeps everyone interested if there odds are 1 out of 50 or even one out of a hundred to win a grand or two.&nbsp;Not life changing money but a nice little chunk for ya...</p><p>We should run a lil sumthin sumthin on here...&nbsp;</p>

[badorties]

<p>&nbsp;</p><p>the odds of winninng mega millions are&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nylottery.org/ny/nyStore/cgi-bin/ProdSubEV_Cat_403_SubCat_337551_NavRoot_320.htm" target="_blank">1:175,711,536</a>&nbsp;... and the odds of winning lotto are <a href="http://www.nylottery.org/ny/nyStore/cgi-bin/ProdSubEV_Cat_401_SubCat_201671_NavRoot_320.htm" target="_blank">1:45,057,474</a></p><p>if you buy two tickets or two hundred your odds don't increase that much</p><p>but here's a site that claims <a href="http://thelotterysite.com/lottery_pools.htm" target="_blank">lottery pools</a> are a good way to lower odds</p><p>with such odds, the only way to really play the lottery is to buy randomly drop a buck or two on the occassional game ... anything else would probably be fruitless</p>

[Hottub]

<strong>mikeyboy</strong> wrote:<br />Anyone have the Scratch n' Match numbers? <p>It is with great pain that I must inform you of this. But the laws are clearly stated in the Moderators Handbook. &quot;Any poster who requests the Scratch n' Match numbers, shall be banned, with no questions asked.&quot;</p><p>And now, it is&nbsp;my sworn obligation&nbsp;to say...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>SEEYU!!!!</p>

[boeman]

harsh.

[sr71blackbird]

The mega millions pool where I work ended up yielding 42 players at $20 each.&nbsp; So, we had $820.00 and me and this other guy spent our lunch hour photocopying all the tickets and making the list for everyone.&nbsp; Hopefully we win!&nbsp;

[mdr55]

If I was that person standing behind you in line.....<img border="0" src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/furious.gif" /><br />

[feralBoy]

The sucky part about not being in a lottery pool is when your coworkers win, and you have to watch them split up the money.&nbsp; That would suck.&nbsp; With that being said, whether you buy one ticket for yourself, or buy 100 tickets and split it up 100 ways, your expectation, or the average amount that you win, will stay the same.&nbsp; So, statistically speaking, nothing really changes.&nbsp; This is assuming that you spend the exact amount alone, as you would if you went in a pool.&nbsp;

[sr71blackbird]

But havent you ever heard of a group of people winning?

[FUNKMAN]

<strong>sr71blackbird</strong> wrote:<br />But havent you ever heard of a group of people winning? <p>a group wins every once in a while... you know because you usually hear about it longer than if one person wins. the media will visit the group and make a story out of it</p><p>if one person wins you're like &quot;FUCK, what's that one dude gonna do with all that scratch?&quot; and &quot;it would be better if a bunch of people hit&quot; and then you forget about it...</p>

[sr71blackbird]

Well, there was also a $2&nbsp;Mega Million&nbsp;pool that I was also in that had many more people in it.&nbsp; I wanted to increase my odds.&nbsp; So I guess its the same if I played alone or if I was with a hundred others, huh? Seems strange (I am not&nbsp;a gambler - was just caught up in the high dollar amount).&nbsp; I couldnt believe how many people wanted &quot;In&quot; on the $20 pool.&nbsp; There were people who wanted to make a $100 pool!!!

[ADF]

<p>The amount of money you'd need to spend to make it somewhat feasible that you'd win is prohibitive.</p><p>Doing a little internet research, I found your expected rate of return.</p><p> </p><p> expected return = potential winning * probability of winning - potential cost * probability of losing</p><p>so using that formula we get...</p><p> </p><p>$163,000,000 * (880/175,711,536) - $880 * (175,710,656/175,711,536) = <strong>$-63.66</strong></p><p>This does not take into account several factors which decrease the payout and lower the rate of expected return. </p><p> </p><p>Think of it this way. Your odds of winning the mega millions are effectively zero (1 in 175,711,536).</p><p>880 times (essentially) zero? </p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by ADF on 9-15-06 @ 10:38 PM</span>

[mdr55]

<p>15 minutes!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>How long will it take you to search to see if you won anything?? 800 something tix is alot.&nbsp;</p>

[samnyc]

Some time back there was a story that an individual bought a bunch of tickets on behalf of a group he organized but when he won he wouldn't share!

[lleeder]

I look at it like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He won a ticket buying three bars. The other people that won bought a whole shit load before they won. You can win just as much with a few tickets. To really increase your odds you need a ridiculous amount of tickets. Either way the people are being cheap fucks and should just put money in to do something fun with their cowokers.

[cougarjake13]

<p>people shouldnt say that their odds of winning arent that much greater then alone</p><p>they should just fess up and&nbsp;say that they are either cheap and dont want to play or are greedy and dont want to share</p>

[sr71blackbird]

I'll find out Monday if I won!!!!

[UnknownPD]

<p>Does anyone remember from their college statistic's class how many possible combinations there are when picking 6 of 54 numbers. </p>

[sr71blackbird]

<p>One guy who put money in this has a friend whos father won $100,000.00 in a scratch off one day and the next day won another $30,000.00 on another scratch off!!!&nbsp; What are the odds of THAT???</p>

[badorties]

<strong>lleeder</strong> wrote:<br />I look at it like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He won a ticket buying three bars. The other people that won bought a whole shit load before they won. You can win just as much with a few tickets. To really increase your odds you need a ridiculous amount of tickets. Either way the people are being cheap fucks and should just put money in to do something fun with their cowokers. <p>there's luck involved with all of this ... </p><p>the candy bar (or raffle)&nbsp;is different -- the there's a fixed amount and the odds can be manipulated (somewhat) easier</p><p>if you bought a 10 million tickets, there's no gaurantee that you'll win ... the odds may be greater, but you still need to predict the correct 6 numbers picked randomly</p>

[sr71blackbird]

<p>We only won $50.00!</p><p>They are going to roll it into the next mega millions.&nbsp; <br /><br /></p>

[ADF]

That sounds like a great investment.&nbsp; What I would do if I were you is go with that $100 a person idea in order to maximize your losses.<br />

[feralBoy]

<strong>UnknownPD</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Does anyone remember from their college statistic's class how many possible combinations there are when picking 6 of 54 numbers. </p><p>The calculation is 54!/(54-6)!6! or 54*53*52*51*50*49/6*5*4*3*2*1, which is 1 out of 25,827,165</p><p>If becomes more complicated when you add a powerball though.&nbsp;&nbsp; The odds go up.&nbsp; Just off the top of my head, I would say the formula if you included a powerball would be 54*53*52*51*50*49/5!&nbsp;</p>

[Brujo]

My neighbor won the Florida Lottery 2 years ago, and she's still in court. She was in a pool with 23 people and they hit for 5 million. It's a legal mess, so you are better off buying your own ticket.

[reeshy]

Blackbird...could you kindly take your avatar down??? My cock is rubbed raw everytime I see it....and that's all I see anymore!!!!! owwwww<br />

[SatCam]

<strong>reeshy</strong> wrote:<br>Blackbird...could you kindly take your avatar down??? My cock is rubbed raw everytime I see it....and that's all I see anymore!!!!! owwwww<br /><p></p>

You're whacking it to a CGI animation?

[mdr55]

<p>We only bought 9 tix but we won $2. We're going to roll it over too.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Good luck.</p>

[sr71blackbird]

<strong>SatCam</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>reeshy</strong> wrote:<br />Blackbird...could you kindly take your avatar down??? My cock is rubbed raw everytime I see it....and that's all I see anymore!!!!! owwwww<br /><p>&nbsp;</p>You're whacking it to a CGI animation? <p>Don't they sway most mesmerizingly?</p>