USA Lottery

Status
Not open for further replies.
Saw this on twitter the other day...

1 in 4 car accidents are caused by texting and driving. People: "Won't be me." 1 in 292 million chance of winning the Powerball. People: "You never know."
 
crackersa said:
USA lottery isn't like South Africa. Proceeded goes back to the state

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/01/where_does_powerball_money_go_and_will_any_come_ba .html
Click to expand...

you are kinda missing the point.
here is a QI video explaining 52!
[video=youtube;SLIvwtIuC3Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLIvwtIuC3Y[/video]


now playing the lotto gives you a 1 in (49!/6) chance to get the numbers correct.
I would say wrap your head around that number, but its impossible, we do not understand numbers like that as humans the concept of a number that large is just fiction to all of us.

so yes someone can sit and work out the odds and people can look at it and make comments like yay there is a chance. but in reality there is no chance. Lotto is simply a way for Governments to tax people extra, and it mostly goes to taxing the poor.

supporting the lotto here in the USA or the UK, it does not matter, it is all pointless donating money.

now I have no issue with other people throwing away their own money, but never ever actually think you will get anything in return on the lotto. as long as no one is kidding themselves about that I have no more issues.
 
Baxteen said:
you are kinda missing the point.
here is a QI video explaining 52!
[video=youtube;SLIvwtIuC3Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLIvwtIuC3Y[/video]


now playing the lotto gives you a 1 in (49!/6) chance to get the numbers correct..
Click to expand...

Your maths is a bit off. The exact equivalent would be 49!/(49-6)! because you are only choosing 6 numbers. But that implies that the order of the numbers is important (which in our lotto it isn't) so the actual chances are 1 in 49! / ((49-6)! 6!) which is 1 in 14 million (yes I rounded exact is 13,983,816).

The US obviously uses a different system because the chance there is only 1 in 292 million.
 
Jehosefat said:
Your maths is a bit off. The exact equivalent would be 49!/(49-6)! because you are only choosing 6 numbers. But that implies that the order of the numbers is important (which in our lotto it isn't) so the actual chances are 1 in 49! / ((49-6)! 6!) which is 1 in 14 million (yes I rounded exact is 13,983,816).

The US obviously uses a different system because the chance there is only 1 in 292 million.
Click to expand...

it still boils down to this.
a person's odds of winning is one in [a number JZ cant pronounce]
 
Just FYI, you don't actually play the overseas lotteries with Lottostar, you only bet on the outcome(ball numbers). They call it fixed odds betting.
 
Baxteen said:
I prefer donating to charity directly.
in case my meaning is not clear, playing lotto type thing is not a worth it. a study suggests that in order to actually win decently on the lotto, you need to spend about two thirds of the total prize in tickets for yourself. and even then you are not even guaranteed to win the lotto.
seeing as there are 49!(pronounced shriek) possibilities. it is just not worth the effort to play it.
Click to expand...

I know how bad the odds are, but I still play because it is a relatively small amount of money to give up, in exchange for a chance at a much larger pool of money.

What I mean is that, I'm not going to notice R30 less here and there. But, I will notice R30 million extra in my pocket. Yes, the chances of winning are super slim, but the R30 lost is neither here nor there, and if I do win, the upside is potentially massive. Even matching most of the numbers could get me something like R200 000.

I only play the South African Powerball lottery because it is a decent balance between payout, and chance to win (relatively speaking).
 
Ancalagon said:
I know how bad the odds are, but I still play because it is a relatively small amount of money to give up, in exchange for a chance at a much larger pool of money.

What I mean is that, I'm not going to notice R30 less here and there. But, I will notice R30 million extra in my pocket. Yes, the chances of winning are super slim, but the R30 lost is neither here nor there, and if I do win, the upside is potentially massive. Even matching most of the numbers could get me something like R200 000.

I only play the South African Powerball lottery because it is a decent balance between payout, and chance to win (relatively speaking).
Click to expand...

so lets break it down.
you play R30, twice a week, for a year. this means you spend R3120 over the year playing.
sure you win from time to time, and yeah sure it might even be more than what you spend in the year.

if the idea of that amount of money being thrown away potentaill does not bother you try this:
create a savings account with Capitek. out R3120 in it.
create an account with FNB that you can shedule to play lotto on and can deposit money into if you win. put R3120 in there and shedule your R30 worth of powerball to run twice a week for the year.

one year later, check what account has more money in it.

my bet is on the savings account.

now this is an absolutely TINY amount of money we are talking about, but when you start doing the math on how much you have won in total ever VS how much interest you would have made had you been doing this for every time you want to play the lotto and suddenly the lotto becomes kind of brain dead of an approach.

sure if you were to win big this would suddenly not matter, but again its such a small chance of it actually happening.

Honestly that R30 would have been better spent on a pack of smokes.
 
Arthur said:
Just don't buy your smokes in the USA. Recently my last carton of Camel Plains cost me just over R1300. That's R130+ a carton.
Click to expand...

even though you take that money and set it on fire and inhale it,it is still money better spent than buying a loto ticket.
please note I am a smoker.
 
Can I buy a ticket outside of the US?

In a word – no.

Tourists and foreigners can buy tickets, but only if they are in the US.

Only two states, Illinois and Georgia, are selling Powerball tickets online for the draw. To buy an online Powerball ticket in either Illinois or Georgia you have to be a resident of the state and be physically present there when you click to purchase.

There are other restrictions, too. In Illinois, the daily maximum purchase limit is $150 and the weekly maximum purchase limit is $1,050.

Most states have been reluctant to move their lotteries onto the web due to political concerns in state legislatures about protecting young people, particularly those under the age of 18 and preventing people from overextending their finances to buy lottery tickets from their living rooms and phones.

Powerball’s website said that if you are not buying from a licensed retailer in the state, or from the official state lottery site, open only to people in the US, “then you should not expect to be able to collect your prize.”

But that has not stopped a myriad of companies springing up, offering to buy tickets on your behalf. Proceed with extreme caution.
Click to expand...


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...lds-biggest-lottery-and-how-do-I-play-it.html

Also tax on winnings is high for foreigners
 
Yeah - the numbers I picked weren't even close.

That person in california is going to have fun, lucky bugger
 
Ancalagon said:
I know how bad the odds are, but I still play because it is a relatively small amount of money to give up, in exchange for a chance at a much larger pool of money.

What I mean is that, I'm not going to notice R30 less here and there. But, I will notice R30 million extra in my pocket. Yes, the chances of winning are super slim, but the R30 lost is neither here nor there, and if I do win, the upside is potentially massive. Even matching most of the numbers could get me something like R200 000.

I only play the South African Powerball lottery because it is a decent balance between payout, and chance to win (relatively speaking).
Click to expand...

Shame all those other suckers play lottery not understanding what they are doing but this genius has got it all figured out.

Hey Big Brains you should check out these new-fangled "casino" developments, they also offer deals where you put in a little bit of money for a chance at a bigger amount. Some people think it's mostly just fools handing over their money to cashiers and shiny loud machines but with your analytical powers of logic and rationalization I'm SURE you'd do well. Odds are there to be beaten.

btw why only R30 here and there? Do you know if you made it say R50 or R100 every draw you'd have an even better chance!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X