One in many trillions: Lottery player wins 2 games on the same day

San Jose Mercury News | December 12, 2002 | Nicole C. Wong

[Neanderthal]

"This is just amazing, astronomical," said Stanford University statistics professor Tom Cover as he calculated the probability of the double-header. "Oh brother," he muttered before announcing the odds: 1 in 23.575 trillion.

This ranks as the weirdest event in human history. Haven't there been other people who have won the lottery more than once on different occasions?

The difference between good luck and being lucky: if you win the lottery, that's good luck; if you win it twice you're a lucky person. We should be hauling lucky people into laboratories to find out what it is that is different about them. What we learn might come in handy when we go to war, etc.

[FReepaholic]

No winner in last nights' Florida lottery. Jackpot now 100 MILLION!!!

Woo hoo!! Come to papa!

[IYAS9YAS]

I know the lottery is the ultimate long-shot. However, a quick pick ticket every so often is a lot cheaper than a movie every so often and, given the crap coming out of hollywood lately (both on screen and out of mouths of idiots), my odds of better entertainment are much greater with the lottery.

[Doctor Freeze]

Two lotteries in one day? I think the fix is in.

[Junior]

This one's definitely going to be posted the next time someone claims "the odds are astronomical."

[meandog]

WHY NOT ME, LORD?

[general_re]

Oh, yeah. Nice catch...

[Neanderthal]

This is equivalent to rolling 16 consecutive "7's" at the craps table.

[balrog666]

WHY NOT ME, LORD?

You have to buy a ticket first!

[RansomOttawa]

The odds of winning SuperLotto are 1-in-41 million. For Fantasy 5, 1-in-575,000. But for both? . . . 1 in 23.575 trillion.

This is less spectacular when you think it through. It is somewhat misleading given its limited scope. These are the odds of any particular person winning both lotteries. And yes, those odds are astronomical. (And this is no disrespect to the lucky winner; I'd be pretty d*mn happy if it happened to me, too.)

However, the odds of some person winning both lotteries, given the millions of suckers who buy tickets, are much higher. I won't try to calculate them as I have no idea how many people buy lottery tickets in that jurisdiction. But there was a woman in New Jersey in the early 1990s who won two major lotteries within four months. The odds of that particular woman winning was 1 in 17 trillion. The odds that it would happen at all? 1 in 30.

There's a mathematical principle called the law of truly large numbers. Basically it says that when you have large enough sample sets, improbable events become common, or indeed inevitable.

Another real-life example: My grandmothers share the same birthday. It so happens it is Valentine's Day. "Wow, that's incredible! What are the odds?" someone might ask me. Easy: 1:365² = 1:133,225. In other words, there are thousands of pairs of mothers-in-law out there with shared birthdays on February 14. I just happen to be the grandson of one pair.

[new cruelty]

truly interesting comments, RansomOttawa

[Southack]

Naw, the odds are easy when the state owes your crime buddies a payoff (nice Italian/Latino name, too)...

[Davis]

Read about the "system" here...

http://www.atrentino.com/System.html

[ThinkPlease]

Ping.

[general_re]

All you've done is compared the odds that a particular person would win both lotteries to the odds that both lotteries will be won. While you're right that someone winning the lottery is a rather common occurrence - happens every week or two here in NY - the point is that the odds of any one person winning both lotteries are rather long.

There's a mathematical principle called the law of truly large numbers. Basically it says that when you have large enough sample sets, improbable events become common, or indeed inevitable.

Well, yes, but here, by definition, the sample set is one person, given two drawings. And the odds on that are pretty bad ;)

[bvw]

Clear proof the universe does not exist.

[VadeRetro]

Gallina's coup is proof that Mr. Lotto Man, not random chance, actually determines the outcome of the games. Mr. Lotto Man is a supernatural being who makes Santa Claus look like a piker. He gives vast fortunes to the particularly deserving, all but ignoring everybody else. People who think random chance has anything to do with the outcomes here are simply clueless. Gallina probably made an extra-good sacrifice to Mr. Lotto Man to be so spectacularly rewarded.

I have a cat superbly marbeled with fat whose cooking aromas would no doubt please Mr. Lotto Man no end. The experiment seems worth a try.

[new cruelty]

yeah, but winning the lottery twice in a day can buy a lot of existentialism.

[Junior]

If it doesn't work, I can give you a couple of more cats to work with...