CHECK YOUR POWERBALL TICKET: 7-21-43-44-49 POWERBALL: 29

FREE REPUBLIC | 10-19-2005 | EEE

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

DID ANYONE WIN?

[Alberta's Child]

Technically, I have the same odds of winning as you do.

Yes, but here's an interesting story for you . . .

About 20 years ago there was a guy in New York who won what was the largest Pick 6 jackpot in the state's history (something like $25 million). One week later, the winning prize for the same Pick 6 was only about $10,000. Actually it was somewhere in the $1 million range, but the winning numbers was a series like 5-10-15-20-25-30, and there were so many people with that combination that they each ended up with about $10,000.

Whis is one reason why I don't understand people who insist on flocking to buy lottery tickets when the jackpot reaches $100 million. What, $5 million isn't enough to get you off your @ss to buy a lottery ticket -- especially when you consider that your odds of sharing a prize are higher for a larger jackpot?

[Dumb_Ox]

I won, but I need $3000 to get to the lottery office. Somebody paypal me the money, and I'll give you %10 of the jackpot.

I can also get you great contacts with African dictators' very wealthy former wifes.

[Graybeard58]

1,2,3,4,5,6 would occur with the same frenquency as any other set of numbers in a truly random draw.

That is about 1 in 140,000,000 times.

[BigSkyFreeper]

After taxes, the take home pay is something like $100-some million. Even if you won the minimum, it's not even enough to pay off the bill for a new car.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Well said. When I buy lottery tickets I usually play the lower odds game. Here in Wisconsin we have SuperCash. SuperCash is a $250,000 set jackpot. That's more than enough for me - pay bills, go on vacation, etc.

[Graybeard58]

What I read about this lottery is that there are 140,000,000 combinations. I wonder if one had the money and the time to do it, why not buy all 140 mill combos to win $340 mill? One could have the money to do it but I doubt if it's physically possible to buy that many in the time period given.

[nonliberal]

Dammit!! I have to go to work tomorrow. :)

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

"It sure would be cool if a FReeper won."

No more FReep-a-thons!

...if it was ME!

[Alberta's Child]

I think $250,000 is an ideal lottery prize. Enough to get you out of debt and help you build a nice nest egg, but not enough to ruin you.

It's amazing how many lottery winners end up broke.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

140,000,000 leaves you 25,000,000 because the lump sum is 165,000,000. That's not enough to pay the taxes.

[Alberta's Child]

That's a good question, though I'm not sure if the 140 million figure is accurate.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

1,2,3,4,5,6 would occur with the same frenquency as any other set of numbers in a truly random draw.

Wrong. It doesn't have the same probability as other sets of numbers. This set of numbers is too far out of the mainstream of lottery drawing sums to ever be drawn. If you study the sums of lottery drawings you would see a bell curve. The sum of 1-2-3-4-5-6 is the lowest (and only) set of numbers that adds up to 21 (same holds true for the last six numbers of any lottery game) In fact, it has never been drawn in any state or international lottery since lotteries came into existence.

And lottery numbers are not randomly drawn. Sooner or later a bias occurs in which some numbers have a better probability of being drawn than others. Some people handicap lottery numbers just as do horses or greyhounds in races or stocks in the market.

[Graybeard58]

Gambling losses are deductable to the extent of gambling winnings. (Hold on to the losing tickets)

[Graybeard58]

Wrong. Bell curves or no. Randomness knows nothing of bell curves.

[Kimmers]

How generous and well worth the investment

[tfecw]

I think they said the lump sum payment was about 110 mil. So if you took that you'd loose money. How does hitting some of the numbers work? Does that come out of the main pot, or is a separate thing? If you get enough people together you might be able to circumvent the time constraint on buying the tickets, but it'd be a little hard to prevent duplicates.

[rwfromkansas]

I won! I won!

FR is getting $5 million.

Disclaimer: I actually did not win.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I wonder if one had the money and the time to do it, why not buy all 140 mill combos to win $340 mill?

It would literally take months and several dozen lottery machines printing tickets non-stop 24 hours a day in order to play every single combo - plus there's no guarantee that the jackpot would even be at $300+ million.

[Graybeard58]

Some people handicap lottery numbers just as do horses or greyhounds in races or stocks in the market.,p. They are called losers.

As for the first assertion I made, "In a truly random drawing"

And then you introduced another factor by saying "they aren't random"

[rwfromkansas]

What types of numbers have higher probabilities?