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Elusiveness of Powerball is revealed in the math [Mathematician tears up Powerball ticket]
startribune.com ^ | February 15, 2006 | Mike Meyers

Posted on 02/15/2006 7:12:58 AM PST by grundle

"Obviously, people will focus on people who win," said John Allen Paulos, a Temple University mathematician. "All the same dumb sticks who did the same thing [and lost] are invisible."

Author of a bestselling book, "Innumeracy," Paulos says lotteries have always owed their appeal to people's loose grip of math.

Paulos recalled a line from Voltaire: "Lotteries are a tax on stupidity."

Paulos once tore up a Powerball ticket on the eve of a drawing in front of an audience. "They all gasped as if I just slashed the Mona Lisa," he said.

To a mathematician, the lottery is a game where those who don't play have essentially the same odds of winning as those who do -- none.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: innumeracy; johnallenpaulos; lottery
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To: grundle
I do not play the lottery because I do not want to win the lottery. Everything I have in this world was earned and I am a self-made man. If I won a large prize in the lottery, I will not have the satisfaction of having earned it. It will be like receiving a hand-out. I will no longer be able to say that everything I have was earned through hard work and industriousness.

I see why so many lottery winners have problems. They have low self-esteem because they feel that they have not earned what they have. This is similar to how the children of wealthy parents feel. They feel that they are unworthy and undeserving of the financial comfort that they have.

221 posted on 02/19/2006 10:20:07 AM PST by SamAdams76 (Hunting with Cheney still safer than driving with a Kennedy)
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To: Always Right
They are too busy sticking $100 in the g-strings of strippers.

LOLOL

222 posted on 02/19/2006 10:22:06 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Tagline removed by Moderator)
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To: CygnusXI

Post #86 well said. There's nothing wrong with lotteries, IMO. Even the Founders held lotteries to raise money for the Continental Army. Bet not many FReepers knew that.


223 posted on 02/19/2006 10:29:44 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Tagline removed by Moderator)
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To: Think free or die
Some folks buy overpriced lattes at Starbucks, others buy Powerball tickets. It's nice to have the freedom to choose.

Ain't it the truth!

224 posted on 02/19/2006 10:43:08 AM PST by SuziQ
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius

My second cousins are connected to Microsoft money and quite wealthy. If they can handle $100 million, I sure as hell can.


225 posted on 02/20/2006 12:32:33 PM PST by Callahan
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