So did I. If I win, I'll buy the west coast a drink.
$500 million....are you playing the lottery?
- Thread starter TrickyDickie
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So did I. If I win, I'll buy the west coast a drink.
You don't even need maths to understand that playing the lottery makes no sense, basic economics suffices. There is no free lunch, no lottery organization could exist that works on negative profits. I never understood why people buy insurance to eliminate risk in their life but at the same time buy lottery tickets to increase it.
Why does playing the lottery not make sense? If you play, you might win. If you play and don't win, you're out the price of one little ticket, BFD. You've no more wasted money there than if you'd played a video game or some damn thing.
i got my ticket right with me! how far you think it will go up to 600m? good luck to all!
The newspaper this morning predicts it will reach at least $600 million before the final ticket is sold.
Anyone else dreaming of building a full-size, exactingly detailed replica of ol' 1701, with the shuttle bay as the garage for your classic car collection, and....
How could playing the lottery not make sense to you? If a person wins, and someone does, the rewards are unimaginable.
Why should I? I don't live there.
I understand that the thrill of winning millions is worth some money to the people who play lottery.
But without this thrill lottery is just a game with risk and negative expected returns, i.e. nothing that makes sense to play. Insurance is a game where you give up expected returns to reduce risk and only in gambling people ignore this trade-off and accept the worst of both worlds.
Why should I? I don't live there.
Well fine then. If I win I'll by Saty and the rest of my flyover country companions a drink. But the coasts? Well
Of course that's all before buying the new house in Florida.
The chances of winning are non-existent unless you are a millionaire several times over.
At least in some states, a portion of the lottery $$ helps fund higher education.
I don't see why some people get worked up about what other people do with their money. I doubt that most lottery players view it as an investment strategy; rather, they are exchanging some of their money for enjoyment. There are plenty of activities that people for do fun and not for the purpose of making money. Are people "stupid" for going to a movie - after all, there's no chance that they will make money on their ticket? Of course not, because they derive enjoyment from going to the movie and they judge that that enjoyment is worth the monetary cost. People who play the lottery, I assume, also judge that the cost of a ticket is worth the enjoyment they get from waiting for the numbers, fantasizing over what they could do if they won, and so forth. People who don't get that enjoyment don't buy lottery tickets. Setting aside people with gambling problems, I don't see the point of judging what people do with discretionary income - whether they buy lottery tickets, go to movies, or get a coffee at Starbucks.
For the record, I've never bought lottery tickets before but I did buy one ticket today. I also bought a bag of M&Ms, which cost more than the lottery ticket! Like with the lottery, I did not buy the M&Ms because I thought I was going to make money, I bought them because I felt like the enjoyment was worth the $1.79.
For the record, I've never bought lottery tickets before but I did buy one ticket today. I also bought a bag of M&Ms, which cost more than the lottery ticket! Like with the lottery, I did not buy the M&Ms because I thought I was going to make money, I bought them because I felt like the enjoyment was worth the $1.79.
Do the maths yourself. 5 balls out of 56 plus 1 out of 46. That's 5/56 x 4/55 x 3/54 x 2/53 x 1/52 x 1/46 = 1/175.711.526. I think the number was already mentioned here.
Nothing against people enjoying the virtually non-existent chance to win the jackpot (not that there aren't better and more social stochastic games where you don't lose real money) but playing while not being aware of how slim your chances actually are, gee, that's just riping off yourself.
Nothing against people enjoying the virtually non-existent chance to win the jackpot (not that there aren't better and more social stochastic games where you don't lose real money) but playing while not being aware of how slim your chances actually are, gee, that's just riping off yourself.
The only true "non-existent chance" is if you don't enter at all.
I take it to mean that the more you invest, the better the odds to win. So, if someone invested $10 million, they would have better odds of winning than someone who only bets $1.
Personally, I would rather try with five to ten dollars rather than any higher amount.
It's like a raffle, in some ways. People can spend a thousand dollars on a raffle for a car and out of twenty thousand tickets still lose out to someone who only spent ten bucks.
I think most people who play the lottery know they don't have *much* of a chance. But they do it anyway, since even the smallest chance is still a chance. Like I said: the only way to be absolutely assured you won't win is if you don't buy a ticket.
Like I said, the only way to be absolute sure that your expected return is negative is to buy a lotto ticket.
If I'd have to spend more than thousands times of my wealth to win once in expected terms I gladly pass this game.
Who the hell cares about "expected" return? People don't expect to win, they think they MIGHT win. And that's enough. They don't "expect" anything.
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