Poll of the Day > what increases your lottery odds?

(+) Yeah! (+)

playing the same number every day or picking a random number every day?

or the same

nothing.

you have the same odds with every ticket you buy, regardless of numbers uses

if you have 1/10 odds to win, having two tickets means you have 2/20 odds.

argonautweakend posted...

what increases your lottery odds?

The more lines of numbers you play per draw. Similar to slot machines.

likehelly posted...

nothing.

likehelly posted...

if you have 1/10 odds to win, having two tickets means you have 2/20 odds.

You just increased your odds, so not nothing.
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likehelly posted...

nothing.

you have the same odds with every ticket you buy, regardless of numbers uses

if you have 1/10 odds to win, having two tickets means you have 2/20 odds.

No, that's wrong. Having two tickets exactly doubles your chances of winning unless you get the same number twice or the tickets came from two different lotteries.
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Yellow posted...

No, that's wrong. Having two tickets exactly doubles your chances of winning unless you get the same number twice or the tickets came from two different lotteries.

If 1 line (ticket) has a 1/10 chance of winning and 2 lines (tickets) are 2/10, that is double the chance of winning, since 2 is 1 doubled.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow posted...

No, that's wrong. Having two tickets exactly doubles your chances of winning unless you get the same number twice or the tickets came from two different lotteries.

If 1 line has a 1/10 chance of winning and 2 lines are 2/10, that is double the chance of winning, since 2 is 1 doubled.

Yes but 1/10 and 2/20 are the same.

Basically helly did bad math.
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Yellow posted...

Yes but 1/10 and 2/20 are the same.

They aren't.

For all sets of number draws, i.e., pick 3s, 4s, 5s,etc., there are a finite number of resulting number combinations.

If that end result is that I have an 1 in 1 million chance of selecting the correct combination, if I select a 2nd string of numbers, I've doubled my chances of selecting the winning string of numbers.
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why is sunny arguing with someone who is agreeing with him?
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Smarkil posted...

why is sunny arguing with someone who is agreeing with him?

He isn't. Helly is wrong because you can increase your chances of winning. Yellow is wrong because 2/10 is twice as much as 1/10.

Fuck helly was totally wrong. Lol.
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Anyways, buy more lines. That'll help you win, statistically.
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Yellow posted...

Basically helly did bad math.

I'm realizing now he did. Buying more lines of numbers doesn't increase the number of possible outcomes.
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likehelly posted...

nothing.

you have the same odds with every ticket you buy, regardless of numbers uses

if you have 1/10 odds to win, having two tickets means you have 2/20 odds.

But that's not at all how it works since there is a finite number of outcomes.

If there are 100 million different number combinations, and I buy 100 million different tickets with different numbers, I am guaranteed to win the lottery. The payout will also be less than the total amount I spent on the tickets to prevent this exact thing.

Think of it this way. I tell you to pick a number between 1 and 10. If I try to guess it, I have a 10% chance of getting it right. If you let me pick 5 numbers, and any of those 5 match the number you picked, then I have a 50% chance of getting it right.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow posted...

Yes but 1/10 and 2/20 are the same.

They aren't.

For all sets of number draws, i.e., pick 3s, 4s, 5s,etc., there are a finite number of resulting number combinations.

If that end result is that I have an 1 in 1 million chance of selecting the correct combination, if I select a 2nd string of numbers, I've doubled my chances of selecting the winning string of numbers.

My profession is a software engineer, my math teacher called me a human calculator and excluded me from having to show my work. When discussing RNG I flat out sat and argued with my teachers for 30 minutes until they both agreed about the mistake they made on their class work.

1/10 = 2/20 = 10% = 0.1

1/10 does not equal 1/20, 0.1 does not equal 0.05

SunWuKung420 posted...

Yellow is wrong because 2/10 is twice as much as 1/10.

I am correct because I did not say that, helly did.
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@Yellow, our posts were closely posted. I misread helly.
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Staying positive according to that teenager who won the Mega Millions

... That reminds me, I have a winning Powerball ticket somewhere ._.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

If 1 line (ticket) has a 1/10 chance of winning and 2 lines (tickets) are 2/10, that is double the chance of winning, since 2 is 1 doubled.

no.

1/10 and 2/20 are the same thing.

you have one ticket, the odds of winning are 1/175,000,000.

you have two tickets, your odds are not 2/175,000,000.

your odds are 1/175,000,000 and 1/175,000,000

making it 2/325,000,000.

it's like when you flip a coin. you aren't going to get heads 5 times and tails 5 times. your chance is only for that specific instance, it doesn't carry over to the next flip. you don't get heads, and then the next flip your chance of getting tails increases/decreases by 10%. that is not how chance works.

likehelly posted...

you have one ticket, the odds of winning are 1/175,000,000.

you have two tickets, your odds are not 2/175,000,000.

your odds are 1/175,000,000 and 1/175,000,000

making it 2/325,000,000.

it's like when you flip a coin. you aren't going to get heads 5 times and tails 5 times. your chance is only for that specific instance, it doesn't carry over to the next flip. you don't get heads, and then the next flip your chance of getting tails increases/decreases by 10%. that is not how chance works.

1/10 + 1/10 = 2/10, not 2/20. You don't add the denominator together when doing addition. Always think of it as money when adding. 10 cents (1/10 of a dollar) plus 10 cents (1/10 of a dollar) gives you 20 cents (2/10 of a dollar).

The heads and tails logic does confuse a lot of people because it's multiplicative. Each event in isolation is a 50% chance of being the selected side. But if I wanted 3 heads in a row, that is multiplicative:

1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/8 or a 12.5% chance of that happening, even if each event is a 50% chance in isolation.
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@likehelly You only multiply the numerator.

numerator
denominator

Say 1 can be shown as 1/1. Multiply that by two.

the way you're doing it, 2 * 1/1 would equal 2/2. 2/2 is 1. 1 times 2 does not equal 1.

1/1 * 2 = 2/1

1/25 * 2 = 2/25

1/2 * 2 = 2/2 (two halves make one)
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Dynalo posted...

1/10 + 1/10 = 2/10, not 2/20. You don't add the denominator together when doing addition.

This basic math is right and it applies to all series of lotto drawings.
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Dynalo posted...

likehelly posted...

you have one ticket, the odds of winning are 1/175,000,000.

you have two tickets, your odds are not 2/175,000,000.

your odds are 1/175,000,000 and 1/175,000,000

making it 2/325,000,000.

it's like when you flip a coin. you aren't going to get heads 5 times and tails 5 times. your chance is only for that specific instance, it doesn't carry over to the next flip. you don't get heads, and then the next flip your chance of getting tails increases/decreases by 10%. that is not how chance works.

1/10 + 1/10 = 2/10, not 2/20. You don't add the denominator together when doing addition. Always think of it as money when adding. 10 cents (1/10 of a dollar) plus 10 cents (1/10 of a dollar) gives you 20 cents (2/10 of a dollar).

The heads and tails logic does confuse a lot of people because it's multiplicative. Each event in isolation is a 50% chance of being the selected side. But if I wanted 3 heads in a row, that is multiplicative:

1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/8 or a 12.5% chance of that happening, even if each event is a 50% chance in isolation.

none of this applies to something based off of random chance like the lottery.

you used a dollar as an example, but a dollar is a constant.

lottery drawings are not a constant.

likehelly posted...

lottery drawings are not a constant.

Whether you are picking 2 random numbers or 10, there is still only a finite number of 2-10 number combinations.

When gambling to land on a specific number combination, the number of guesses can't increase the number of answers. Therefore, the more I guess, bet, gamble, the more my odds increase to land on one of the finite combinations, for one roll.
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likehelly posted...

lottery drawings are not a constant.

The number of potential outcomes is constant though.

If there are 6 sets of 50 numbers, the odds of you guessing the right one is

1 in 50*50*50*50*50*50 = 15,425,000,000

So 1/15,425,000,000

Now answer this, if I let you pick 15,425,000,000 different sets of numbers, what are your odds of winning the lottery? Not what are the odds of an individual ticket being correct, but the odds of you winning the lottery.

Each individual ticket has a 1/15,425,000,000 chance of winning. You have a 15,425,000,000/15,425,000,000 chance of winning, or a 100% chance.

So buying more tickets increases your odds of winning (if very very slightly)
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@Dynalo I'm going to follow you. We just said the same thing.
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likehelly posted...

none of this applies to something based off of random chance like the lottery.

you used a dollar as an example, but a dollar is a constant.

lottery drawings are not a constant.

You're arguing with two software engineers about basic math. It's a miracle any of my algorithms work.

A real PotD Q&A.

"none of this applies" Says who? That doesn't make any sense.
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@Yellow

Apparently TC thinks the more you guess within a finite system the more the options within the system increase.
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So to increase your odds by a sizeable amount, you get a tub, every time you would by a scratch card, lottery ticket or gamble, put that money in the tin. After a set amount of time, open the tin and see your winnings!

Likely considerably more than if you got the tickets!
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Babbit55 posted...

So to increase your odds by a sizeable amount, you get a tub, every time you would by a scratch card, lottery ticket or gamble, put that money in the tin. After a set amount of time, open the tin and see your winnings!

Likely considerably more than if you got the tickets!

Yes, or instead of daily purchase only buy in, at high volume when the prize is grand.
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Babbit55 posted...

So to increase your odds by a sizeable amount, you get a tub, every time you would by a scratch card, lottery ticket or gamble, put that money in the tin. After a set amount of time, open the tin and see your winnings!

Likely considerably more than if you got the tickets!

But then you can't win the jackpot man!

But yes, in reality you're just better off saving the money you'd spend on lotto tickets. Doesn't stop me from buying a ticket when the lotto gets really high though <_<
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Btw, I'm pretty sure there have been times when the winnings were larger then the odds, but in every single case, more then one person ended up winning (which means the individual pay out was less).

Which of course is another factor in how to increase your odds of winning, or at least your ratio of winnings to amount spent.

You can increase your odds by purchasing additional tickets, but, the amount you win can also go down based on the number of other tickets purchased by other people.

Therefore, you must both purchase additional tickets in the same lottery with different number combinations AND ensure as few other people do so as possible, or at least as few other people who are not puchasing tickets as a group with you.

So, if the lottery payout was say 1.6 billion (largest to date I believe), and the odds to win it where 1 in 300 million (for powerball), at least in theory if you got 30 million people to all sign a contract sharring the winnings, and each was designated 10 numbers/tickets to purchase (by a computer of course), your group would have a 100% chance of winning the powerball.

Sadly, each individual member of the group would have spent (think it's 1$ per ticket), 10$, and would end up getting back about $50.

Here is where it gets tricky though, if you didn't restrict the # of tickets any individual could purchase as part of the group, and just let anyone but numbers at will, someone could say buy 100k tickets, and as long as the winnings were split by the number of tickets purchased, basically win 400k total.

That only would work with the largest payout in history, and also if ONLY people who are part of the group ended up winning.

You would still do ok as long as there was not more then 2 other non-group member winners (the payout would still be about 500million each vs a 300 million investment).

I find it ...interesting that such a scenerio actually happened, and no even medium sized groups (of fairly wealthy individuals) capitalized on it.

Might be partially due to the way winnings are actually calculated, as you only get 1/2 of the actual total if you take a cash/now option. So the above numbers are wrong, and a 1.6 bill jackpot would actually only be worth 800mill of less as a payout (before taxes).

That still could lead to almost trippling your investment if you and a group covered the entire spread, but, even just 1 other winner (not in your group) would kill most of the profit and the risk of having more then 1 other winner and actually loosing money would probably make it not worth it.

So yeah, even in extreme cases like that, it doesn't really pay to play the lottery.
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What increases your lottery odds is pre-calculating the house edge for your given lotto.

For example, Casino Roulette with 2 green squares (0 and 00) has a house edge of 5.26%

Powerball has a house edge of 9.21%, and that's including all the minor prizes.
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