The lotto is an additional tax for people who don't understand math
A lot of people understand how unfair the math is, and still buy the tickets because "you never know."
Source: I buy tickets sometimes because you never know...
If you can afford it, then it's no harm really. I've made a profit from the lottery myself, albeit a minor one. Depending on the lottery, it's not the worst thing you can give pocket change away to for a bit of fun. So I never understood this "you'll never win" mentality/gatekeeping hobbies, people know the chances, but it's fun either way.
I always feel it's more of a tax on hope. I know a few folks who play and the understand the odds very well... but what if!
'What if' can be very appealing for only £2, even if it is incredibly, incredibly, (repeat incredibly a thousand more times) unlikely.
Sucker tax
What a silly belief. Everyone knows the odds are ridiculous. It's just that people are still hoping they'd win
Sucker!
It's a quirk in statistics that buying a lottery ticket doesn't really statistically improve your chances of winning over not buying a ticket.
But like also your odds of winning with a ticket are infinitely higher than without.
I'll let you on a secret to increase your odds.
Since the chance to guess the correct numbers is so low that it's almost guaranteed you made a bad guess... Just change the guess to increase your odds.
I think that the fact that people don't believe you when you tell them that 1 2 3 4 5 6 has the exact same chance of winning than any other combination shows how bad we are with numbers , 1 2 3 4 5 6 is seen as something with very low odds of happening that is thought about as something that will never happen, but say 4 8 15 16 23 42 is seen as something that could happen anytime.
But please don't move the island.
That's the combo to my luggage!
Penneh!
You win every time you do not play the lottery.
You have more chance to play the lottery your whole life and never win a significant amount, than it is to win a significant amount once.
Since the lottery is a business, big part of all the ticket sales is used to run the business (and to generate profit). Only the rest is used to pay the winnings.
The lottery is run by the state government where I am, and all profits are put back into the community as grants.
Your odds of winning are just as awful, but at least you know your money isn't just making some rich people richer.
The way I see it, is that by never trying, I have statistically about the same chances of winning as someone playing.
If the jackpot is up in the ridiculous set for life amounts, I'll drop ten bucks on a few tickets here or there. My thoughts doing so is this: if I lose ten bucks, then nothing really changes in my life, but if I'm truly lucky and hit that one in a quadrillion chance of actually winning the jackpot, then everything changes. I don't ever expect to win, but I won't miss the minimal amount of money I'm throwing in for my chance to. So why not bet on the long shot every now and again as long as losing doesn't hurt me financially?
I only ever participate when my friends or family invite me to. And only as insurance to not be left out if they somehow win.
I just ask them how much they spend on lotto every week, then times that by 52 and then ask roughly what they've won over the year, take that from the first number and show them how much money they've wasted. Sometimes it goes well, most times it doesn't, but they don't bother me about the lotto anymore.
You miss 100% of the shots you take.
Isn't it "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
?
Edit. I think i completely missed your joke. It's about the extremely low chance that you will win the lottery and you are using wayne Gretzkys famous quote to make the joke.
Sorry, im an idiot and i ruin jokes by explaining them so someone can validate me and say "yes, well done, you got the joke...."
Well done! You got the joke. :)
That's the joke I was going for.
and 99.9999% of the shots you do take
That number is too low. You need about 5 more 9's at the end for it to compare to lottery winnings.
I'd rather see what Joshua the AI from "War Games" (the movie) has to say about all this...
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
The prop for the WOPR was actually a refrigerator box that was painted black and had Christmas lights. It also still exists. It was auctioned off for several thousand dollars a few years ago.
Which is pretty cheap for a machine that could start World War III, but also expensive for a refrigerator box but that's government contracts for you.
The prop for the WOPR...
...the PROPR?
been meaning to do the math on this for a long time but never remember about it.
Turns out I saved $43,800 by not playing the local lottery every week since my first job.
potentially times that by seven because there seems to be a different lottery for every day of the week.
I'd like to check if my smartarse sequential number pick ever won in that time but finding the historical numbers is a bit more work than I could be bothered with right now.
Depending on how your local lottery system works you probably would have had some minor wins over the years.
I have a $5 ticket every week. My logic is that "I'm renting hope" every week theres a minuscule chance that it could be my last week at work ever. I see a house that I'll never be able to afford and I think "Sure, if I win this week. Lol" as opposed to getting all shitty about wealth inequality.
If someone thinks about playing lottery just tell them to bet on '1 2 3 4 5 6' (or whatever the number of numbers in your lottery). Once you realize this combination is as probable as any other the chances of winning seem a lot smaller.
That is true, but as a side note i discourage you from betting on that sequence as a lot of people that studied probability end up betting on that same sequence out of spite and if it actually comes out the winnings will be much lower than expected.
I bet you can't win the lottery if you do play - care to bet on it?
I can never get STDs if I stay a virgin forever.
Checkmate, antibiotics manufacturers.
I once calculated the chance of winning the pot if you pay 10 million in tickets. It was about 50%
we did it in school it's basic math from how many numbers how many do you need to guess correctly, they can arbitrarily set those numbers to always be more than the population.
IIRC in my country where the population is around 5 million the odds of winning the lottery was about 1 in 6,5 million and in the neighboring country with 10 million people it was around 1 in 13 million
Statistically you can’t win by playing either
If you're in the UK and you - or anyone you know - plays the lottery, look into Premium Bonds instead. You get the same excitement during the draw and the worst case scenario is you get your money back.
Yes, I know there are better investments, but Premium Bonds have some of the fun of the lottery without just pissing your cash away.
You are very slightly less likely to win the lotto if you don't buy a ticket.
This isn't true from the math point of view, is it?
Not playing -> chance is 0
Playing -> chance is 0.000....1
The factor between both numbers is infinity.
What is the mathematical definition of "slight"?
you're saying there's NO chance of winning the lottery, no matter how infinitesimally small, if you don't buy a ticket?
do you have a source for this claim? or are you just seeking an upgrade from Bureaucrat Grade 35 to Grade 34? jk lol
"You can't win the lotto and you are playing."
My lottery is open 9:30-4 mon-fri and its called the NYSE.
At current money rates NYSE loses 0.5% per year.
Smart Money is in Short Term Corp Bonds, Long term is HUGE RISK.
CMSE was underwater 2 years ago and is just getting worse.
Ya I went straight cash a while ago, I use to have some holdings but I got really bearish a while back (still am) so I just jump in with options here or there, nice quick in/out when yhings are moving, not too greedy. I went back to school a while back so I really don't have time to watch the market so I'm a little out of practice, more of a hobby until I get back into the workforce and have some time and play money. Until then I have to be really conservative.
laughs in poor
Sounds like someone who doesn't play
I guess my crappy raffle luck as a kid paid off. Learned young that putting hope in a gamble isn’t worth it.
Nowadays I have a fun little mantra to tell people in my circle: If I’m willing to make a bet, you might not want to take it. I’m not the gambling type. I probably know something.
Gotta gamba
