could the lottery be +ev???

[ronnieburger 0]

i have done a very small amount of research on lottery odds and winnings and have determined that it mathmatically could have +ev to play MEGA millionsfrom what i understand the overall odds of you winning the MEGA millions lottery jackpot these days is 41.4 million-1 but the payout as it stands is 53 million-1 (ussually is more)now mathematically is it +ev to play the lottery or do i have wrong numbers and incorrect information????just the thoughts of an innocent bored kid in chemistry classP.S. dont bring taxes and that bs in to it its just a thought

[the red bull 0]

Sounds like a great idea. So go buy 10 million lottery tickets and hope to win. Good luck. :roll:

[the red bull 0]

Speaking of the lottery,i read recently in TIME magazine that a man from Kenya moved to Iowa, and on his first day as a US citizen, he bought a lottery ticket, won it, and got 1.89 million. Pretty lucky,huh?

[zimmer4141 0]

Hate to break it to you, but I'm fairly sure that the odds are much more than 44 million to one. I haven't calculated it in a while, but I'm pretty sure they are higher.

[dms26 3]

i have done a very small amount of research on lottery odds and winnings and have determined that it mathmatically could have +ev to play MEGA millionsP.S. dont bring taxes and that bs in to it its just a thought

yeah, taxes and that stuff isn't important, it would only take away about 1/3 or so of the total. also if you take the lump sum you wont't get the full amount, and last but not least big jackpots usually have multiple winners. sorry to shoot so many holes in your theory. states don't lose money on lotteries.

[kennyg1966 0]

in a normal 6/49 lottery the odds are 1/14000000 appx.if you bought all the possible combinations how many 3/64/65/6would you have ???

[ronnieburger 0]

Hate to break it to you, but I'm fairly sure that the odds are much more than 44 million to one. I haven't calculated it in a while, but I'm pretty sure they are higher.

ok heres the sitehttp://www.calottery.com/Games/MegaMillion...dA/default.htmljust scroll down and ull find the queation and answer

[Guest]

Stick to scratch-off tickets.

[zimmer4141 0]

OK, the odds of winning the Mega Millions Jackpot are 1 in 176 million. After you take the lump sum and take out taxes, it is -EV to play for any jackpot under $500 million.

[pong1092 0]

For Powerball the overall Odds are 1 in 146,107,962according to there website. I bought 10 since its up over 180 million for tonights drawing. So that means ive got a 1 in 14,610,796.2 chance. Or about the chances of Aces not being cracked on pokerstars.

[SuperJon 175]

here's how I see it:If you start playing the lottery when you're 18, and only play once a week, and your state lottery is $1 a ticket, then if you win, it could be +EV.Let's say you play once a week from the time you're 18 until the time you're 70. A year has about 52 weeks a year give or take because of leap years, but we won't include that into our calculations.$1 a week + 52 weeks a year = $52 a yearNumber of years from the time you turn 18 until you're 70 = 52 years52 years of lottery playing + $52 a year in lottery tickets = $2704So that's $2704 you could spend from the time you're 18 until you're 70 for a chance to win millions of dollars. Sure, the odds aren't even close to being there, but I'm willing to spend a measly $1 a week for that small chance.

[ronnieburger 0]

ok u win he he just a thought

[PAYforUSC 0]

Stick to scratch-off tickets.

[Wingmaster05 0]

My rule is once the lotto reaches 100 million, I buy a ticket. If I'm going to get lucky, I'm going to get a shiiiit load, not "dinky" five million

[AlexR 0]

Nobody has mentioned yet the possibility of splitting the jackpot....That knocks your already negative EV even lower.

[The Enforcer 0]

This summer I worked at the Chicago Board of Trade and we had an awesome lottery pool. My group had 3 owners/ partners and like 15 total employees. The employees bought $10 each and each of the partners matched it.=$600 per week.So I guess our odds of winning were like 1 in 69000. But, since everyone, including the parners take an equal share of the prize it is way =EV for the employees.Pretty sweet eh

[The Enforcer 0]

Therefore, if the pot was 50,000,000 each participant would get 2.7m on a $10 investment. Odds are 69000 to 1 and it pays 270000 to 1.Thats what I call awesome EV

[pbwl11 0]

My rule is once the lotto reaches 100 million, I buy a ticket.  If I'm going to get lucky, I'm going to get a shiiiit load, not  "dinky" five million

I agree.Anything less than $100 million, I could spend in one lifetime.... :roll: sw

[trippkc 0]

here's how I see it:If you start playing the lottery when you're 18, and only play once a week, and your state lottery is $1 a ticket, then if you win, it could be +EV.Let's say you play once a week from the time you're 18 until the time you're 70.  A year has about 52 weeks a year  give or take because of leap years, but we won't include that into our calculations.$1 a week + 52 weeks a year = $52 a yearNumber of years from the time you turn 18 until you're 70 = 52 years52 years of lottery playing + $52 a year in lottery tickets = $2704So that's $2704 you could spend from the time you're 18 until you're 70 for a chance to win millions of dollars.  Sure, the odds aren't even close to being there, but I'm willing to spend a measly $1 a week for that small chance.

Nice.

[wrto4556 0]

Regardless of everything else, even with that payout taxes make it -ev. Or its close lol

[potpumper43 0]

If the jackpot goes over 100 million then I think the implied odds are there for a call. It's a dollar.

[princeof56k 0]

One thing people fail to account for when the pot gets large is that with so many people playing the odds of splitting the jackpot go up.One of the wierdest (but completely logical) strategies that I've heard is that if you are going to throw your money away on this thing, always pick numbers above 30. The logic being that most people play their birthdays. Very few people will pick all of their numbers above 30. So while your overall odds of winning the jackpot are just as microscopic as everyone else, you improve your odds of being the ONLY winner of the jackpot.

[budica 0]

There was a company a few years back that had done the math and found that it was +ev and did something about it. They tried to buy all the number combinations but only got 2/3 of the way done before the draw and luckily enough they had the winning ticket and there where no other winners so they took it all for a nice profit. They even did a story on it on "how'd they do that".

[AlexR 0]

One thing people fail to account for when the pot gets large is that with so many people playing the odds of splitting the jackpot go up.

Yeah. I already said that.

[THE_ANDYAA 0]

If you have the money to buy all those tickets, actually winning the lottery would be the last thing on my mind.