Powerball lottery

[kennyknoxville]

if you were to buy out every combo of possible tickets, would winning be profitable?

[LeonOfTheDead]

if you were to buy out every combo of possible tickets, would winning be profitable?

No, and probably it is not possible to buy all possible combinations.

[Kitdy]

No, and probably it is not possible to buy all possible combinations.

Some lotteries have been defeated in such a fashion actually - only in specific regions under specific circumstances. I read about or saw a documentary about a company that bought every single number and had investors and won the lottery - they just hoped no one else won along with them.

[kingofthering]

You would need 27,882,047,661 tickets. Even at one dollar a piece, you're screwed.

Edit- this assumes that you can repeat numbers, so that you can get a 555555 combo.

[Niko_Fx]

Some lotteries have been defeated in such a fashion actually - only in specific regions under specific circumstances. I read about or saw a documentary about a company that bought every single number and had investors and won the lottery - they just hoped no one else won along with them.

On top of that they have to make sure that the prize doubles the odds... or else taxes will take all the profit away.

You would need 27,882,047,661 tickets. Even at one dollar a piece, you're screwed.

If the odds are 1:195,249,054.00 wouldn't $196 million buy you all possible combinations?

[kingofthering]

If the odds are 1:195,249,054.00 wouldn't $196 million buy you all possible combinations?

Yeah, you're right. I missed a key part of the calculation - that you can have the numbers in any order.
My number is the number of possible combinations.

[LeonOfTheDead]

iirc our game has about 90 millions combos, and incidentally this year (aka the year of the economic crisis) the jackpot has been higher than that twice or more, can't remember as I don't follow it. You can buy all the combos of course, but each bet can't be higher than 15.000 € or so, covering just a fraction of all the combos.

[csl177]

How much of jackpot will enough for us to buy all these combos....,

Seriously?!?

[Fleet 500]

if you were to buy out every combo of possible tickets, would winning be profitable?

I don't know. I spend more time thinking of what I would do with all the money.

[ScionDriver]

Personally, I find the lottery a waste of time and/or money. No offense to you if it's your thing. I've heard it called the idiot tax. I can't go quite that far, as I've gambled a bit here and there, whether at a casino or betting on sports. I just personally find the latter form of betting to be more fun.

[Rockefella]

Personally, I find the lottery a waste of time and/or money. No offense to you if it's your thing. I've heard it called the idiot tax. I can't go quite that far, as I've gambled a bit here and there, whether at a casino or betting on sports. I just personally find the latter form of betting to be more fun.

There are people who are quite stupid and spend obscene amounts of money on numbers thinking they'll win big. I throw $4 a week into our office lottery pool with about 25 other coworkers so we get to play ~100 picks into MegaMillions or Powerball bi-weekly.

Is it a losing venture? Absolutely. BUT, there is something to the 'dollar and a dream' campaign they use. That dollar buys me astronomically low odds at winning but that dollar also buys me the dream of what I would do with a metric ****-tonne of money in my early 20s.

Now the issue I face is backing out since I've been in the lotto pool for a couple months. It's an irrational fear of 'if I don't put in we'll definitely win' thing. I'm fine with it though. I take enjoyment in printing out our numbers and going through them when the drawings done to see if I won. Shit, if I spend almost $10 to eat lunch every day a couple bucks on the lottery is a no brainer, even if I do understand how nonsensical it can be.

[ScionDriver]

There are people who are quite stupid and spend obscene amounts of money on numbers thinking they'll win big. I throw $4 a week into our office lottery pool with about 25 other coworkers so we get to play ~100 picks into MegaMillions or Powerball bi-weekly.

Is it a losing venture? Absolutely. BUT, there is something to the 'dollar and a dream' campaign they use. That dollar buys me astronomically low odds at winning but that dollar also buys me the dream of what I would do with a metric ****-tonne of money in my early 20s.

Now the issue I face is backing out since I've been in the lotto pool for a couple months. It's an irrational fear of 'if I don't put in we'll definitely win' thing. I'm fine with it though. I take enjoyment in printing out our numbers and going through them when the drawings done to see if I won. Shit, if I spend almost $10 to eat lunch every day a couple bucks on the lottery is a no brainer, even if I do understand how nonsensical it can be.

Well yeah, and you get the fun camaraderie effect with your co-workers. I can understand that. It can be fun to sit around with co-workers and dream about giving the big ol' "eff you" to the bosses when you win. I'm mainly scolding the people who buy lottery tickets over rational investing or spend as much on tickets as gas or food.