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When the lottery in Massachusetts changed from one ticket a week to increased "games," I saw a statement that hit home- that if you covered seven football fields with playing cards, your chance of winning the lottery was a single playing card of all those on seven football fields.
I assume that was for one of their lower payout games, and not the Mega Millions / Powerball type jackpots that often win in the 9 figure ranges.
Football field: 100 yd x 53.3 yd
Playing card: 3.5 in x 2.4 in
cards on a field = 822,400
cards on 7 fields = 5,756,800
You would need like 365 football field to get to the odds required for the big jackpots.
I assume that was for one of their lower payout games, and not the Mega Millions / Powerball type jackpots that often win in the 9 figure ranges.
Football field: 100 yd x 53.3 yd
Playing card: 3.5 in x 2.4 in
cards on a field = 822,400
cards on 7 fields = 5,756,800
You would need like 365 football field to get to the odds required for the big jackpots.
During one of the huge jackpot periods for Powerball, a guy on the Today show said to imagine placing a line of pennies from LA to Chicago, with only one having an "x" on the back...and your odds of winning were the same as stopping randomly along those thousands of miles of pennies, and picking one penny and turning it over. You can also see by this example how buying 20 tickets doesn't increase your odds really at all...20 pennies among millions and millions.
By the way I want to only buy maybe $2 worth of lottery every month so I am not worrying about losing money buying tickets.
Arkansas
The $250,000 per year for 30 year is called........Decades of Dollars and is available in Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia and Georgia
Drawings are Mondays and Thursdays and tickets are $2
Here is what I currently play ( 1 ticket per drawing )
Powerball ( with Power Play multiplier )..........$3 ticket=$6 per week
Decades of Dollars.......................................$2 ticket=$4 per week
Natural State is a daily drawing of 5 numbers...$1 ticket........I buy when jackpot is over $100,000
Yes, my odds are slim to none but I will continue playing as I get enjoyment and don't have to travel ( compared to casinos )
To the OP: I don't think any lottery gives you a chance to win including scratchers and the daily games.
I only play the lottery (CA) when the pot gets huge. No scratchers or the daily Fantasy Five. I spend about $15 to $20 or so a year in the lottery. The odds are way against me winning so I will not spend more. I'd rather throw my money away when I go to Las Vegas 5 or 6 times a year. At least there I get free drinks and the ladies bringing me my Rum and Cokes are easy on the eyes and are partially dressed
I play the Take Five in my state. The prizes aren't in the millions--it starts at $50K and sometimes goes up to a few hundred thousands. I play the same five numbers for a week at a time, so that's a $1.00 a day. I figure the odds are much better than going after millions, and if I ever won $50K (and after the government got it, it would be only $25K - $30K or so), I could knock off some debt and life would be a little bit better, anyway.
I get three numbers and win $8 or $10 or $11 three or four times a year, and once last year I had four numbers and won over $400.
I play the Take Five in my state. The prizes aren't in the millions--it starts at $50K and sometimes goes up to a few hundred thousands. I play the same five numbers for a week at a time, so that's a $1.00 a day. I figure the odds are much better than going after millions, and if I ever won $50K (and after the government got it, it would be only $25K - $30K or so), I could knock off some debt and life would be a little bit better, anyway.
I get three numbers and win $8 or $10 or $11 three or four times a year, and once last year I had four numbers and won over $400.
If you subtract the amount of lottery ticket cost that you spent from $400 how much did it turn out to be?
A dollar and a dream. People waste way more money on stupider things, if it makes you happy, why not? And someone has to win it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ryu
I live in NYC so i play the NY lotto. 2 games = $1.00.
Like another poster stated, people waste their money on more trivial things.
Spending the change from your morning coffee and doughnut on a lottery ticket "just in case" is a trivial waste of money. No big deal, money can be replaced.
Spending time trying to develop a strategy for reducing your odds from 175,000,000:1 to 157,000,000:1 is a waste of time. That's something that you're not going to get back.
I'm guessing there are a lot of different types of lottery and the ones with low winning possibilities like $100 has much higher rate while ones that have millions of dollars as the prize money would be almost impossible to win.
So what are the types of lottery that is hard to win but not as hard as the several million ones and doesn't have financial dead end like the ones only fetching you a couple hundred bucks?
The best is no lottery at all. Someone who spends $50/week at a casino could cut out the habit for 30 years and 'win' $75,000 (by not spending it ), not counting investment earnings on the money.
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You can also see by this example how buying 20 tickets doesn't increase your odds really at all...20 pennies among millions and millions.
