Lotteries - Do You Play? (2 Viewers)

[LSSpam]

That's like saying your chances of living are better when jumping from 10,000 feet from a plane with no parachute instead of jumping 10,001.

I'm aware of the odds. It's more like saying your chances of living are better when jumping from 10,000 feet from a plane with no parachute then when killing yourself.

.1^1000 still > absolute zero

 

[Optimus Prime]

One hit the state lotto for 2 million and the other hit the Powerball for 38 Million.

The one that hit for 38 Million.....it ruined his life.

Joe

how so? usual case of people coming out of the woodwork?

 

[ra]

...........

.1^1000 still > absolute zero

While it's still greater than zero, when doing something like determining how to spend your money, you have to measure risk/reward.
While the risk is low to play the lottery, your odds of winning don't even remotely justify wasting it in that fashion... even if the reward is ridiculously high.
In this case, .000000000001 does equal zero.
You're better off going to Vegas and betting the sum you would have spent on lottery that year on a single number on a roulette wheel. Not only would your odds be waaaaayyyy better, but at least you get to enjoy watching the wheel spin while you have a free drink.

 

[jpcdolphan]

You're better off going to Vegas and betting the sum you would have spent on lottery that year on a single number on a roulette wheel. Not only would your odds be waaaaayyyy better, but at least you get to enjoy watching the wheel spin while you have a free drink.

Buying a plane ticket (or even driving and spending the gas money) to get to Vegas would cost more than my (and I suspect most people's on this thread) lottery expenditures in an average year. I think that you think we're a little more hardcore about this than we really are.

Besides, even when we don't win the Big One, we still have (somewhat) better odds to win a smaller prize.

The occasional Powerball ticket is far from the dumbest thing I've ever spent money on, I'm ashamed to say!

 

[ra]

I'll tell you what.
I'll pick a number from one to eighty million.
You send me one dollar per week with one number of your choice.
If they match, I will find a way to give you 10 million dollars.

Practice...
choose a number
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was it 16,088,648?

Send me my dollar.

 

[Jonesy77]

I'll tell you what.
I'll pick a number from one to eighty million.
You send me one dollar per week with one number of your choice.
If they match, I will find a way to give you 10 million dollars.

Practice...
choose a number
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is it 16,088,647? Dang.

What brings it home for me is that picking 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 has an equal chance of winning as any other combination. That usually adequately describes the terrible odds.

 

[jpcdolphan]

I'll tell you what.
I'll pick a number from one to eighty million.
You send me one dollar per week with one number of your choice.
If they match, I will find a way to give you 10 million dollars.

Practice...
choose a number
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was it 16,088,648?

Send me my dollar.

Actually, that was my number.

You now owe me 50 million!

 

[LSSpam]

You're better off going to Vegas and betting the sum you would have spent on lottery that year on a single number on a roulette wheel. Not only would your odds be waaaaayyyy better, but at least you get to enjoy watching the wheel spin while you have a free drink.

That's an interesting question. If you bet 1 dollar on a number and won, you would win 35 dollars. If you then took that 35 dollars and bet it on another number, you would win $1,225 dollars. Recycling your bet in this manner, you would have to win 5 times in a row at 1 in 38 odds in order to turn the original 1 dollar bet into $52,521,875 dollars, or, in otherwords, a sum of money comparable to winning the Powerball lottery.

So what are the odds of winning 5 consecutive all-or-nothing 1-38 spins of the wheel?

Well

1 in 79,235,168

And the probability of winning the Powerball Lottery?

1 in 80,089,128

So there you have it! You're right, playing roulette is slightly better then playing the lottery And you get free drinks. But then if the lottery is over $52 million, the risk/reward may shift back to the Lottery

Either way, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with Scientology. Which was my original point.

 

[ra]

........

Either way, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with Scientology. Which was my original point.

But that was not my original point.
My original point is that if you're going to take the "it's my money, I'll do what I want with it" road, you should be ready to apply it to everything.
ie... don't ridicule people for spending 35K on a dog collar... don't ridicule people for spending 200 bucks at an oxygen bar.... and don't ridicule people for blowing their whole life savings into some crazy Amway pyramid religion.

I take the opposite path and ridicule all of them.
And if you think I spend too much for something, have a go at ridiculing me. I'm not going to call "it's my money!". If I think it's worth my time, I might explain why I do it.
Sitting there and telling me you're wasting money you know has an infinitesmal chance of winning, but you're going to do it anyway just because you want to, be prepared to have odd looks thrown your way.

 

[Jonesy77]

That's an interesting question. If you bet 1 dollar on a number and won, you would win 35 dollars. If you then took that 35 dollars and bet it on another number, you would win $1,225 dollars. Recycling your bet in this manner, you would have to win 5 times in a row at 1 in 38 odds in order to turn the original 1 dollar bet into $52,521,875 dollars, or, in otherwords, a sum of money comparable to winning the Powerball lottery.

So what are the odds of winning 5 consecutive all-or-nothing 1-38 spins of the wheel?

Well

1 in 79,235,168

And the probability of winning the Powerball Lottery?

1 in 80,089,128

So there you have it! You're right, playing roulette is slightly better then playing the lottery And you get free drinks. But then if the lottery is over $52 million, the risk/reward may shift back to the Lottery

Either way, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with Scientology. Which was my original point.

I think you would win $35 in profit, so for the next spin, you would have $36 to bet, right ($35 + original $1)? Changing it like that for each spin would increase the roulette final number substantially.

And I'd be willing to bet that the return Tom Cruise is getting from Scientology more than compensates for what he's put in. Isn't it basically a pyramid scheme?

 

[Jonesy77]

But that was not my original point.
My original point is that if you're going to take the "it's my money, I'll do what I want with it" road, you should be ready to apply it to everything.
ie... don't ridicule people for spending 35K on a dog collar... don't ridicule people for spending 200 bucks at an oxygen bar.... and don't ridicule people for blowing their whole life savings into some crazy Amway pyramid religion.

I take the opposite path and ridicule all of them.
And if you think I spend too much for something, have a go at ridiculing me. I'm not going to call "it's my money!". If I think it's worth my time, I might explain why I do it.
Sitting there and telling me you're wasting money you know has an infinitesmal chance of winning, but you're going to do it anyway just because you want to, be prepared to have odd looks thrown your way.

But where that falls flat is laughing at the guy that played the lottery and won and now sleeps with supermodels for a living. It's a completely ridiculous gamble except for the hundreds of people a year who win one.

 

[ra]

But where that falls flat is laughing at the guy that played the lottery and won and now sleeps with supermodels for a living. It's a completely ridiculous gamble except for the hundreds of people a year who win one.

Hundreds of winning tickets compared to how many sold?

 

[Jonesy77]

Hundreds of winning tickets compared to how many sold?

Fine. Just saying, don't try and tell those folks it's a sucker bet. They'll pay people on the street $1000 each to laugh at you.

And I suppose to help with Spam's point, those 100s of people are that many more than will receive enlightenment from Scientology, and for far less "investment"

 

[Paul]

If they gave me my daddy's records, I wouldn't have to play lotto.
I want my daddy's records!

 

[Saint Tillage]

I dont care how other people spend there money. I know someome who spends five bucks a day for coffee at starbucks. I dont drink coffee. I may spend five bucks a day on lotto or doughnuts. Who cares.