Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

Do you play and do you think its rigged or not fixed?

I recently bought 3 tickets for a 50 million dollar prize cost me 15$

when I saw the winning numbers it started off with 14, and it made me wonder? who would start the first number at 14? It starts at 1 to 50/ you can choose 7 numbers. It never starts at 14, it always starts at 02 or 05 or something lower then works its way up.

Sometimes I feel its controlled.

Drawing Results :

Bonus:14 26 31 34 37 38 45 48 they never have numbers so close together?

you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than winning the lottery.

Seven numbers one through fifty?

Would you like to see the odds on that? I could tell you but you'd laugh because it sounds like a number an infant made up so I have to actually show you the numbers.

There are 30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960
512000000000000 different outcomes for that (note that KMC's software doesn't even know how to deal with a string of digits that long). So its rigged in the sense that the grand prize is extremely safe. If everyone on earth bought a billion tickets a second for a billion days the odds of any ticket hitting all seven numbers correctly between all of us would be several orders of magnitude less than one in a billion.

lottery = stupid tax

well I've come close with 4 numbers right?? lol

but in all honestly I notice that whenever someone does win, the following week no one wins,

Im still going to play but im going to use my psychic powers

Originally posted by rudester
but in all honestly I notice that whenever someone does win, the following week no one wins

That should be expected. The odds of winning on a given week are low, the odds of two consecutive wins are lower than that. Moreover after a win the jackpot drops which means fewer people buy tickets.

The ones that mainly win on the lottery are the ones selling the tickets.

Either way it's a 50^-8 chance — or one in 39 trillion. So if you pay $1 for a ticket with those odds the prize should be $39 trillion, that would be fair. Now you might want to cut a few percentage out of that if they intend to go with profit, but $50 million is ridiculous. You're being scammed.

Originally posted by Astner
The ones that mainly win on the lottery are the ones selling the tickets.

Either way it's a 50^-8 chance — or one in 39 trillion. So if you pay $1 for a ticket with those odds the prize should be $39 trillion, that would be fair. Now you might want to cut a few percentage out of that if they intend to go with profit, but $50 million is ridiculous. You're being scammed.
Last I checked--mind you this was months ago--the California lottery was up to 500-600 million. Nowhere close to 39 trillion, obviously, but still quite a bit of money for anyone who plays the lottery.

Originally posted by Astner
The ones that mainly win on the lottery are the ones selling the tickets.

Either way it's a 50^-8 chance — or one in 39 trillion. So if you pay $1 for a ticket with those odds the prize should be $39 trillion, that would be fair. Now you might want to cut a few percentage out of that if they intend to go with profit, but $50 million is ridiculous. You're being scammed.

50 to the power of 8? (I assume the negative is left over from doing all that physics notation) How do you figure?

I'm aware that 50! is a bit naive since they usually don't require you to match all the numbers but how did you chose 50^8 in particular?

To the OP: what the heck lottery are you playing? MegaMillions and Power Ball are only $1 per ticket and the winning amounts often get into the hundreds of millions.

Originally posted by Ascendancy
To the OP: what the heck lottery are you playing? MegaMillions and Power Ball are only $1 per ticket and the winning amounts often get into the hundreds of millions.

Prices on both of those have risen above $1 in many places.

Then all I can say is ouch.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
50 to the power of 8? (I assume the negative is left over from doing all that physics notation) How do you figure?
x^-y = 1/x^y

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I'm aware that 50! is a bit naive since they usually don't require you to match all the numbers but how did you chose 50^8 in particular?
I don't play the lottery, and so I assumed that the same number between 01 and 50 can be generated more than once, i.e. 29, 49, 49,, 35, 49 ...

In which case the first number is randomly selected from 50 different numbers, and so is the second, the third, etc.

In which case you do have 1/(50^8), or 1 in 36 trillion.

Now if the same numbers can't be chosen more than once, then the first number is randomly selected out of 50, the second out of the remaining 49, etc.

In which case you'll have: 1/(50*49*...*43) or more generally: (50-8)!/50!, in which your 1 in 22 trillion.

If you want to remove the order as well, i.e. as long as you select number 50 it doesn't matter where it pops up as long as it pops up then you'll have 8!(50-8)!/50!, or 1 in 537 million which — while a lot fairer — is still a rip-off.

Originally posted by Astner
In which case you'll have: 1/(50*49*...*43) or more generally: (50-8)!/50!, in which your 1 in 22 trillion.

If you want to remove the order as well, i.e. as long as you select number 50 it doesn't matter where it pops up as long as it pops up then you'll have 8!(50-8)!/50!, or 1 in 537 million which — while a lot fairer — is still a rip-off.

Since 7 numbers are drawn (they put 50 numbered balls into a tank, 1-50, and pull one ball out at a time), and none of the numbers are the same, I think the probability of guessing it is this:

1/(50*49*48*47*46*45*44)

or

1/503,417,376,000

Originally posted by dadudemon
Since 7 numbers are drawn (they put 50 numbered balls into a tank, 1-50, and pull one ball out at a time), and none of the numbers are the same, I think the probability of guessing it is this:

1/(50*49*48*47*46*45*44)

or

1/503,417,376,000
It's only 7, well then I guess I misread.

So we have:

1/(50^7), 1/(50!/(50-7)!), or 1/(50!/(7!*(50-7)!).

Either way, the last gives 1 in 99,884,400, so $1 for $50 million isn't too bad, assuming that you have other prizes, and that you'll have to cover other the making of the ticket, the hiring, the air time, etc.

Originally posted by Astner
In which case you'll have: 1/(50*49*...*43) or more generally: (50-8)!/50!, in which your 1 in 22 trillion.

How is 1/50! the same as 42!/50! ? I don't follow that generalization.

I any event I got a number vastly larger than 22 trillion (straight up 50! for the number of permutations) but I think I see my mistake now. They rearrange the numbers into rising order after being drawn (otherwise they wouldn't be organized like that every time) so order doesn't actually matter.

50!/(7!*43!) should be the number of combinations but that's just under 100 million.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
How is 1/50! the same as 42!/50! ? I don't follow that generalization.
I never said it was.

What I said was that 1/(50*49*...*43) was equal to 42!/50!.

We have: 42*41*40*...*1 / 50*49*...*42*41*...*1 = 1/(50*49*...*43)

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I any event I got a number vastly larger than 22 trillion (straight up 50! for the number of permutations) but I think I see my mistake now. They rearrange the numbers into rising order after being drawn (otherwise they wouldn't be organized like that every time) so order doesn't actually matter.
1/50! would be the result you'd get if you drew all 50 numbers. We're just drawing 7, or 8 as I first suspected.

Originally posted by rudester
Do you play and do you think its rigged or not fixed?


I play a $2.00 a week, CA Lottery and the Mega Millions.

It's a suckers bet, but people do win. I don't mind so much, since a portion of the $$$ goes to schools.

It's not rigged, how lotteries work is very clear.

And that clearness is why I don't play, cause:

Originally posted by inimalist
lottery = stupid tax


As for the usually not having a winner following a big win (though I don't know whether that is actually accurate) I assume could be explained by less people playing due to there being a smaller jackpot. The chances are the same, but less people play, so it's less likely there's a winner.


Also, the GDP of the world is only about 65 trillion, the more you know

How is it a tax when it's voluntary?

Originally posted by Robtard
How is it a tax when it's voluntary?

Taxes can be voluntary.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Taxes can be voluntary.

Was not aware of that. Always saw a 'tax' as something that was put upon.

Originally posted by Robtard
How is it a tax when it's voluntary?

that's the "stupid" part

Originally posted by Robtard
I play a $2.00 a week, CA Lottery and the Mega Millions.

It's a suckers bet, but people do win. I don't mind so much, since a portion of the $$$ goes to schools.
Of course people do with, they have the odds at so that there's one winning ticket every few millions sold.

But statistically speaking it's a stupid bet because people don't buy enough tickets to "win", and if they did it would still be a loss because they've put more money into the tickets than they've gotten out of it.

If you're a gambler go for the roulette wheel, betting for either red or black. Preferably switching colors with each bet.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Also, the GDP of the world is only about 65 trillion, the more you know
Which reminds me of that my eight year old cousin wants to work with printing money when she grows up.

Originally posted by Astner
Of course people do with, they have the odds at so that there's one winning ticket every few millions sold.

But statistically speaking it's a stupid bet because people don't buy enough tickets to "win", and if they did it would still be a loss because they've put more money into the tickets than they've gotten out of it.

If you're a gambler go for the roulette wheel, betting for either red or black. Preferably switching colors with each bet.


People have won off of buying just one ticket ($1.00) per game like me many a time.

Nah, the CA Lottery starts a $7million, even if I won that and after the assrape taxes they imposes, I'd still be many millions ahead. I highly doubt I've put more than $10,000 into it over the course of casually playing over 20 years now.

Even for the people I see who are spending $50.00 a week, instead of my $1-2.00, they'd still come out well ahead if they won.

Roulette is another suckers bet.

Originally posted by Astner

Which reminds me of that my eight year old cousin wants to work with printing money when she grows up.

As far as jobs go, not bad, maybe you can pick off a couple bills when no one's looking.

Originally posted by Astner

If you're a gambler go for the roulette wheel, betting for either red or black. Preferably switching colors with each bet.


What theory is the switching based on?

Originally posted by Robtard
Roulette is another suckers bet.

lol, that's a bit like comparing a paper cut to being shot in the face cause they are both "wounds".

Originally posted by Bardock42
lol, that's a bit like comparing a paper cut to being shot in the face cause they are both "wounds".

Not really, while statistically you have a ridiculously higher chance of winning per game played, people most often leave the game with less money than they started.

Originally posted by Robtard
Not really, while statistically you have a ridiculously higher chance of winning per game played, people most often leave the game with less money than they started.

So, what I said. Very different ball parks of "sucker's bet"

Originally posted by Bardock42
So, what I said. Very different ball parks of "sucker's bet"

If that makes you happy.

I play the lotto sometimes, I don't really expect to win, but hey, the odds will sometimes roll in your favor.