The lotto is an additional tax for people who don't understand math
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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I always feel it's more of a tax on hope. I know a few folks who play and the understand the odds very well... but what if!
'What if' can be very appealing for only £2, even if it is incredibly, incredibly, (repeat incredibly a thousand more times) unlikely.
Sucker tax
What a silly belief. Everyone knows the odds are ridiculous. It's just that people are still hoping they'd win
You win every time you do not play the lottery.
You have more chance to play the lottery your whole life and never win a significant amount, than it is to win a significant amount once.
Since the lottery is a business, big part of all the ticket sales is used to run the business (and to generate profit). Only the rest is used to pay the winnings.
The lottery is run by the state government where I am, and all profits are put back into the community as grants.
Your odds of winning are just as awful, but at least you know your money isn't just making some rich people richer.
The way I see it, is that by never trying, I have statistically about the same chances of winning as someone playing.
Except their chances are infinitely higher than yours. It's miniscule, but miniscule and finite is infinitely bigger than zero. Math gets funky around the edge cases
Not really, the chances to find a winning ticket of a lottery walking on the street is almost comparable
The chances of finding a winning ticket on the street are many orders of magnitude lower. How often do you find unredeemed lottery tickets walking on the street? I never have, the most I've seen are losing scratch-offs.
The difference is still comparable.
That is how low you stand a chance of winning.
Want to see it in numbers? Last year people in the US spend 105 billion on lottery tickets. Meaning, you have 1 chance in 403 846 153 to win. If you played every week, it would take you 7 766 272 year to win. And even that isn't certain.
In math: 1 = 0,9999999999
I just ask them how much they spend on lotto every week, then times that by 52 and then ask roughly what they've won over the year, take that from the first number and show them how much money they've wasted. Sometimes it goes well, most times it doesn't, but they don't bother me about the lotto anymore.
been meaning to do the math on this for a long time but never remember about it.
Turns out I saved $43,800 by not playing the local lottery every week since my first job.
potentially times that by seven because there seems to be a different lottery for every day of the week.
I'd like to check if my smartarse sequential number pick ever won in that time but finding the historical numbers is a bit more work than I could be bothered with right now.
I buy a lotto ticket when the Powerball gets ridiculous. Probably won't win, but I definitely won't if I don't get a ticket. A few bucks every year is worth that improvement from zero to non-zero.
You and many people, lowering your chances even more.
You are just donating money at that point.
I'm fine with donating like $5 every couple years. Also no, more people buying Powerball tickets doesn't reduce chances to win at all, it's not a raffle. The only thing that decreases with more players is, potentially, the payout assuming multiple winners.
If someone thinks about playing lottery just tell them to bet on '1 2 3 4 5 6' (or whatever the number of numbers in your lottery). Once you realize this combination is as probable as any other the chances of winning seem a lot smaller.
That is true, but as a side note i discourage you from betting on that sequence as most people that studied probability end up betting on that same sequence out of spite and if it actually comes out the winnings will be much lower than expected.
same reason it's still a bad idea to bet on 4,8,15,16,23,42 even though it's been a while
What about 2 3 4 5 6 7?
Still too much overlap
What about 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 but then I open one of the other numbers to reveal a goat and give you a chance to change your mind?
I once calculated the chance of winning the pot if you pay 10 million in tickets. It was about 50%
If you're in the UK and you - or anyone you know - plays the lottery, look into Premium Bonds instead. You get the same excitement during the draw and the worst case scenario is you get your money back.
Yes, I know there are better investments, but Premium Bonds have some of the fun of the lottery without just pissing your cash away.
Statistically you can’t win by playing either
You are very slightly less likely to win the lotto if you don't buy a ticket.
laughs in poor
Sounds like someone who doesn't play
I guess my crappy raffle luck as a kid paid off. Learned young that putting hope in a gamble isn’t worth it.
Nowadays I have a fun little mantra to tell people in my circle: If I’m willing to make a bet, you might not want to take it. I’m not the gambling type. I probably know something.