You can't win the lottery
Submitted 11 months ago by balderdash9@lemmy.zip to [deleted]
https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/998d5ec0-5521-4f53-a6c5-631584485a12.webp
Comments
SeeMinusMinus@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Sucker!
nixcamic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s a quirk in statistics that buying a lottery ticket doesn’t really statistically improve your chances of winning over not buying a ticket.
But like also your odds of winning with a ticket are infinitely higher than without.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
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.
Nath@aussie.zone 11 months ago
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.
WereCat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ll let you on a secret to increase your odds.
Since the chance to guess the correct numbers is so low that it’s almost guaranteed you made a bad guess… Just change the guess to increase your odds.
kameecoding@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think that the fact that people don’t believe you when you tell them that 1 2 3 4 5 6 has the exact same chance of winning than any other combination shows how bad we are with numbers , 1 2 3 4 5 6 is seen as something with very low odds of happening that is thought about as something that will never happen, but say 4 8 15 16 23 42 is seen as something that could happen anytime.
AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it 11 months ago
But please don’t move the island.
son_named_bort@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s the combo to my luggage!
SOB_Van_Owen@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Penneh!
Darken@reddthat.com 11 months ago
Someone who thinks a lot has nothing to think about other than thinking
WereCat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
dont you think it is unthinkable to think that?
Muninn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
The way I see it, is that by never trying, I have statistically about the same chances of winning as someone playing.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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
gimsy@feddit.it 11 months ago
Not really, the chances to find a winning ticket of a lottery walking on the street is almost comparable
Baphomet_The_Blasphemer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If the jackpot is up in the ridiculous set for life amounts, I’ll drop ten bucks on a few tickets here or there. My thoughts doing so is this: if I lose ten bucks, then nothing really changes in my life, but if I’m truly lucky and hit that one in a quadrillion chance of actually winning the jackpot, then everything changes. I don’t ever expect to win, but I won’t miss the minimal amount of money I’m throwing in for my chance to. So why not bet on the long shot every now and again as long as losing doesn’t hurt me financially?
profoundninja@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I only ever participate when my friends or family invite me to. And only as insurance to not be left out if they somehow win.
ExLisper@linux.community 11 months ago
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.
Cosmicomical@kbin.social 11 months ago
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.
a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
same reason it’s still a bad idea to bet on 4,8,15,16,23,42 even though it’s been a while
metaStatic@kbin.social 11 months ago
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.
Delphia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Depending on how your local lottery system works you probably would have had some minor wins over the years.
I have a $5 ticket every week. My logic is that “I’m renting hope” every week theres a minuscule chance that it could be my last week at work ever. I see a house that I’ll never be able to afford and I think “Sure, if I win this week. Lol” as opposed to getting all shitty about wealth inequality.
mayonaise_met@feddit.nl 11 months ago
Ah, so not only false hope but also crushing class consciousness.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Put that $5 in an index fund and pretend you won $10,000 in 20 years.
SchizoDenji@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Based. Using a simple lottery ticket as something to draw hope is good.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
You and many people, lowering your chances even more.
You are just donating money at that point.
son_named_bort@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You miss 100%of the shot you take.
stebo02@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
and 99.9999% of the shots you do take
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
That number is too low. You need about 5 more 9’s at the end for it to compare to lottery winnings.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Isnt it "you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
?
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Well done! You got the joke. :)
son_named_bort@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s the joke I was going for.
GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I can never get STDs if I stay a virgin forever.
Checkmate, antibiotics manufacturers.
niktemadur@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’d rather see what Joshua from “War Games” has to say about all this…
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The prop for the WOPR was actually a refrigerator box that was painted black and had Christmas lights. It also still exists. It was auctioned off for several thousand dollars a few years ago.
rmuk@feddit.uk 11 months ago
Which is pretty cheap for a machine that could start World War III, but also expensive for a refrigerator box but that’s government contracts for you.
niktemadur@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The prop of the WOPR…
…the PROPR?
ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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.
Johanno@feddit.de 11 months ago
I once calculated the chance of winning the pot if you pay 10 million in tickets. It was about 50%
kameecoding@lemmy.world 11 months ago
we did it in school it’s basic math from how many numbers how many do you need to guess correctly, they can arbitrarily set those numbers to always be more than the population.
IIRC in my country where the population is around 5 million the odds of winning the lottery was about 1 in 6,5 million and in the neighboring country with 10 million people it was around 1 in 13 million
WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I bet you can’t win the lottery if you do play - care to bet on it?
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Statistically you can’t win by playing either
rmuk@feddit.uk 11 months ago
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.
Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 11 months ago
My lottery is open 9:30-4 mon-fri and its called the NYSE.
pyrflie@lemm.ee 11 months ago
[deleted]Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ya I went straight cash a while ago, I use to have some holdings but I got really bearish a while back (still am) so I just jump in with options here or there, nice quick in/out when yhings are moving, not too greedy. I went back to school a while back so I really don’t have time to watch the market so I’m a little out of practice, more of a hobby until I get back into the workforce and have some time and play money. Until then I have to be really conservative.
NewPerspective@lemmy.world 11 months ago
“You can’t win the lotto and you are playing.”
therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Sounds like someone who doesn’t play
Enzy@lemm.ee 11 months ago
laughs in poor
Makeshift@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
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.
pipows@lemmy.today 11 months ago
Gotta gamba
AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social 11 months ago
The lotto is an additional tax for people who don't understand math
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 11 months ago
A lot of people understand how unfair the math is, and still buy the tickets because “you never know.”
Source: I buy tickets sometimes because you never know…
verysoft@kbin.social 11 months ago
If you can afford it, then it's no harm really. I've made a profit from the lottery myself, albeit a minor one. Depending on the lottery, it's not the worst thing you can give pocket changes away to for a bit of fun.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
No, we do know. You will not win once.
Somebody might win a huge amount, but that one will not be you. I can guarantee that.
Phen@lemmy.eco.br 11 months ago
I would sometimes buy one just to have something to wait for. It’s cheaper than buying trash online.
Jonny@kbin.social 11 months ago
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.
Kalkaline@leminal.space 11 months ago
Sucker tax
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 11 months ago
What a silly belief. Everyone knows the odds are ridiculous. It’s just that people are still hoping they’d win