
Originally Posted by
Tock
I gave up on the lottery . . .
The one we have here in Texas -- the big one, anyway -- has odds of 175 million to one. To make it worth your while, statistically speaking, if one ticket costs $1, then your return has to be $175 million. Since the gov't takes about 30% of your winnings right off the top, and since those who take the cash option only get about half of the published prize money, the prize has to be around $400 million before you get a fair deal with the lottery.
If you put a few bucks on the lottery every week or so, you might consider improving your chances of winning by
saving up all that cash over a year's time, and playing only on a lottery with a large prize.
The general principle being -- if a lottery has odds of, say, 1 million to one, and you buy only one ticket, then your odds are only 1 million to one. If you buy 100 tickets, then your odds increase to 10,000 to one. And you may as well play on the bigger jackpots.
Just a thought . . .
-Tock