Jump to content

  • Welcome!

    Register and log in easily with Twitter or Google accounts!

    Or simply create a new Huddle account. 

    Members receive fewer ads , access our dark theme, and the ability to join the discussion!

     

Playing the NC Lottery

PhillyB

By PhillyB,
in Huddle Lounge

Recommended Posts

PhillyB Grand Master

PhillyB

Posted
Posted

i have played the lottery once in my life, and that was a year or so ago when the powerball hit a record $600M or something similarly obscene... my buddy and i dropped a couple bucks on some tickets just for the hell of it. that's the only time i've bothered; in general i view it as a waste of money, a tax on the poor.

 

for the past year i've had this guy at my bar that pops in occasionally, maybe once every three months, and every time i give him a water or a coffee and he flips me a dollar coin. for whatever reason i never cashed them; i've got a handful of them sitting on my shelf.

 

today i decided to buy lottery tickets with them when i get them. give me your advice, all of it.

 

 

 

TL;DR version: what are your strategies for playing the lottery?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Happy Panther Grand Master

Happy Panther

Posted
Posted

i have played the lottery once in my life, and that was a year or so ago when the powerball hit a record $600M or something similarly obscene... my buddy and i dropped a couple bucks on some tickets just for the hell of it. that's the only time i've bothered; in general i view it as a waste of money, a tax on the poor.

 

for the past year i've had this guy at my bar that pops in occasionally, maybe once every three months, and every time i give him a water or a coffee and he flips me a dollar coin. for whatever reason i never cashed them; i've got a handful of them sitting on my shelf.

 

today i decided to buy lottery tickets with them when i get them. give me your advice, all of it.

 

 

 

TL;DR version: what are your strategies for playing the lottery?

 

There is no such thing as a lottery strategy except not to play.

 

But I always throw $20 at it when the pot gets big.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Davidson Deac II Grand Master

Davidson Deac II

Posted
Posted

I played the lottery once when I was stationed in Virginia back in the mid 90's.  Haven't bought a ticket since.  If I throw dollars away, I would prefer it to be down some stripper's thong.  :)

 

There use to be several stores right across the Virginia state line near Mount Airy that made a fortune from NC residents coming up to play the lottery.  Now all but 1 of them has gone out of business. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CarolinaKid704 Newbie

CarolinaKid704

Posted
Posted

I've made some good picks over the past month. I have a good sampling of the past 2 years and even though its luck there are some tendencies. I just switched my powerball number over to 34. It was 13 and I made $24 off that. For the five white ball numbers just make sure their within a certain range of each other. 25 is a good range so example 2 20 21 24 27. That way when your powerball hits you have a range where hopefully 2 or 3 white balls hit with it. November was my best month and my numbers were scary good, didn't miss by much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jase Apprentice

Jase

Posted
Posted

as someone who is good at math, I can recognize the astronomical odds.

 

I also recognize that the only way to improve your odds is to buy lots of numbers for one drawing.

 

i.e. your odds are better if you buy 50 numbers for one drawing per year rather than buying one set of numbers every week.

 

For this reason, we play very rarely, but buy loads of numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jase Apprentice

Jase

Posted
Posted

Come on...

 

um, it's true, although for such low odds, it doesn't make a huge difference.

 

Let's say there were only 10 sets of number combinations for simplicity sake.

 

 

If you draw 4 sets of numbers once, your odds of drawing the winning set of numbers are 4/10, or 40% for that one drawing.

 

 

Let's say, in another scenario, you draw 1 set of numbers, 4 times, all independently events.

 

For this scenario, you have 3 options: not winning, winning once, and winning more than once.

 

To figure out the odds of winning at least once, you need to figure out the odds of not winning at all.  This will be the product of not winning in each instance.

 

ie P(1st attempt) * P(2nd attempt) * P(3rd attempt) * P(4th attempt)

 

(0.9*0.9*0.9*0.9)= 65.6% chance of not drawing the winning number combination in 4 tries.

 

This puts the chance drawing the winning numbers at least once at 34.4% in 4 attempts.

 

Vs a 40% chance of winning if you drew the 4 numbers all at once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jase Apprentice

Jase

Posted
Posted

just for shits and giggles, if the odds are 1:180,000,000 (simplified, I know)

 

draw 1000 independent sets of numbers: 0.000005554983% chance of winning: 180,019:1 odds

 

draw 1000 sets numbers at once: 0.000005555555% chance of winning: 180,000:1 odds

 

So you're saying there's a chance...

 

 

 

 

The improvement in odds is much better for the lower prizes, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • PMH4OWPW7JD2TDGWZKTOYL2T3E.jpg

  • Topics

  • Posts

    • electro's horse
      Dave Tepper gives Canales and Dan Morgan vote of confidence

      By electro's horse · Posted

      Here comes Frankw and his pathetic little persecution complex to claim I have a personal vendetta against one of the worst performing coaches in the league if anything I should love Canales because he’s walking proof that through the lord all things AREN'T possible.  This kind of performance is exactly what you’d expect from someone who filled the building with misunderstood Bible quotes about iron forging iron and inspired speeches about how he apologized for his infidelity by buying his wife a book deal.  once more into the breech dear friends, just like when I paid a stripper for an above the pants hand job in Orlando. 
    • PNW_PantherMan
      Has this game changed feelings about Young?

      By PNW_PantherMan · Posted

      As dumb as it probably sounds, we should have won that game.  Defense was bad but Bryce should have been better.  Pass rush isn't a good enough excuse.
    • frankw
      Dave Tepper gives Canales and Dan Morgan vote of confidence

      By frankw · Posted

      You and I both know there isn't a coach we could or can still hire that can "fix" Bryce Young. Even at mighty Alabama with one of the best modern coaches in college football history Mac Jones was still a better QB than Bryce Young. Mac Jones.... We already know how you feel about Canales on a personal level so in that regard you wanting him fired is not news. You don't have to disguise it behind this shroud of rabble about not fixing Bryce Young. To his credit he somehow had us competive against the Chiefs and the Eagles on the road with #9. But no coaching staff can overcome their starting QB turning the ball over 4 times. We definitely have developed some of our younger offensive pieces. And as far as Evero goes he has earned criticism and if he's fired so be it but in his defense many of us said in the offseason this defensive roster was a disaster waiting to happen given the resources we spent on the offense while neglecting the defense. That was Dan Morgan's plan. He swung too hard toward offense to salvage the Bryce Young trade. That's on him. We can scream about XL all we want but at least he's actually been on the field for the most part. The Brooks pick was a luxury pick at the time and now it is a Hurney level blunder. Dan Morgan has gotten a lot of early praise here when in reality he's unequivocally deserving of significant criticism. But if you say that some people get up in arms because he's a former Panther. Big whoop. He has just as much to prove this upcoming season as Canales. That's why to me in my own personal opinion I say one more season and then if it's more of the same say goodbye to both.
×
×
  • Create New...