'Lucky' woman who won lottery four times outed as Stanford University statistics PhD [Millions]

Daily Mail ^ | 08/07/11 | RACHEL QUIGLEY

[BunnySlippers]

First, she won $5.4 million, then a decade later, she won $2 million, then two years later $3 million and finally, in the spring of 2008, she hit a $10 million jackpot.

The odds of this has been calculated at one in eighteen septillion and luck like this could only come once every quadrillion years.

--

A professor at the Institute for the Study of Gambling & Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, told Mr Rich: 'When something this unlikely happens in a casino, you arrest ‘em first and ask questions later.'

[Revolting cat!]

Online universities are awaiting your applications for
accelerated math and statistics Ph.D programs.
No applicants are turned down!

[xzins]

See #19

[BunnySlippers]

I was surprised to read o this thread that 3 were scratch offs. Altho a theory was put forth at the link.

[Ken522]

Does it work for him?

[NoLibZone]

Do you guys play quick pick or pick your own?

[BunnySlippers]

Me? I don’t play. :o)

[festusbanjo]

All I ever needed to know about statistics is summed up thusly; If you flip a coin 9 times and it comes up heads each time, what are the odds of the tenth flip showing up as heads...still 50%. I have read articles about people using the lottery commission websites to look at public information about the number of scratch off tickets issued and already sold for each game, how many of the top prizes had been won, and then extrapolating the best odds of winning and purchasing tickets for the games with the best chance to still win a major prize.

[Revolting cat!]

Yep, that’s what one guy I know did, before personal computers were invented - studied the frequency of winning numbers and won 3 or 4 out of 6 a couple of times and 5 once.

[delacoert]

It’s nice to hear there’s a competent professor somewhere out there.

The definition of competence being tied to gambling scamming the system? Did real well in your four years following high school, eh?

[mickie]

Hi Bunny,
I don't play either....too cheap....haha!

But with the scratch off tickets, I wonder just how many she bought? She had millions of dollars to spend, in order to win again.

[max americana]

He found the ‘equation’ on Google back in 2006’ and it’s available in Excel form. I suck on macro formulas when it comes to Excel, so I should ask him. Never crossed my mind until this thread. Either way, he changes his cars every 2 years ;)

[mnehring]

Having knowledge of the statistical probability of winning the lotto doesn’t improve the odds.

[anymouse]

The film ends with Lazlo arriving at Hathaway's house in a winnebago, hauling a trailer full of prizes he won in a Frito Lay, enter-as-often-as-you-want sweepstakes, where he claims to have won 31.8% of the prizes. He says that he is leaving because "it's getting a little too weird around here."

[max americana]

Right. You have to be disciplined to record the numbers every week because everything in this universe has a pattern or common denominator.

[FReepaholic]

...There are books even in the library that teaches the “wheels” method of even getting close to 5 numbers of 6 in a 49 number combination. That’s what my cousin did, which is keep recording the numbers every week, then run the “equation” (even in MS Excel) and you are bound to hit even 4 of 6...

Now there are free and paid software that will do this. Most lottery sites will have a breakdown of all the numbers and the number of times they were drawn.

[bvw]

Only one factor of the equation of net gain.

Net Gain = Profits - Expenses

How much did she spend to win these amounts?

[mnehring]

lol, lazlo was the best.

[Avery Iota Kracker]

Scam? I think not. Pure brain power.

[Moonman62]

The definition of competence being tied to gambling scamming the system?

Figuring out gambling odds led to the development of modern probability and statistics.

[Southack]

It’s moderately suspicious that 3 winning scratchoff tickets were shipped to the same small minimart.