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To: ErnBatavia
I found a cool "Lotto" website that allowed you to simulate playing PowerBall and MegaMillions.

I ran 10's of thousands of iterations. Never hit for more than the 'small' ($2, $10, etc) prizes. Not really surprising, but it was interesting to see just how ridiculously unlikely hitting the lotto is.

The site tracked winnings. As an aside, if you choose to play, odds on the Megamillions are marginally better, and pick the 'double play' (or whatever it's called) where the cost of a ticket doubles, but the payout doubles as well. Over a long, long term (1000's of plays) payout on double plays is about 20c on the dollar.

Great racket. Guaranteed to lose 80c on the buck, but people still throw millions at it each week. Truly, there is one born every minute.

42 posted on 06/24/2013 11:19:31 AM PDT by wbill
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To: wbill
Great racket. Guaranteed to lose 80c on the buck, but people still throw millions at it each week.

I've been telling my wife for decades that the lotto is a loser's game. But she continues to play, saying it just needs to strike once. Yeah, right. I know the odds, and stay away from the game. The money she spent over the years could have bought some nice stuff.

On the other hand, she tosses her spare change into jars and cans, and perhaps has thousands of dollars worth of coins. So she throws away some money but saves other money. That offsets her lotto losses!

60 posted on 06/24/2013 8:04:15 PM PDT by roadcat
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