Okay, I admit it. I buy a lottery ticket when the prize gets absurdly big. Of course, the minimum prize of $20 million would be as life changing (shattering?) as the world record $1.6 billion purse for tonight’s drawing.
Last night as I was in line to buy our ticket for the drawing for this extraordinary sum of money, the guy in front of me bought $40 of lottery tickets. I also witnessed someone buying $24 worth a few days ago. Last time the top prize got nearly this big I saw a gentleman buy $100 worth of dreams.
The odds of picking all six numbers correctly are 1 in approximately 300,000,000,
One of the best analogies I have come across explaining your chance of winning the big prize was in an article titled: Does Buying Multiple Lottery Tickets Increase Your Odds Of Winning?
“If you knew a dog was only going to bark once in the next nine years, you would have a better chance of guessing the exact date and time of that bark, to the second (e.g. the 12th second of 4:07am on July 15, 2028), than winning the Powerball.”
Since the odds are infinitesimally small, your odds really are not that much better if you get 24 seconds, 40 seconds, 100 seconds or buy multiple lottery tickets.
Señora‘s son, Adam, calls the lottery a tax on the stupid.
I found a quote a while back about “the lottery being a game for the mathematically challenged.”
And then there is this: ‘Predatory gambling’ has helped the lottery reach sky-high jackpot, critics say The gist of this NPR article is that low-income and minority areas are being targeted as a good markets for lotteries, calling it a form of systemic racism.
None of which I disagree with.
But I imagine I will keep buying lottery tickets on occasion, just for grins and giggles.
And so it goes…and good luck to ya and don’t forget me – your long lost cousin.
Yeah, we buy them too. We don’t expect to win, and usually only buy 1 or 2.