Guy in front of me bought 100 PowerBall tix

it should be easy to understand.

If you play poker at a casino, in the limit of many hands the house wins at a predictable rate.

Here, with the jackpot greater than the odds x the cost to play, the odds are in the players favor. The only issue is the very small chance to win, so it doesn't make sense to bet too much, but it is rare that the odds are in your favor and that makes it worth playing. I never gamble except on these rare occasions.

why does everyone when asked what they'd do with the money say "I'll pay off my loans"? Like you can't do that with a regular jackpot...

You are kidding right? wrote:

How Odd is That... wrote:

You are old. Before complaining something is a joke provide your rebuttal. So, what do you think the odds are for some playing 50 hands in a single game (draw) where the house picks 1 out of 292,000,000 possible hands for you to try to match?

your odds of winning are 50 out of 292,000,000 (assuming you pick different numbers).

You aren't being serious right?

I can't believe I'm doing this, but let's use small numbers to prove the point, just in case you are being serious.

There are 50 total combos. You buy 48 of the possible combinations. Are your odds of winning 48 out of 50 or 1 out of 2?

The game is still only drawing once, but you have 48 of the possible combinations. So you have a 48/50 chance of winning.

Wrong. The odds are 1 out of 291,999,950.

50 out of 292,000,000 = 1 out of 5,840,000

So NOOOOO

How Odd is That... wrote:

You are kidding right? wrote:

your odds of winning are 50 out of 292,000,000 (assuming you pick different numbers).

You aren't being serious right?

I can't believe I'm doing this, but let's use small numbers to prove the point, just in case you are being serious.

There are 50 total combos. You buy 48 of the possible combinations. Are your odds of winning 48 out of 50 or 1 out of 2?

The game is still only drawing once, but you have 48 of the possible combinations. So you have a 48/50 chance of winning.

Wrong. The odds are 1 out of 291,999,950.

50 out of 292,000,000 = 1 out of 5,840,000

So NOOOOO

Ok you are trolling. I get it now. Thanks.

I was in line for my morning coffee at the gas station this morning and the three people in front of me all bought 112 tickets in total. I'd be surprised if this thing doesn't top off at 2 billion.

How Odd is That... wrote:

You are kidding right? wrote:

your odds of winning are 50 out of 292,000,000 (assuming you pick different numbers).

You aren't being serious right?

I can't believe I'm doing this, but let's use small numbers to prove the point, just in case you are being serious.

There are 50 total combos. You buy 48 of the possible combinations. Are your odds of winning 48 out of 50 or 1 out of 2?

The game is still only drawing once, but you have 48 of the possible combinations. So you have a 48/50 chance of winning.

Wrong. The odds are 1 out of 291,999,950.

50 out of 292,000,000 = 1 out of 5,840,000

So NOOOOO

You are one of the dumbest human being on the face of the Earth.

The way odds work is x:y with y being the total amount of possible outcomes. x is the number of chances that one has.

How Odd is That... wrote:

You are old. Before complaining something is a joke provide your rebuttal. So, what do you think the odds are for some playing 50 hands in a single game (draw) where the house picks 1 out of 292,000,000 possible hands for you to try to match?

If there's a lottery with 15 tickets in a jar and I have 5 of them, would you say I have a 1 in 3 or 1 in 10 chance of holding the winning ticket when a single draw is performed to determine a winner?

Actually he is not.

The terms odds/chances/and probability are often used inappropriately. Lets stick with "chances".

With 100 tickets, your chances of winning are 100 in 292m or 1 in 292k. Those are facts.

Surely you accept that the chances would be 1 in 2 if someone bought half the combinations. or 9 in 10, if someone bought 90% of them?

Sparky polastry wrote:

How Odd is That... wrote:

You are old. Before complaining something is a joke provide your rebuttal. So, what do you think the odds are for some playing 50 hands in a single game (draw) where the house picks 1 out of 292,000,000 possible hands for you to try to match?

If there's a lottery with 15 tickets in a jar and I have 5 of them, would you say I have a 1 in 3 or 1 in 10 chance of holding the winning ticket when a single draw is performed to determine a winner?

You would have a 1 in 10 chance. Since you picked 5 of the numbers there are five fewer. 1-10

Odd_ball_1 wrote:

Actually he is not.

The terms odds/chances/and probability are often used inappropriately. Lets stick with "chances".

With 100 tickets, your chances of winning are 100 in 292m or 1 in 292k. Those are facts.

Surely you accept that the chances would be 1 in 2 if someone bought half the combinations. or 9 in 10, if someone bought 90% of them?

He was saying that the odds were 1 in 292,999,900 if you bought 100 of them, not 1 in 292,000. So yes he is dumb. This whole thread is dumb.

Alexis wrote:

I was in line for my morning coffee at the gas station this morning and the three people in front of me all bought 112 tickets in total. I'd be surprised if this thing doesn't top off at 2 billion.

Saw the same thing this morning and also wondered if it's gonna hit be around 2 billion. I also bought a single ticket Saturday and today. The last time I bought one was when the jackpot was something like $500M.

It'll be very interesting if no one wins tonight. Does a wealthy person or a bank step in and buy all the combos if the projected jackpot is 3+ billion? (Wow, would that be a transfer of wealth) Payout is about 1.5:1 after taxes in that case even if 4 others split the jackpot.

#1 he's greedy

#2 you only need 1 ticket if God wants you to win then you will win.

okay. maybe all of you are trolling (likely), but i'll bite because it's slow at work.

by your logic if you bought half the combinations (146,000,000) then you would have a 1/146,000,000 chance. when in fact you have a 1/2 chance-since there are 146,000,000 you have and 146,000,000 you don't have.

you can calculate your chance by:

# of combinations you have / total # of combinations (# of combinations you have + # of combinations you don't have have)

so

146,000,000 / (146,000,000+146,000,000)

or

1 / 2

not

1 / 146,000,000

which means it's:

50 / 292,000,000

or

1 / 5,840,000

Is he no longer a part of Romney's 47% that don't pay taxes?

Is it just me or isn't it impossible to have every number combination on only 100 tickets... Don't be sheep. Think for yourselves... This guy was probably trying to get anyone listening to not buy a ticket. I prefer card games in casinos over the lottery. With card games I at least have a marginal shot at controlling my destiny...

sbeefyk1 wrote:

Is it just me or isn't it impossible to have every number combination on only 100 tickets... Don't be sheep. Think for yourselves... This guy was probably trying to get anyone listening to not buy a ticket. I prefer card games in casinos over the lottery. With card games I at least have a marginal shot at controlling my destiny...

If you are playing card games (or any casino games) against the House, you think you are controlling your own destiny. However, you always have losing odds.

bigtool05 wrote:

Odd_ball_1 wrote:

Actually he is not.

The terms odds/chances/and probability are often used inappropriately. Lets stick with "chances".

With 100 tickets, your chances of winning are 100 in 292m or 1 in 292k. Those are facts.

Surely you accept that the chances would be 1 in 2 if someone bought half the combinations. or 9 in 10, if someone bought 90% of them?

He was saying that the odds were 1 in 292,999,900 if you bought 100 of them, not 1 in 292,000. So yes he is dumb. This whole thread is dumb.

There is arguing with trolls, hilarity ensues as the same troll posts the same argument and continues to get responses. And then there is just bad math from those arguing such as the above. You slid the decimal point three times (factor of 1000) for your 100 tickets.

powerbalzz wrote:

why is it when these things get up some crazy amount of money, people suddenly decide to play or buy more tixs? Like how does the chance of winning $xxx,xxx,xxx rather than $xx,xxx,xxx becoming the buy-in amount for these people when in fact, winning even a couple mil is still hell of a lot of money that most know what to do with.

Office pools shows a big uptick in these scenarios.

At a $1.5 billion jackpot, the cash out is approximately a billion (1000 million). Even with 4 winning tickets, that is now $250 million per win. Taxes will take about 45% of that depending on state, leaving each win at $112 million. If you have an office pool of 28 people, then each walks home with $4 million.

If a person can get 28 plays for just $2 and still walk with $4 million, then the math almost makes sense (he is buying plays for 7 cents a piece).