[website] Lottery: What would you have won?

[jinnantonnixx]

Here's a bit of fun if you play the lottery with a set of favourite numbers. Enter your numbers and find out what you would have won had you played the lottery from the start.

 

The Lottery Frustrator / Alex Rea

Edited December 2, 2012 by jinnantonnixx

[bossman]

Would have won £180 but it would have cost me £1800 to win hehe!

 

I knew I was right not to do the lottery..........................never gamble thats my motto

[synaesthesia]

I'd have had 5 numbers in 1998...

 

Hang on, I did.

[Andrew_C]

A tax on the gullible... I used to play, but gave up a few years ago.

[Jamman960]

Glad I don't play very often - I'd have won £400 but spent £1500

 

From the start till last year the school had a syndicate going, any winnings went towards paying for the tickets during holidays. They've now ditched the main lottery and instead put money on 1 bonus ball each so now someone gets a payout each week

Edited December 2, 2012 by Jamman960

[featured_spectre]

£7597 and it would have cost me £1800 to do so.

[witch]

I feel good- I would have won less than £400 and it would have cost me shedloads...result!

[witch]

Would have won £180 but it would have cost me £1800 to win hehe!

 

I knew I was right not to do the lottery..........................never gamble thats my motto

Me too MLNM

Just found out from my stealth son-following on twitter that he just put some money on a horse...

it came last

That'll teach him!!

[Dos_Box]

Excellent find! £382 for me. I'm glad I don't play it religiously now. Just a lucky dip a couple of times a month when I'm getting the Saturday papers

[jinnantonnixx]

About the odds and how they're calculated.

 

If you do play, let the computer pick a lucky dip. It won't improve your odds of winning of course, but it will mean that you are far less likely to have to share the jackpot as people are notoriously poor at picking 'random' numbers.

Feature Column from the AMS

Edited December 2, 2012 by jinnantonnixx

[gshaw]

Clever site but can't tell for me as my numbers change depending on what date / time it is when doing the ticket

[featured_spectre]

Just did a check on a global website using the mrs lappy (mines in for repair)...using the lost numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) over all global lotteries would have netted you close to £13.4m (aggregated over exchange rates etc), this includes the following lotteries..

 

German, Danish, Dutch, British, Irish, Italian, EuroMillions, Australian, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Spain, Greece (before the economy broke), Canada and various state lotteries in the US!

[laserblazer]

I put in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and for 1 March 2000 it had 4 correct but only £7.46 winnings. Can that be right?

[JJonas]

I put in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and for 1 March 2000 it had 4 correct but only £7.46 winnings. Can that be right?

 

Its a common sequence of numbers (lots of people playing them) so it probably is right. 1,2,3,4,5,6 will get you about £10,000 if they all came up

[laserblazer]

So you can get less for 4 right than 3?

[JJonas]

Yes possibly, because the winnings for 3 are fixed

[Andrew_C]

Its a common sequence of numbers (lots of people playing them) so it probably is right. 1,2,3,4,5,6 will get you about £10,000 if they all came up

When I was playing, I spotted that a run of numbers was just as likely to come up as anything else. However, if you pick a run of numbers away from 1-6 or similar, you could boost your chances of getting a big payout. Further research showed that people pick birthdates in their "random" selection; so, I went with 37-42 for quite a while. Never did get the big win (one 4 ball)...

 

I also discovered that people tend not to pick "teens" when giving a list of "random" numbers. Who knew?

[CESIL]

Apparently I have "lost" £302.3...which would have cost me £1500...so as I see it I am up £1500.

 

I once had a very heated "discussion" with a work colleague who was convinced that playing the same numbers made a win more likely due to the "laws" of probability!

 

[edit] I just tried 1,2,3,4,5,6 and it seems that I would have won almost exactly the same for my £1500 [/edit]

Edited January 8, 2013 by CESIL

[Pottsey]

Apparently I have "lost" £302.3...which would have cost me £1500...so as I see it I am up £1500.

 

I once had a very heated "discussion" with a work colleague who was convinced that playing the same numbers made a win more likely due to the "laws" of probability!

I can sort of see how someone might think that even if it is not correct. I guess his logic goes assuming you do enough roles/draws that every number combination appears once then if you have a fixed number you would overtime win 100%. But if you pick a random number each time then you could even after every number combination has appeared once still have never won.

 

If you simplify it down to dice. If you pick the 2nd number (your fixed ticket) and role 1 dice the chance to match is 1 in 6. If you role two dice to represent random number and random ticket the chance to match is 1 in 36.

 

EDIT: Just released I wrote the wrong odds! random V random should be a matching pair so 1 in 6. But you have the tiny possibility of drawing every number combination and not getting a match. So the odds are the same but fixed numbers each week have a tiny advantage.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Pottsey