Did we just miss an opportunity to guaranteed make $240M?

The Powerball jackpot was at $590M.

The odds of winning the jackpot: 1 in 175Mio.

Ticket costs $2, to buy 175M tickets/combinations cost $350M.

Net winnings: $240M, guaranteed.

Of course, this works only when there is a massive jackpot that pays more than what it would cost to buy 175M tickets.

(Statistically you would not even need the entire 175Mio tickets since you will likely hit the right numbers already with less). I found that calculation interesting....

reply to post by flexy123


If you bought 175m tickets you would have the same numbers as many other people so would share the jackpot and lose out big time.

Common sense can't be bought.

I am aware of the technical problems, but I am implying that the machines would only generate each set of numbers once and you had a way to somehow purchase 175M combinations - and preferrably a way no one else could buy the same numbers.

That the odds are AGAINST the lottery and in the ticket buyer's favor (at least on paper) is interesting, nevertheless.

reply to post by flexy123


Whos gonna pick though 175m tickets to find the winner?

You may just spend the rest of your life looking for it...

I think the odds just dropped a bit

reply to post by flexy123


It is posts like yours that proves WHY statistics CANNOT be trusted, and had been the downfall of mankind through the latest financial crisis. You failed to look at OTHER VARIABLES, just like the economists and statisticians.

Just because you buy all the combinations, it does not mean you alone own those combinations. There may be 300 million citizens with that same amount of numbers - some buying like you, all 175M combinations, or some just got lucky with 10s of tickets of the correct combination, some with just one ticket, and another slew of flawed mortal human errors with the purchase.

When that happens - say goodbye to your $350M.


And also, do not forget if one wins the entire sum, it is still subject to taxes, with leaves you probably only slightly more than half, no matter how big the pot will be, such as the 'fat one' in Spain - $900M.

Stick to the tried and tested sure ways - honest labour and savings, you are better off than gambling. When you win in gambling, you are happy, but when you lose, you can lose everything, even your life. You tend to lose more than you win in gambling, as it is often structured in the way the house wins it all, not you. You are only the sucker who provided the pool in the pot.

I'm missing your premise entirely here.... $350 million spent to cover the ticket combinations...just one time through. After all, you'd have to get them all. The way luck and Mr Murphy play, you could get 99.99999999% of the winners and it will always be the ONE you didn't figure you needed that hits the win.

Same problem someone else said though. So you spend well over a 1/4 of a billion to absolutely have one of the winners. I follow so far.....but then an 18 year old playing her first ticket gets the other one a 50% split. The genius of buying the whole game just became the humiliation of going broke to a first timer with an impulse ticket.

I've thought of the same thing on the pick 3's and other games at the state level. There, the jackpot is usually just under what the cost to buy all combinations comes to ..so it's never a winning idea, or like this, one other winner on a split isn't just a bad outcome...it's a financial calamity of a mistake.

So much for cornering the Lottery. lol..... It wouldn't be gambling if it were that easy, and every rich person would corner the games just for the % in return it would bring, IMO.

If I had $175 million for tickets, why would I be playing the lottery?

Ah like the Family Guy episode where Peter buys several thousand lottery tickets.

They count them all. Then he tells the family that was a test, and then throws more boxes down and tells them these are the real tickets.

Yeah forget that.

I'm smart enough not to gamble on a game with infinitesimal odds.

There are people like me that, if picking their own numbers for a lottery, will pick two of the exact same numbers. That way if myself and one other person wins, I get 2/3 and they get a third. Greed brings about ingenuity.

Lottery's are taxes for the gullible lol

In the UK you dont pay tax on winnings, you pay tax on the purchase price, the ticket itself. Its just a stealth tax, millions of pounds/dollars taken from the poor every month because people think...it could be me.

And no, if one other person bought the same winning numbers you would be screwed. If it were that easy, Google would have bought all the combinations, or some other rich person or company. Im pretty sure the rich dont waste their time on the lottery, there are quicker more reliable ways to make money than a 1 in 175 million chance or whatever it is.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
If I had $175 million for tickets, why would I be playing the lottery?

Because greed is the American dream now. Sad isn't it?

i'd hate to be in line behind the guy who is buying 175 million tickets!

reply to post by tinhattribunal


I think they would have to call that a not-for-profit homicide. You didn't do it to rob the shmuck. You took one for the team and all those waiting behind you, who weren't close enough to do it themselves.

A grateful store would salute your courageous sacrifice, I have no doubt. (You get the impression, I've waiting behind a few inconsiderate "winners"? lol)

wow did i ?

There was a russian research group a few years back that realized there was a profit margin if they simply bought up every single number combination once the jackpots reached certain levels. So they did it.

The fatal flaw? They did not account for shared jackpots. Multiple people won the jackpot that they played for, and they ended up taking a huge loss.

You simply cannot beat the odds on something where the odds are so greatly stacked against you.

Originally posted by AmberLeaf
Lottery's are taxes for the gullible lol

In the UK you dont pay tax on winnings, you pay tax on the purchase price, the ticket itself. Its just a stealth tax, millions of pounds/dollars taken from the poor every month because people think...it could be me.

And no, if one other person bought the same winning numbers you would be screwed. If it were that easy, Google would have bought all the combinations, or some other rich person or company. Im pretty sure the rich dont waste their time on the lottery, there are quicker more reliable ways to make money than a 1 in 175 million chance or whatever it is.

I call it the idiot tax.

Originally posted by tinhattribunal
i'd hate to be in line behind the guy who is buying 175 million tickets!

175 million tickets...say the machine can print one ticket per second (which is probably too quick anyway).

175 million seconds = 2916666 minutes = 48611 hours = 2025 days....better start early.

This, above everything else is why this strategy could never possibly work.

Originally posted by buster2010

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
If I had $175 million for tickets, why would I be playing the lottery?

Because greed is the American dream now. Sad isn't it?

Nope. Greed exists in pretty much every human being. Doesn't have to be American thing

$2 a week is a pretty small price to pay for me maintaining the dream of being a multi-millionaire. So, for $104 a year, I have multiple chances that my family and I will be set for life. Someone has to win, no reason it can't be me.

By the way, EVERY winning ticket of the Powerball has been a quick-pick, not someone's numbers. Every single one. I do a quick pick each time (so I never see any KNOWN numbers come up and kick myself for not playing). There are two drawings every week, but I just play the Saturday one, as I'm not willing to spend $208 per year for such entertainment.

Originally posted by flobot

Originally posted by tinhattribunal
i'd hate to be in line behind the guy who is buying 175 million tickets!

175 million tickets...say the machine can print one ticket per second (which is probably too quick anyway).

175 million seconds = 2916666 minutes = 48611 hours = 2025 days....better start early.

This, above everything else is why this strategy could never possibly work.

You had based the purchase of buying 175M tickets from one outlet, and thus it would take 2025 days.

The lottery was sold by many outlet across many states. All it takes is for an Iphone with an app to divide up the 175M numbers into lots and purchase them at 2025 outlets, and hey presto- within one day you would have bought all the numbers.

The technique is there. It's only maths. But there is the issue of trust - who else can you trust with all that money to buy, from the other 2024 outlets, as it is unlikely for you to travel across states and hunt down those outlets alone.

Thus, do not ever presume liner thinking will work when it comes to economics. It is more than just maths and stats. There are other variables involved.