If you haven’t noticed, the Powerball is nearly $2 billion. I don’t normally play the lottery, but I do when it reaches these levels. It’s actually a fair bet at this point.

Anyway, I noticed last week that the Powerball number was the same (23) for two out of three drawings. It seemed odd (no pun intended).

I mentioned it to my son who lives in New York, and he told me about a New York five number lottery that they draw twice daily, midday and evening. On October 27 the same five numbers came up in both the midday and the evening drawings. 18 21 30 35 36. Two consecutive drawings. They basically said “nothing to see here-move along”.

Now last night the Powerball drawing didn’t take place due to security issues in one (unnamed) state.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that New York lotto result is crazy.

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that New York lotto result is crazy.

And statistically impossible.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that New York lotto result is crazy.

And statistically impossible.

Errr … Unlikely

^^ It is statistically possible. About as likely as both being struck by lightning AND winning the lottery on the same day.

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:
If you haven’t noticed, the Powerball is nearly $2 billion. I don’t normally play the lottery, but I do when it reaches these levels. It’s actually a fair bet at this point.

Anyway, I noticed last week that the Powerball number was the same (23) for two out of three drawings. It seemed odd (no pun intended).

I mentioned it to my son who lives in New York, and he told me about a New York five number lottery that they draw twice daily, midday and evening. On October 27 the same five numbers came up in both the midday and the evening drawings. 18 21 30 35 36. Two consecutive drawings. They basically said “nothing to see here-move along”.

Now last night the Powerball drawing didn’t take place due to security issues in one (unnamed) state.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that New York lotto result is crazy.

The odds of something like that happening in the NY lottery should have set off alarms immediately. The odds are astronomical. I bet some higher up somewhere got rich.

What do you mean by the lottery is a fair bet?

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:

What do you mean by the lottery is a fair bet?

He means if the Poweball cash payout (pre tax) goes above $900M, then a ticket is actually worth $2.

All this conspiracy talk about the lotteries reminds me of the novel The Winner by David Baldacci.

"conspiracy theory"
Is no longer a theory,
Lotteries are volunteer taxes,
Government run gambling must be legit.

There has been cheating and corruption. This is just one example.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/3...rigged-jackpots.html

Well, maybe try to prove your theory...They say the Third Time's the Charm!

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but that New York lotto result is crazy.

And statistically impossible.

That phrase: "statistically impossible" makes no sense. It isn't even wrong.

If the odds of winning the 2 billion dollar Powerball are 1:292.2 million, why not just buy 292.2 million tickets with every possibility and sextuple your money?

^^^If you have 584 million dollars (liquid) you wouldn't have to play the lottery...

New York says that the odds of matching all five numbers are 1 in 575,757. But once the first drawing is over, the odds of those same numbers coming up again is still 1 in 575,757. They are correct in that. Just like if you flip a coin and it comes up heads 10 times in a row, the odds of it coming up heads again is still 1 in 2.

But, if you ask in advance what are the odds of heads coming up twice in a row, the answer is 1 in 4. And the odds of the same five numbers coming up twice in a row is 1 in 3,149,600,000,000. Roughly 1 in 3 trillion.

What I mean by the Powerbal being a fair bet at these levels is that the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million. Even after federal taxes the cash payout would be $588 million. So if your state has no sales tax, it's an absolutely fair bet. $2 ticket at 1 in 292.2 million odds yields $588 million if you win. A little worse if you have to pay state income tax.

This is like flipping a coin and getting paid even money. Bet $1 and win $1 if you guess correctly. When the Powerball jackpot starts over, say at $20 million, roughly $10 million cash, maybe $6 million after taxes...the odds of winning are still 1 in 292.2 million. That would roughly be like betting $1 on a coin flip, and only winning 2 cents if you guess correctly. That gives you an idea of how bad a bet the lottery normally is.

I don't see anyone presenting any theories, conspiracy or otherwise??



When did this get to be the default setting? Occam's razor (or at least the misunderstood, misapplied, current popular use of the term) exists for a reason. It doesn't say "the simplest explanation is always true."

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
If the odds of winning the 2 billion dollar Powerball are 1:292.2 million, why not just buy 292.2 million tickets with every possibility and sextuple your money?

Because the $2 billion is not a present value, that's only the total if you take the payout over 30 years. The present value, cash payout is under $1 billion. And that's before taxes. About $588 million after tax.

And, you can't really buy 292 million tickets.

And even if you could buy all the combinations, someone else might get lucky, and then you'd have to split the payout.

People have tried to game big lotteries in the past. Not a good idea for all these reasons.

quote:

And even if you could buy all the combinations, someone else might get lucky, and then you'd have to split the payout.

I know a guy who at the time was a winner of the largest jackpot in US history. It went several weeks with no winner, built up, then finally had matching numbers.

3 winning tickets.

quote:

People have tried to game big lotteries in the past.

Some have been fairly successful at it because they understood the math and possible flaws.

I always wondered if the computer picks are each a unique number or could computer picks be duplicated many times?

quote:

Originally posted by k4carbon:
I always wondered if the computer picks are each a unique number or could computer picks be duplicated many times?

My understanding is that each drawing is supposed to be random, so the same combination of numbers could come up again. There is no mechanism for "retiring" a winning combination of numbers.

But as discussed, the odds of it happening are very long.

Numbers drawn.
$4 here, if I'm reading the chart right.

quote:

My understanding is that each drawing is supposed to be random, so the same combination of numbers could come up again.

I think that's probably a lot more accurate when it comes to balls being pulled out of a drum.

I'm not so sure I would trust that to be the same when a computer is involved. In addition to any glitch, who knows what is in the programming that could result in intentional or unintentional errors.

I have noticed that on the rare occasion I buy tickets and allow the terminal to choose the numbers that some statistical anomalies have occurred.

For example I have 10 tickets in front of me for the previous Powerball. The Powerball itself is a number between 1 and 26. 8 of my 10 Powerballs are in the 20s. 25 repeated twice, 21 repeated twice, and 24 repeated twice. Anybody want to calculate those odds?