Oh, you know, the lottery might be something that I would do with spare change. It seems like a good way to get rid of a small amount of change if the cost of entry is only one dollar.
Oh, you know, the lottery might be something that I would do with spare change. It seems like a good way to get rid of a small amount of change if the cost of entry is only one dollar.
I believe in the power of humanity.
1) Pay off any fees, debts, etc. of my own and those important to me, like Jess, Mommy and Dan, Granny, Barry, and so forth.
2) Invest enough money in a US business that I'm legally allowed to move there. Or just outright bribe someone.
3) Design and have built a hi-tech house, like Tony Stark's in Iron Man. Include an underground bunker sufficient for 20 years of life by up to 10 people. Buy a couple of cars, etc.
4) Research locations and build emergency retreats from disaster, three or four of them. Nothing fancy, just secluded and self-sustaining for as long as possible.
5) Divide the remainder into quarters: Invest 3/4s in three different banks, for safety. Two for saving/the future, one for general use. The final quarter will be used for investing into hi-tech industries.
I just got back from the nearby Powerball state where I had been buying everyone's tickets to avoid multiple 40 mile round trips, and after filling out the form where you pick numbers, I realized the odds are even better than I thought they were. The Powerball number only goes up to 42, so the odds are as follows:
(42*55*54*53*52*51)/5/4/3/2:1
OR
146,107,962:1.
I never said you should buy all those tickets, but if you've ever been to a casino, you know that the payoff is rarely bigger than the odds. They give you even money odds on a 47% chance.
If someone told you that they'd give you a 3:2 payoff for only flipping a coin, would you not take that bet? I sure would. Why? Because the payoff is bigger than the odds.
Nice lottery plans, people. Especially the people who have been learning from other lottery winners' mistakes.
EDIT: And, sure, I'd be tempted to by anything and everything I'd always wanted, but if you look at previous lottery winners, that just doesn't work out practically. How many of them are bankrupt in a year? You should never file for bankruptcy after winning the lottery. Ever. That's more money than you'll ever need.
Last edited by The Ceej; 09-26-2008 at 01:24 AM.
My uncle spends so much money on lottery tickets and cigarettes.
It probably costs him tens of thousands of dollars every year.
I'd rather just invest my money.
Well, someone won last night, and the jackpot is back down to $15 million. That means the odds are much greater than the payoff, and now it's a bad idea to buy a ticket. I guess we just have to wait for the payoff to surpass the odds again.
Spend it? Psh!
I'll live off the millions of interest. Then my decendants can live off the millions of interest as well.
Money makes money, literally.
That really isn't how gambling works.Originally Posted by The Ceej
You know, if you're going to do it like that, you could just as well put $10 on red in any random casino and just keep playing until you hit 200 million.
Better odds, as you yourself said. Payoff is always the same as chances.
Seriously. >_>That really isn't how gambling works.
The odds are always the same, the only thing that differs is the amount of money there is to win. If there was actually a decent chance to win that $15 million (and I was eligible) I'd totally buy a ticket. There's not, though, and the odds are the same as the $200 million jackpot.
So, what you guys are telling me is that if someone gave you 3:2 payoff for a coin toss, you would have the same chance of taking the bet as if they gave you a 2:3 payoff?Seriously. >_>That really isn't how gambling works.
The odds are always the same, the only thing that differs is the amount of money there is to win. If there was actually a decent chance to win that $15 million (and I was eligible) I'd totally buy a ticket. There's not, though, and the odds are the same as the $200 million jackpot.
Trust me. I never leave a casino with less than I went in with. I know how to gamble. I know odds. I know payoff. And I know when the bet is worth taking.
The odds are the same, but the payoff isn't. The odds are still 146,107,962:1, but now the payoff is only 15,000,000:1. Even if you win, you're being ripped off.
What you don't seem to get here though is that even though the payoff is/was $200 million, and is higher than the odds, the odds are still 146,107,962:1. Put in the form of a percentage, you have approximately a .0000000007% chance of winning.
I'd rather keep my money than blow it on a .0000000007% chance of winning a lot.
Hmm, not to bust your balls here, but that just duuuh..So, what you guys are telling me is that if someone gave you 3:2 payoff for a coin toss, you would have the same chance of taking the bet as if they gave you a 2:3 payoff?Seriously. >_>That really isn't how gambling works.
The odds are always the same, the only thing that differs is the amount of money there is to win. If there was actually a decent chance to win that $15 million (and I was eligible) I'd totally buy a ticket. There's not, though, and the odds are the same as the $200 million jackpot.
Trust me. I never leave a casino with less than I went in with. I know how to gamble. I know odds. I know payoff. And I know when the bet is worth taking.
The odds are the same, but the payoff isn't. The odds are still 146,107,962:1, but now the payoff is only 15,000,000:1. Even if you win, you're being ripped off.
Coin toss is 50% to win. Now you can have odds like 1 buck in, two bucks if you win(1:2 or 2:1) or three bucks to one(1:3 or 3:1)..
But seriously. xD
Better 3:2 than 2:3?
So you'd rather give two bucks to win three than give three bucks to win two? XD
Noooooh, really?
And the fact is that no matter what happens, you can't use odds in a casino, because a casino is rigged that when you keep playing, you always lose. This is the 0 and 00 in roulette, the "dealer always wins" in blackjack, and the settings in a slot game that makes sure you always lose more than you win.
Which makes it pretty much impossible to keep putting money on red, so to say.
So you can't always walk out more out of a casino, except for exceptional good luck. xD
So why do people do a lottery like that? Because the odds are still better than in a casino.
Not that I would, of course.
Someone needs to study probability.
If that was aimed at me, I have, which brings me to the point that odds stay the same no matter how long you look at it, so winning at a casino because you "know your odds" seems like a nice bend of physical laws. xD
Someone needs to watch me gamble.
I won't tell you my strategy at Roulette, because if it gets out, people will beat Roulette and they'll close the tables down. That's my game. I can't let that happen.
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