Is this a good gamble ?

**jglenny** · 4th May 2005, 09:36 AM

Yeah except for the small problem of 14 million and filling out the tickets it can be done.

Anyone wanna split it 7 million each? Will take half the time

**jjh** · 31st August 2006, 09:40 AM

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but the chances of winning the lottery are not 1 in 14,000,000

The 'possible' number of winnings combinations are-

49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44 = 10,068,347,520.

So you could buy 10 billion tickets and still not win, that is the reality.

The y come at the odds of 1 in 14 million by the number of winners and that the numbers can come in any order. But even so, there is a chance, a 1 in 10billion chance that 1,2,3,4,5,6 may be drawn one day.

**Scott** · 31st August 2006, 08:32 PM

wrong thats only if you had to match the sequence of the balls coming out of the machine I.E...

6,3,5,5,2,1 comes out in that order of coruse u would only have needed to pick 1-6 and NOT the sequence also.. that would be 10 billion to 1.

I dunno how to really put it but heres another way.. obviously all the below are the same but it is how it would work for the 10billion to 1.
1,2,3,4,5,6
6,5,4,3,2,1
1,3,2,4,5,6
2,3,4,5,6,1

etc etc.. all the above are the same on a lotto ticket and you need only match the six numbers and not any sequence.. hope this sort of makes sense? no? didnt think so..

**Scott** · 31st August 2006, 08:36 PM

oh sorry didnt see you already tried explaining what I just said..

but of course 1,2,3,4,5,6 coming out of the machine IN THAT ORDER is 10billion-1 but 1,2,3,4,5,6 in ANY ORDER out of the machine is 1-14million and winning on 1-6 is every bit as likely as any other combination..

On this note I am interested if anyone knows whats the most to ever come out of UK lotto in sequence like I mean has 33,34,35,36,6,24 ever been seen? I know that stuff like 20,21 33,34 is common but thats only two numbers in sequence??

**Thor2007** · 1st September 2006, 04:13 AM

Most of the jackpots that didn't have any winners had sequences that were clustered together. It's obvious that people like to have some low and some high numbers in their choices and don't particularly like having a string of numbers that are next to each other.

Superstition on their part as we all know that any combination is as likely as any other. There was a programme on tv a long while back about how people choose their numbers and why certain combinations will never have any winners. The introduction of the lucky dip probably means that clustered jackpot combinations are more likely to have a winner.

**jjh** · 1st September 2006, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Scott

oh sorry didnt see you already tried explaining what I just said..

but of course 1,2,3,4,5,6 coming out of the machine IN THAT ORDER is 10billion-1 but 1,2,3,4,5,6 in ANY ORDER out of the machine is 1-14million and winning on 1-6 is every bit as likely as any other combination..

On this note I am interested if anyone knows whats the most to ever come out of UK lotto in sequence like I mean has 33,34,35,36,6,24 ever been seen? I know that stuff like 20,21 33,34 is common but thats only two numbers in sequence??

AHHHH, I see now

Hadn't thought of it like that, cheers

**Hedonist** · 15th September 2006, 04:09 PM

I think a lot of people have favourite numbers such as house number or birthdays.

If true then numbers over 31 would be less likely to be selected by the majority.

**a1056688** · 15th September 2006, 06:11 PM

I recommend selecting numbers in groups like the following:

08,40,41,42,43,44

Exactly the same chance of hitting all 6 but if you do, I believe the chances of anyone else having the same numbers is very low....thus, you don't have to share the jackpot.

**Mazais Rakaris** · 27th September 2007, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by FreeZey

Risk vs Reward

The lottery is long odds and high return. Chance to win jackpot 1 in 44,000,000

This is closer to the other end of the scale. Chance to win car 1 in 2,900.

NB: “Each entry has a 1 in 362 chance of winning a prize !” This isn’t referring to the car and those prizes are probably worth less than the £15 cost of the ticket.

Just because the odds are shorter doesn’t make it a good bet. It still has negative expectation, i.e. if you kept playing until you finally won the statistical probability is that you would have lost more money than the car is worth.
To be exact £43,500 to win a £26,000 car = profit -£17,500

If you’re looking for a game of random chance, that requires no skill and the odds are as short as possible (although still against you) go to a casino and bet on black or red (it’s approx 49% to win.).

I agree. 1 of 2900 is still a tiny chance and ticket probably doesn't cost £1.