Re: [Phys-L] lottery fundamentals (and failing to gamble where one should in real life)

[Bernard Cleyet <bernard@cleyet.org>]

Three similar posts tilt my IP’s spam filter; one example:


On 2014, Feb 26, , at 13:50, Folkerts, Timothy J <FolkertsT@bartonccc.edu> wrote:

> Spam detection software, running on the system "incoming-mx.esosoft.net", has
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> Content preview:  > > In theory, could you ever pick all the combinations in
>   a lottery, > > pay for the tickets, and win money? > > No, for at least two
>   reasons. With the "progressive" lottery systems (like "Powerball" in the
>  US) you could. If there is no winner, then the money rolls over to the next
>   prize. With a long enough string of draws with no winners, the odds could
>   in principle go in your favor. If the odds are 10,000,000:1 and the prize
>   has built up to $100,000,000, then "investing" $10,000,000 to all the numbers
>   would give you $50,000,000 expected return (give or take the amount you added
>   yourself and the odds of sharing the prize). [...] 
>
> Content analysis details:   (5.5 points, 5.0 required)
>
> pts rule name              description
> ---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
> -0.0 SPF_HELO_PASS          SPF: HELO matches SPF record
> -0.0 SPF_PASS               SPF: sender matches SPF record
> 2.5 US_DOLLARS_3           BODY: Mentions millions of $ ($NN,NNN,NNN.NN)
> 0.0 LOTS_OF_MONEY          Huge... sums of money
> 3.0 RDNS_NONE              Delivered to internal network by a host with no rDNS
>
>
>
> From: "Folkerts, Timothy J" <FolkertsT@bartonccc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Phys-L] lottery fundamentals (and failing to gamble where one should in real life)
> Date: 2014, February 26, at 13:50:08 PST
> To: "'Phys-L@Phys-L.org'" <Phys-L@Phys-L.org>
> Reply-To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
>
>
> > > In theory, could you ever pick all the combinations in a lottery, 
> > > pay for the tickets, and win money?
> >
> > No, for at least two reasons.
>
> With the "progressive" lottery systems (like "Powerball" in the US) you could.   If there is no winner, then the money rolls over to the next prize.  With a long enough string of draws with no winners, the odds could in principle go in your favor.  If the odds are 10,000,000:1 and the prize has built up to $100,000,000, then "investing" $10,000,000 to all the numbers would give you $50,000,000 expected return (give or take the amount you added yourself and the odds of sharing the prize).