Re: Down with the lottery!! (was: 2 kid problem)

[Doug Craigen <dcc@cyberspc.mb.ca>]

On Tue, 29 Jul 1997, John Mallinckrodt wrote:

> trick is to play only when this is the case and then--most 
> important of all--to pick numbers that nobody else will pick, like 
> 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.  The fact that this is the *best* 
> strategy for beating the lottery is also an excellent reason for 
> *never* playing the lottery--assuming, of course, that the 

My LOTTO 6/49 (Canada's national lottery) numbers are 1 2 3 4 5 6.  I
picked them primarily because of the ads depicting people's regrets over
not playing "their" numbers the week they came up.  Of course the usual
response is "but *those* numbers will *never* come up!"  I maintain a
database of 6/49 results and challenge people to find numbers which would 
yield a significant "better" result than my numbers (net loss of
approximately $1000 since the start).

> P.S.  Has anybody else ever marveled at the inspired sleight of 
> hand wherein the state pays large jackpots over twenty years?  If 
> the state has any investment savvy whatsoever, it will be able 
> to meet these payments and still end up with *more* than the 
> original jackpot at the end.

In all fairness (if there is any such thing in lotteries) there is some
semblence of justification for this.  People who play the lottery are
probably innumerate enough that they stand a good chance of just blowing
whatever they made if it is given to them in one shot.  So the closest
approximation to riches for life is to be spoonfed the money.  If concern
for the person were really the motiviation though you would think the
interest would be included in the money they recieve.  I believe 6/49
gives the jackpot in one payment.

One particular example of the innumeracy is winners who decide to
"re-invest" their winnings into more 6/49 tickets.  I don't know how many
of these there are, but there are enough that there are people who have
won 2 6/49 jackpots.  This *proves* that the idea works.

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| Doug Craigen                                                 |
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| If you think Physics is no laughing matter, think again .... |
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