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Joined: May 2000
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The bigger the jackpot the greater the number of people that play; Agree for non-regular players
the greater the number of people that play the greater the number of people that win; Not the jackpot but the smaller prizes, yes.
the greater the number of people that win the greater the number of people that divide up the winnings. That use to be the case here but it's all changed. We pick six from 42. I'll let you work out the odds but it's mind-bogglingly difficult for an individual to pick the winning number sform a single ticket. Most of the winners these days are multi-playing syndicates of twenty or more.
I know the US has different rules, combinations and ridiculous jackpots for their lotteries but that doesn't work over here. People play more (that is, buy more tickets than usual) when the jackpots are 'small' like €1m - €2m. The largest jackpot has only been £5.5 and that was a rare occurrence!!
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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US jackpots have gotten so big, it becomes mathamatically possible to buy a ticket with every possible combination of numbers, (so you are sure you will win, not just the big prize, but a whole bunch of small ones ( 1 set of 6 winning numbers, 6 sets of 5 winning numbers, some impossible big number of 4 winning numbers.) Even if 1 (one) other person also picks the big one, you will still win enough to cover the cost of buying all the tickets!
however, its almost impossible to do, because only authorized dealers sell the tickets, and you'd have to be able to hack into their machines, to run an app to generate the complete set of numbers.. and the states main frames not be able to handle the load. cranking the number out one by one would be way to slow..
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Helen:
But it has been done. Some years ago a bunch of people in Australia got together and hatched a shceme to buy every number combination in the Virginia lottery after it had swollen to a payout of several times the number of dollars it took to "buy the wheel". That's a term that bears looking at here, so this is really a word post!
Anyway, they went to the headquarters of a retailer in Virginia which had access to lots and lots of the machines, and they began spewing out the tickets. Due to time restraints they were unable to purchase all of the tickets, but they did hit the big winner and as you said an impossible number of other winners.
BUT! The Virginia Lottery Commission said that they would not pay off on the tickets because their rules specifically required the money to be forked over in cash at the site that actually sold the ticket. And of course the Australian combine had paid by cashier's check at the headquarters of the retailer.
So what happened? In a time-honored tradition, the combine sued and eventually won. The Lottery Commission had to pay out an annuity, but lawyers' fees ate up so much they members of the combine got only a little bit more than if they had put out their money at interes, certainly a safer way to accumulate wealth.
The kicker is, though, that if there had been five or six tickets sold with all six numbers, the combine would have lost money. Buying the wheel IS a risk.
TEd (who followed this with great interest because of the audacity shown on both sides)
TEd
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
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I have doubled money on playing the lottery. That is to say, for every dollar I have spent, I have won two dollars! So there! I spent a buck one time...it brought me two! I quit while I was ahead! Tee hee! 
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
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Joined: Jun 2001
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have doubled money on playing the lottery. That is to say, for every dollar I have spent, I have won two dollars! So there!I prefer http://www.freelotto.com In two years, I have won a total of $320.00 US for an outlay of $0.00 US
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
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I have always planned to go to a "Messiah from Scratch" where people just turn up, are provided with words and music and sing Handel's Messiah with no previous rehearsal, (ear plugs not always necessary).
My High School chorus had a tradition of doing the Halleluiah Chorus every year at the Christmas Concert. Any past members of the chorus present (and there always were many) were invited on stage and the audience was asked to sing along (music provided). Remains one of the most powerful musical experiences of my life, you should really do it, Jo.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Rhuby said : I only play when the jackpot gets really big now. Not so stupid, huh?
Got to admit that I usually by a single ($1) ticket when the jackpot has not been hit for many months.
However, I have no problem with spending the odd dollar on a ticket when the payout is "just" a million or two. A dollar isn't much to pay for a week of dreams.
Generally, people who play often have a set of numbers they play all the time. Birthdates, chidrens'ages, etc.
To get a larger share of a big jackpot simply buy several dollars worth of the same number! For example : ten numbers match the winning number. You have five of them. So you get half and the others split the other half.
Oh! And in golf a "scratch player" is one who is allowed no strokes but must play the game with no advantage.
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Carpal Tunnel
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To get a larger share of a big jackpot simply buy several dollars worth of the same number!
To get all of a big jackpot get one ticket with some combination of numbers that is perceived to be especially unlikely to win, e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The odds are exactly the same as the odds of, say, 12, 25, 31, 35, 42, 48 but no one else is likely to pick such a combination because it is perceived as being particularly unlikely.
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