[mitchntx]

... on a Texas Lottery scratch-off ticket.

I asked her if she wanted to sponsor a race car ... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)


She is the cleaning lady for my building and the nicest person you might ever meet.

[00 Trans Ram]

Here's the part I don't understand about lotteries.

There are only 120,526,770 possible combinations of numbers in the PowerBall lottery. Once the cash payout of the jackpot exceeds $120,526,770 why not buy a lottery ticket with every number on it. You are guaranteed of winning (not only the jackpot, but also every other smaller prize, which is usually upwards of $600k).

But, what about if someone has the same numbers? Well, if 100 million tickets are sold, there is only a 20% chance that 2 or more winning tickets will be sold.

So, it's kinda like being the casino. You may lose, but odds are that you will win.

I wonder why more millionaires don't do this? (However, I think that this may have something to do with the fact that I'm not a millionaire, yet.)

[KeithO]

Once the cash payout of the jackpot exceeds $120,526,770 why not buy a lottery ticket with every number on it. [snip]

I wonder why more millionaires don't do this?

Because no lottery machine can print 120m tickets quickly enough to permit the purchase of all possible combinations. Even if you coordinated it, you would still likely not be able to do this very easily.

[FBody383]

Once the cash payout of the jackpot exceeds $120,526,770 why not buy a lottery ticket with every number on it. [snip]

I wonder why more millionaires don't do this?

Because no lottery machine can print 120m tickets quickly enough to permit the purchase of all possible combinations. Even if you coordinated it, you would still likely not be able to do this very easily.

And the Lotteries don't want guaranteed winners.

It would be simple enough to sell you EVERY combination but the fear is that the regular player would stop playing if an investor could win a share everythime. If you're bored one day, call your state's lottery and ask how you buy every combination.

Saw a documentary many years ago where a specialized "mutual fund" was able to by 75%-80% of the tickets by running all over the place once the jackpot was big enough - yes, they were able to buy the winning ticket plus a lot of the smaller combos.