How to beat the lottery

ladder13

ladder13

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wsj.com


In the spring of 2023, a London banker-turned-bookmaker reached out to a few contacts with an audacious request: Can you help me take down the Texas lottery?

Bernard Marantelli had a plan in mind. He and his partners would buy nearly every possible number in a coming drawing. There were 25.8 million potential number combinations. The tickets were $1 apiece. The jackpot was heading to $95 million. If nobody else also picked the winning numbers, the profit would be nearly $60 million.
 
The story is a great read. Well written and conveys some of pirate nature of odds makers identifying a potential score and going through all the efforts/cash outlay.

The Wall Street Journal really does a great job of holding up journalistic standards too. That makes this a better story.
 
Best way I know to win is to refuse to buy the tickets.

Here in Colorado they advertise the "Colorado Lottery" but what actually exists is the State Lottery Division of the Department of Revenue. Same people who reach into every paycheck and demand we file returns every year to report every single dime.

Every winner of a million bucks represents 999,999 losers of a buck each. All that is offered is a chance to dream a little bit.
 
I don't get it.



Let's say there are 13 million possible number combinations. And I buy 13 million tickets - one with each possible number combination. I'm going to win. I have to.



So I win, and then the state tells me that I can't have the jackpot because they don't like the way I bought my tickets? "But you were perfectly willing to sell me 13 million tickets and take my 13 million dollars!"


Did the state get their 13 million dollars? Do I have a ticket with the winning numbers?
 
In Montana's mega millions a few years ago, the odds were listed as the same whether you bought a ticket or not.
 
The practice of bulk buying lottery tickets is not illegal and makes headlines every few years — in 1992 a 2500-person Australian gambling syndicate headed by maths whiz Stefan Mandel won a $US27 million ($43 million) jackpot in Virginia after buying up five million tickets.

bekeart
 
There was a movie in the '80s called Real Genius. One of the main characters did the same thing but it was a sweepstakes.

Apparently the rules of the sweepstakes were you could enter as many times as you wanted. So he made a computer program to print out so many entry forms that according to his calculation he was supposed to win 57.5% of the prices and he did.

I wish I remember the exact line but he's he basically said something about I'm playing the game within the rules that they set it's not my fault I'm smarter than them
 
gym cat said:
Question-- If you did buy all the combinations and of course won. What if 10 other people picked the same numbers, wouldn't you have to split 11 ways?
Click to expand...

When multiple people win the lottery jackpot, the prize is typically divided equally among the winners. For example, if the jackpot is $100 million and there are two winning tickets, each ticket holder would receive $50 million. This ensures that each winner receives an equal share of the jackpot, regardless of how many winners there are.

Unlike the jackpot, lower prize levels in the lottery are not divided among multiple winners. For example, if there are multiple winners at the second prize level, each winner would receive the full amount of the prize for that level. There is no splitting of prizes at lower levels, as each winning ticket is entitled to the full prize amount.

If you did buy all the combinations
Click to expand...
You would have several other winning tickets with 3, 4, or 5 winning numbers.

Bekeart
 
Don't forget that when they say the lottery is at $100 million, that's only if you take the annuity. The great majority of winners take the lump sum, which is usually about half -- yes, HALF! -- of the advertised amount. And then, of course, you have to pay taxes, which will probably take a minimum of 30%. So you end up with about 1/3rd of that $100 million that you thought you were winning.

Still a lot of money, but also still a lot less than what they say the jackpot amount is.
 
Denverd0n said:
Don't forget that when they say the lottery is at $100 million, that's only if you take the annuity. The great majority of winners take the lump sum, which is usually about half -- yes, HALF! -- of the advertised amount. And then, of course, you have to pay taxes, which will probably take a minimum of 30%. So you end up with about 1/3rd of that $100 million that you thought you were winning.

Still a lot of money, but also still a lot less than what they say the jackpot amount is.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the syndicate deserves no sympathy.
 
I wonder about the logistics of trying to buy millions of tickets.

That aside, I know that the odds are astronomical against winning a big jackpot and that I am really just throwing money down the wishing well, but I play the State Lotto game which is 3 times a week. The odds are only about 90 million to one rather than the 350 million to one for Powerball or Mega Millions. So I spend $6 a week, buying my tickets online, as daydream money. Two years ago I won an $1,800 prize, so that covers my playing for a few years. I try not to think about how much I have spent on lottery tickets over the last couple of decades, but as we know, you have no chance of winning if you don't buy a ticket.
 
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