• curiousaur@reddthat.com
    9 days

    Her taxes were close to half that, and if I remember correctly she spent like 5 million on the lottery tickets themselves. This was also over like 20 years. So depending on how much of her time she spent on this, it’s about the equivalent to a very good job.

    • rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works
      9 days

      So you’re saying all I need is a small disposable income of $250,000 p/a over 20 years and I, too, could have the chance to be a millionaire?

      • Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
        6 days

        It’s nuts. The government double thruple dips. Of the purchase price, half goes towards prizes. If you win, the lump sum is half the advertised jackpot. Then, the government takes 38% of that in taxes. So all told, the winners get $0.19 from every person who buys a $2.00 ticket. The government gets $1.81

  • BrilliantantTurd4361@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    8 days

    In many places they publish stats about scratch tickets; combined with an understanding of basic probability you can give yourself a small edge.

    E.g

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
      9 days

      Well yeah, gambling is about odds and statistics. I remember doing statistics and probability in school and one of the questions is about calculating the odds on a bet. It was close to zero and I asked my teacher if that means the person actually lost the bet. She confirmed that that is the case and hence why we should be careful getting involved in gambling, especially those who end up resorting to loan sharks.

      The lesson is basically telling us that you won’t ever win in gambling if you do the math. But at least the proceeds from lottery ticket sales actually go towards charities so it is less egregious than gambling in casinos or racing where the house always wins. However, in the case of the statistician in this post, she did the math and exploited whatever she knew to win the lottery, which most of us can’t do.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
        7 days

        The entire math of statistics was developed to prove people were cheating at gambling.

        Casinos know when someone is cheating when the results exceed two standard deviations from the mean.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
      7 days

      Access the database of winning numbers and you will find the number distribution is not random, there is a bias inherent to the machine they use to pick numbers.